AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

178
put it in, and can give out the information they want to raise so
many acres of wheat this year and so many acres of corn this year
“nd so many acres of cotton. Then they can reduce the acreage by
percentage; and instead of interfering and cutting down the farmers’
income in any way they will always keep 1t normal and regular.
They know what they are going to have as near as can be known in
advance what ought to be the requirements. They know that now.
We have a Bureau of Economics in the Department of Agriculture.

Mr. Apkins. In other words, we know about how much wheat it
requires to feed us?

Mr. MAHER. Yes.

Mr. Apkins. We know about how many acres they plant to wheat;
we know approximately how many bushels to the acre. If I get
your thought now, in round figures it would take 600,000,000 bushels
~f wheat to feed the country?

Mr. MAHER. Yes.

Mr. Apxins. We ought to know approximately how many acres
+ takes to produce that 600,000,000 bushels?

Mr. MAHER. Yes.

Mr. Apkins. And your thought, if 1 get it right, is to work out
3 scheme that the necessary number of acres will be planted with
normal or average production to produce 600,000,000 bushels; is
that your thought?

Mr. MAHER. Yes, sir; that is it exactly.

Mr. Apxins. Now, let us pursue that a little further. Unless
you had a control over all the insects that affect your wheat crop
and the weather conditions that affect your wheat crop, you are
liable even at that to produce a surplus or considerable of a deficit,
are you not?

Mr. Mauer. We can not put it down to a bushel or a few bushels
or even a million bushels.

Mr. Apxins. You can do that with dairy people with good feed.
You can increase your production or lower it at will?

Mr. Mauer. Yes, you can.

Mr. Apxins. But when it is a seasonal crop which people have
to depend on, where in the spring what your farm produces, if you
have good luck—the farmer gambles all the time with the weather
and every other element in the country—he can not do that
ANY season In the year. Within 30 days he must determine his
acreage if he has a normal season what he is going to do in a normal
year. He can not do that any year when prices or production
exceed the demand—he can not regulate or curtail; he must deter-
mine in 30 days what his probable next year’s income will be, and
that does not depend so much on the acreage he puts out as to
what kind of weather or insect conditions he will meet during the
sumer.

So that thot feature looks to me like an impossible proposition to
undertake to work up, unless you had control over those elements
hat are vitally affecting it.

Mr. Mauer. Excuse me. We have all those problems with us
fo ays, and have always had them with us. We have this board
a ~ n he appointed to execute the plan if it is put into operation.
em) Jie wstanne ot ge great Department of Agriculture; we
Jone all those np s, and they can do a great deal better guessing

o se lines than the individual farmers can.