474 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



Wheat is the crop one normally thinks of first when speaking of the 

 western Middle West, and it became an immediate concern of the A.A.A. 

 The situation called for drastic action, with a wheat carry-over three times 

 normal size and a new crop coming on, with no hope for exportation of 

 this surplus and prices far below parity. One proposal, therefore, was to 

 remove from use in wheat growing enough of the wheat land to be culti- 

 vated in the 1933 crop to keep the carry-over down. When the wheat 

 producers and the representatives of the processing and consuming organi- 

 zations came together to set up their program, there were sharp differences 

 of opinion. Of the proposals presented, the domestic allotment plan was 

 the one that met with the least opposition. 



But events soon showed that drastic curtailment methods would not 

 have to be used for 1933. Bad weather indicated that there was going to 

 be a sensational reduction in winter wheat prospects. As expected, the 

 proposal that finally was adopted was the domestic allotment plan for 

 "making payments to each wheat producer on the basis of his propor- 

 tionate share of the national production that was domestically consumed. 

 In return . . . the producer would agree to reduce his wheat acreage in 

 the 1934 and 1935 crops by such percentage, not to exceed 20 per cent, as 

 the Secretary of Agriculture should determine." 



Because bad weather had left thousands of growers with little or noth- 

 ing to sell from their 1933 crop, it had been decided to make the first 

 payments equal to about two-thirds of the total payment and make them 

 as early that fall as possible. That summer the administration and exten- 

 sion workers began the considerable task of acquainting the growers with 

 the details of the wheat program. 4 



The livestock program lagged behind that for wheat and cotton, chiefly 

 because the latter crops were beginning to mature and prompt action had 

 to be taken. Also, the A.A.A. had a good idea of what to do about com- 

 modities like wheat because of the earlier campaigns over the domestic 

 allotment plan, but such was not the case with respect to corn and hogs. 

 There were differences of opinion among administration leaders. Wallace 



4. Wallace, New Frontiers, pp. 171-72; U. S. Dept. Agri., Agricultural Adjustment 

 Administration, Agricultural Adjustment, A Report of the Administration of the 

 Agricultural Adjustment Act, May, 1933, to February, 1934 (Washington, 1934), 

 pp. 47-52. 



