NEW DEAL: FIRST PHASES 497 



named as supervisors to measure fields, the measurements in turn being 

 subject to sample checks by trained surveyors; but the major portion of 

 the work was performed by the cooperating farmers. 



The weather again affected the 1935 crop. There was a severe outbreak 

 of black-stem rust in the spring wheat area in July, which during that 

 month alone reduced the prospective crop by more than 100,000,000 

 bushels. 



The acreage reduction for 1935 was set at 10 per cent in the fall of 

 1934, and the winter wheat producers cooperated on this basis. By March 

 20, 1935, the A.A.A. had to announce a modification of the 10 per cent 

 planting restriction because drought and dust storms had hit the winter 

 wheat areas severely. "Growers under contract were permitted to plant 

 up to 165 per cent of their base acreage for 1935 under the terms of a 

 supplementary agreement in which the farmers agreed to make corre- 

 sponding reductions in their plantings for the 1936 crop." This arrange- 

 ment affected the spring wheat growers in particular. 



The first wheat-adjustment program had been planned on a three-year 

 basis. As the end of the period approached, a nation-wide referendum 

 was held among the wheat growers on May 25 to determine whether 

 they wanted to follow up the first program with another one when the 

 1935 crop year was over. The poll was preceded by a series of discussion 

 meetings among farmers in all communities where wheat was grown on 

 a commercial basis. The vote was open to all farmers who had signed 

 contracts. Of the 466,720 farmers voting, 404,417 voted in favor of con- 

 tinuing the program. Better than half of the ballots cast were from the 

 states of the western Middle West, where the overwhelming majority 

 of the farmers voted for a continuation of the program. The greatest 

 popularity of the program was in North Dakota. Kansas cast more votes 

 against the program than any other single state. 54 



Referenda were also held among the corn and hog growers at the end 

 of the 1934 and 1935 contract periods on whether to enter another year 

 of the program. Of the 389,139 corn-hog farmers voting in October, 1934, 

 67 per cent favored continuing it. One year later, with cheap and abun- 

 dant feed and with small or no increase in the number of livestock on 



54. U. S. Dept. Agri., Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Agricultural 

 Adjustment, 1933 to 1935 (Washington, 1936), pp. 153-56. 



