1084 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Williams. May I interrupt there just a moment? I mentioned 

 a while ago the difference in shrink between the two. On mohair the 

 shrinkage is 15 percent. That would be 85 percent clean basis, and 

 at parity price 68.2, that would be 80 cents a clean pound. On wool 

 at parity of 42.3 



Mr. PoAGE. About the same. 



Mr. Williams. Shrinking 60 percent, the clean price would be 

 $1.05 as compared to 85 cents to the mohair on the clean basis. 



Mr. PoAGE. I think that that might do it. 



Mr. Williams. There is such a great difference in the shrink of the 

 two products. 



Mr. PoAGE. But even so, the market has taken that shrink into 

 consideration now when you have got a .35-cent market for mohair 

 as against a 60-cent market for wool. The shrink has already been 

 discounted. I don't want to have you folks think that I am trying to 

 tell you that you should not have 90 percent parity. I want you to 

 think this thing through and say it is your own wish if we give you 

 a cup of poison that will put you out of business. I do not want you 

 to say that w^e did it without your eyes open. 



Mr. Williams. My thoughts on that have been that the mohair 

 price schedule was certainly something that would have to be worked 

 out, and can be in the administration of the program. 



Mr. PoAGE. I recognize the further problem involved there, that 

 before you could make a recommendation, you have got to make one 

 that you think your growers will at least gi^e some approval to, and 

 I recognize that the grower who has not thought through the market 

 is always in favor, whether he is a grower of mohair or a grower of 

 peanuts or corn, he is always in favor of getting every cent he can; he 

 is always in favor of the highest possible market. That is immedi- 

 ately, and if he has not thought it through, he is going to blame you 

 and he will blame Mr. Fisher, and will blame everybody else who had 

 anything to do with it if they give him something less than he would 

 like to have. 



Mr. Fisher. Of course, basically as we have said, we thought we 

 should have treatment comparable to wool ; whatever basis you use to 

 determine the support price for wool, we will accept it for mohair. 

 We feel they are entitled to that much. 



Mr. PoAGE. I still have not made myself clear, I am afraid. 



Assume that we give you, and I think you should have the same 

 consideration as wool, assume that we say in the law that goat hair 

 is a form of wool, and then when we have said that, we have already 

 said that it is entitled to a support price on the same basis that 

 wool is, whatever that basis may be, except that we have not deter- 

 mined by law what the grade of mohair is. I am simply trying to ask 

 you as to where that grade should fit into the picture of the various 

 grades or classes of wool. We will say by law, and I think we are all 

 agreed that we should say by law that this hair that comes off the goat 

 is one form of wool, and the hair that comes off the sheep is another 

 form of wool. We have already said that these coarse wools from 

 South America, they are one form of wool, they are not the same sort 

 of thing that your American and your Austrahan fine wools are, but 

 they are one form of wool, they grade way down, so that they actually 

 do not bring in the market nearly as much as your fine wool. 



Mr. Fisher. That is right. 



