1226 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Is that true? 



Mr. McIntire. To the best of my knowledge, yes. 



Mr. Hill. Who can blame the potato growers for bringing about- 

 this surplus of potatoes when the Department of Agriculture asked 

 them to produce more than they did? They should have had as 

 much knowledge as you had as to how they were going to turn out 

 per acre, should they not? 



Mr. IVIcIntire. Presumably. I can say as a potato grower that 

 I too could raise the question as to who, because as a potato grower 

 and in my own personal farming operations. I have consistently 

 complied with the acreage allotments. 



We do feel, as potato growers, that the press has pointed up the 

 potato problem, picking it out particularly without proper balance to 

 other programs, and we feel that we have had an era of publicity 

 which, as an industry across the country, has not been justified. 

 However, that is a personal opinion and I appreciate that the reasons 

 for it have great implications. 



Mr. Hill. I think the people should know that the potato growers 

 of America in 1948 planted 10 percent less acreage in potatoes than 

 the Department of Agriculture asked them to plant. Is that correct? 



Mr. McIntire. That is correct. 



Mr. Hill. And in 1947 they planted 15 percent less acreage than 

 the Department of Agriculture asked them to plant. In 1946, after 

 the war was over, it was 4.5. It is important that the people of this 

 country know who is to blame for this' trouble. It is certainly not 

 the potato growers. 



Mr. HoEVEN. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Hill. I am finished. 



Mr. HoEVEN. Does it not simply demonstrate that the farmer at 

 the grass roots knows more about the problems of agiiculture than 

 the experts? 



Mr. Hill. I am convinced from the testimony this committee has 

 been getting that from what some of these experts know about it, 

 they had better go back to the farm and find out about it. No one 

 "has lold us they were cutting this acreage below what the Department 

 recommended. We had to discover that ourselves. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Andresen. 



Mr. Andresen. I think the potato growers are good businessmen. 

 They take advantage of every situation they can just like every 

 other businessman. So when they cut their acreage, they probably 

 put on more fertilizer and raise more potatoes. 



Mr. Hill. And that is good business too. 



Mr. Andresen. Certainly. I am not condemning them and I am 

 not condemning the fact that 128,000 of them got $155,000,000 

 either. It just shows how good businessmen they are. 



I wanted to discuss the support program with you, Mr. McIntire. 

 With the compensatory payment program which permits the sale of 

 all potatoes at the supply-and-demand level in the market, with the 

 producers receiving their checks from the Government, the difference 

 between what they got in the market and what they should have 

 received, would that do the business? 



Mr. McIntire. Standing by itself? 



Mr. Andresen. Yes. 



