14 AGRICULTURAL MARKETING REVOLVING FUND 
Mr. Lecce. Not all of it; some of them do not mature until Feb- 
ruary or March. 
The Cuamrman. You can not take them up before their maturity? 
Mr. Lecce. Yes; some of them can be taken up before maturity. 
But the situation is so uncertain we do not know whether it would 
be a wise thing to do to pay that off entirely. We would like to 
reduce it and eliminate that much from the picture. 
Mr. Ayres. About how much is there of that paper? 
Mr. Lecce. About $75,000.000—$26,000,000 on wheat and 
$49,000,000 on cotton. 
Mr. Ayres. This money has been borrowed from various banks? 
Mr. Lecce. Yes, a large part of it was borrowed by the cooperative 
organizations from the banks and turned over to us subject to the 
liens, and they have been continued, and the banks are perfectly 
willing to carry them. They are perfectly safe. They have the 
warehouse receipts for the commodity, so it 1s a sound loan for them. 
Mr. BucHanaN. You said you felt the price of wheat in this 
country was to some extent artificially maintained. Have you any 
figures to show how much more the wheat producers in this country 
are getting now for their wheat than the wheat producers of any 
other country producing surplus wheat. 
Mr. Lace. The easiest comparison, on account of the similarity in 
listance of transportation, is with Canada, and the Canadian price 
at Winnipeg is running from 17 to 18 cents a bushel below our price. 
One day last week it was 21 cents below our price, but that was 
exceptional. It has averaged about 17 or 18 cents below our price for 
some time past. 
Mr. Ayres. About how long? 
Mr. Lircoe. That has been true for the last six weeks, I should say. 
Mr. BucaanaN. And with a similar differential in favor of our 
wheat producers in every other surplus wheat-producing country 
nf the world ? 
Mr. Lracr. Absolutely. 
Mr. Buoraxan. That shows that the operations of the Farm Board 
are resulting in benefit to the wheat producers? 
Mr. Lecce. I think that is absolutely conclusive, and the difference, 
as I said a moment ago, on the weekly consumption is around two 
and a half million dollars. 
Mr. BucaanaN. Let me ask vou a few questions in regard to 
cotton. The world production of cotton is not excessive this year, 
is it, compared with the average of the last five years? 
Mr. LEGGE. As to cotton, it is not so much a question of excessive 
production to-day as it is of low consumption. 
Mr. BucHanNaN. In other words, there has been about 26.500.000 
bales of cotton produced and that is about the average of the past 
five years? 
Mr. Liecer. Yes. We had a little accumulation, Congressman, 
mn cotton, but nothing relatively as bad as it was in wheat. We 
went into this crop with a 6,200,000 bales carry-over. 
Mr. BucHaNaN. That is true; but in the world there has been 
about 26,500,000 bales of cotton produced, and that is about the 
average of the past five years. 
Therefore, from a statistical standpoint, the position of cotton 
is more favorable than the position of wheat. But the under-