GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1077 



Then, too, we have been faced with a seller's market, rather than a 

 buyer's market, and lack of competition, there has not been a great 

 deal of use made of mohair in the last 2 years. They have tm-ned to 

 other things, cheaper fibers, inferior substitutes, because they could 

 sell anything that rolled on wheels, regardless of what type of upho- 

 stery it had. 



The mohair, as you probably know, is used principally for upholstery 

 purposes in furniture, automobiles, airplanes, and so forth. That 

 normally is the principal market for mohair; at the same time it has 

 considerable use as a blend in wool and cotton and other fibers, nylon, 

 for example, in men's suitings and women's clothing. 



Now, ]\lr. Chau-man, if I may, just to give you a little bit of a sample 

 of what that is on the theory that many people do not understand the 

 use that has been made of mohair extensively all through the years, 

 and what this 20,000,000 pounds average has been used for, if I may 

 I would like to pass arouud to the committee a few samples of mohair 

 contents to give you an idea of just how it is used, and to what extent. 

 The fabrics that I am now showing you are samples from the •Pacific 

 Mills, and contain 30 percent content of mohair blended principally 

 with wool, I believe. 



Many of the combinations are also with cotton. While I am at it, 

 I will show you additional samples here which have the exact mohair 

 content indicated in them. These come from the Forstmann Woolen 

 Mills, showing the various fiber combinations and each indicates the 

 amount of mohair the fabric contains. 



Then as a sample of the use made in upholstery of this, I have a 

 few samples here from Collins & Aikman , showing the mohair content 

 in upholstery. 



I do this, Mr. ChaLrman, simply to familiarize the committee at 

 one glance with the established use that has been made, and is being 

 made and will continue to be made of mohair as a blend with cotton 

 and wool in the various fabrics that are manufactured. 



Mohair has never had a support program; until the last 2 years 

 there v/as never any particular need for it. In fact, back in 1943, 

 when the Government undertook to purchase wool, the Department 

 set up a program including mohair, but at the request of the mohair 

 producers, the growers felt that since they were getting along fairly 

 well, and were able to sell on the open market at a price that was 

 reasonable, that there was no occasion for the Government to purchase 

 mohair so they requested that they not be included, and then when 

 the first wool bill was drafted after about 1946, mohair was included 

 in the first draft of the legislation, but at that time mohair was selling 

 fairly well, and the growers saw no particular need for burdening the 

 Government with a program, so far as they were concerned, and sug- 

 gested that it be left out, and so mohair was deleted from the program. 



But in the last 2 years, because of the culmination of reasons which 

 I have already described, mohair was gotten itself into a very de- 

 pressed condition. The herds have been depleted tremendously, 

 approximately 1,000,000 have been sold in the market the last year 

 or two because it is not economic to grow them at the price they have 

 been able to get for mohair during the last year or so. We have every 

 reason to believe, however, that within another year or two with the 

 research and development and promotion program that is now being 

 undertaken by the growers and the Department of Agriculture, and 



