AGRICULTURAL MARKETING REVOLVING FUND 7 
The Crarman. What have you to say with reference to cotton? 
Mr. Lecee. Cotton is in very much the same condition at the mo- 
ment. There is very little improvement in cotton. The spinning 
business all over the world seems to be prostrate. It is just about 
as dead as it can be. It has improved a little bit. There has been 
a little more activity in the last 60 days than in some of the previous 
months, but it is very slow, and consumption of cotton is not in- 
creasing as it is on wheat. The wheat situation is being helped very 
markedly through the feeding operations. We have a short corn 
crop this year, and an enormous quantity of wheat is being fed to 
livestock. 
The CratrMaN. Some of it is burned for fuel, is it not? 
Mr. Lecce. I think the quantity that is burned in that way is 
rather negligible. Somebody who is real cold, and has nothing else 
to burn, may burn it, but I do not think that affects the visible supply 
very much. 
The Crarmax. I take it that the great inexorable law of supply 
and demand controls the price, and that the low price of wheat is 
largely due to the fact that there is more wheat in existence than 
there 1s a demand for. } 
Mr. Lrace. Yes, sir; absolutely. From the export standpoint 
I do not see any hope for the American wheat producer in competi- 
tion with the peon labor of Argentina and the practically serf 
labor of Russia, with their lower standards of living. 
The Cramman. If we have lost hope for it, what is the remedy? 
Mr. Lrcee. The remedy, so far as the wheat grower of America 
is concerned, except in instances where he can profitably use it for 
feeding livestock, is to reduce the production to the domestic con- 
sumption basis. 
The CuamMan. Would it benefit the farmer if you could induce 
him to curtail production? 
Mr. Lrcee. I have personally canvassed every wheat-producing 
State in the Union during the last six months, and we are making 
some headway there. For instance, the spring wheat area of the 
country had a reduction of 5 per cent last year. 
The Cuairman. How much would the acreage have to be re- 
duced in order to bring about some beneficial results? 
Mr. Lecce. Except as feeding to livestock might offset some of 
it, we would have to have a 22 per cent reduction to put it on a 
strictly domestic-consumption basis. Taking into consideration the 
wheat which is fed to livestock, it will take less than that, perhaps, 
to balance the production with the consumption. 
The CuammanN. How do you go about that, in your effort to get 
a curtailed production ? 
Mr. Lrege. It is purely educational, we try to lay before farmers 
the facts. We say to them, “ Here is the situation that you have 
been facing, and it is one that you can not ignore.” We say to 
them, * These are the conditions, that are depressing the market 
here, and they have been going on all over the world.” The world’s 
acreage of wheat has increased some 42,000,000 acres within 14 
years. 
Mr. Byr~s. Do you think that you will reach the point, through 
aducation or otherwise, where you will be able to curtail the pro-