70 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



culture could decide how much acreage should be planted to 

 avoid a crushing surplus. (See pages 88-89.) This total 

 amount was then divided among producers. Those farmers who 

 agreed to accept this limiting were then eligible for payments 

 by the government. These payments were a direct grant; they 

 did not come from processing taxes. The amount of these 

 payments was determined by the amount of crop land the 

 farmer kept out of production and the amount of soil restoring 

 crops he substituted for soil depleting crops. The government 

 also agreed to lend money to the farmers, the amount of the 

 loan being based on the amount of the farm crop which was 

 stored on the farm rather than sold. 



At the same time, the farmer was given a chance to insure 

 his crop. Crop insurance works this way. The government takes 

 the surplus crops produced in good years and gives them back 

 to the farmers in the bad years if their crops are destroyed by 

 weather or insects. This law applies to only wheat, but may 

 later be extended to other crops which can easily be stored. 



In case of large surpluses of cotton, corn, wheat, tobacco 

 or rice, the farmers were allowed to vote to declare that only 

 a certain amount of a crop should be sold. Each farmer was 

 then given a quota which he could sell. Any farmer selling 

 more than his quota would be penalized by the government. 

 This penalty was a tax on the amount of a crop sold in excess 

 of the quota. 



Before the Supreme Court decision of 1936 the Agri 

 cultural Adjustment Administration paid farmers to reduce 

 their crops. Under the new system, they paid the farmers to 

 save the soil. But in order to save the soil it is necessary to 

 reduce the ordinary commercial "soil-depleting" crops such as 

 corn, wheat, cotton, and tobacco, and to alternate them with 

 soil conserving crops such as clover and alfalfa. Therefore, by 

 paying the farmers to save the soil, the Agricultural Adjust 

 ment Administration was actually paying them to reduce the 



