GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1085 



Mr. PoAGE. Where will you put the grade on that goat wool? 

 That is all that I think we have to decide here. Maybe you don't have 

 to decide it by law. Maybe you can leave it up to the Department to 

 make that definition. 



Mr. Fisher. The grades are not defined by law. Neither are the 

 grades of wool, cotton, and so forth. 



Mr. PoAGE. I know the present grades are not set by law, but I am 

 inclined to believe that you would be rather reluctant to leave it to the 

 Commodity Credit Corporation, the power to determine where this 

 grade is going to fit in, just what slot you will slip in this goat wool. 

 I think you would be a little reluctant to do that, would you not? 



Mr. Fisher. Of course, I assume they would be bound by such 

 formula as would apply. 



Mr. PoAGE. Not unless we provided the formula. 



Mr. Fisher. You have a formula for wool, 42 cents now. That 

 does not mean all growers get 42, some of them get 35 and some get 55. 

 All of those support prices are established according to grades. The 

 42 cents is just the average. 



Mr. PoAGE. You have had wool grades established for a long time. 



Mr. Fisher. I think there is more of an established grading system 

 in mohair than you realize. 



Mr. Grant. It may be that they want to confer a little later on this 

 and let you k^iow. 



Mr. PoAGE. I tliink they have to. I think if we are to be helpful 

 to them, we have to get the suggestion from the mohair industry as to 

 what price you can live under, and what price you can sell under, and 

 they are two different questions. You want that living price to be as 

 high as possible, and that selling price you have to get as low as 

 possible to meet competition. 



Mr. Fisher. You have it with cotton and with wool and with 

 everything else, as to just what level is right. You might price your- 

 self out of the market. Our thought has been, as I understand it, 

 that mohair should be treated in a compaiable way with wool. We 

 have established grades, we have established prices. You can go 

 back to the Department of Agriculture and find what the average 

 price was for 20 years back. I feel certain a fair price for mohair 

 grades can be determined administratively. 



Mr. PoAGE. I know all of that. 



Mr. Fisher. We have an established grade system, a recognized 

 gi-ading system. 



Mr. PoAGE. Just get this thing straight. Let us not spend the 

 afternoon on it. I know you have established grades for goat wool, 

 and you have established grades for sheep wool, but now when you 

 take the middle rate of both, which we have to take to get some kind 

 of an average, when you take the average of both, where will you fit 

 that goat wool into your sheep wool picture. Are you going to say if 

 you take the 20 years past, you will say it is worth twice as much as 

 sheep wool? 



Mr. Fisher. It won't run that much. 



Mr. PoAGE. Then say a third as much. You know it is more. 



Mr. Fisher. Some more; the average over 10 years is 53 cents. 



Mr. Poage. I have not any criticism in the world, if you want it. 

 Put it higher than sheep wool, all right. I want you to go into it 

 with your eyes open, and not be coming back and saying to this com- 



