Mr. PEELER. Those check with my figures, too, Senator. The CHAIRMAN. You must have taken them from the same source. Mr. PEELER. I got them from the United States Department of Agriculture.

The CHAIRMAN. I thought that I would put that in the record, so that we would have it, since I raised the issue a while ago.

Mr. PEELER. In 1953, the loan on grain sorghums at the elevator in our county was $2.23, in 1954 it was $2.06, and this year it is $1.54. This reduction of 69 cents per hundredweight has been made during a time when all products other than farm commodities have been increasing in price.

Parity for corn and grain sorghum was $3 per hundredweight in 1950; since that time corn has increased to $3.23 while grain sorghum has decreased to $2.51.

In the irrigated district of west Texas, grain sorghum has a long history of production and since a large percentage of the production has been in grain sorghums these counties do not have large wheat or cotton allotments, and there is no other crop that could be planted to replace grain sorghums.

The average acreage harvested in Texas for the years 1943 to 1952 is 4,249,000 acres. The 1953 acreage harvested was 2,186,000 acres and the 1954 acreage harvested was 5,471,000 from planted acreage of 7,799,000 acres and the estimated acreage harvested for 1955 is 6.292,000 acres, which proves the old theory that the cheaper the price the more that the farmers have to plant to try and make ends meet.

The reason that I call that to your attention is that grain sorghum is a rather dry climate plant. Many times a lot of it is planted and never harvested and soil erosion enters into the picture, also.

The CHAIRMAN. How much of this acreage would you consider diverted acres?

Mr. PEELER. In our particular area there it would be hard for me to say. I will make the generality that practically all of the diverted cotton and wheat acreage is going into grain sorghum. The average farmer has 1,000, he has 300 acres of wheat and 100 acres of cotton. That makes a total of 400 acres.

Most of them are planting the other 600 acres in grain sorghums. The thing that we are disturbed about is twofold. One of them is that this reduction in parity where our farmers, as brought out by the boys today, are actually losing money on the crop-they are not going to be able to survive. And another thing is that grain sorghum is comparable to corn.

We are just stacking the surplus up higher. Everytime a feeder feeds a bushel of grain sorghum he is not going to feed a bushel of corn. So the corn is stacking up. One offsets the other.

The CHAIRMAN. I notice the acreages you just indicated have increased considerably.

Mr. PEELER. I was trying to skip through this. The boys pointed out today that the boys have had to plant more grain sorghum this year in order to try to pay off the banks, and to make their ends meet in our part of the country.

That tends to disprove the old theory that by cutting the price, you cut the acres. It is just the reverse. By cutting the price we actually increase the acreage.

The CHAIRMAN. Some of them have said that is a fallacy of the flexible price support system.

Mr. PEELER. I think so.

The CHAIRMAN. When you lower the price you get a bigger production.

Mr. PEELER. Yes.

As you are aware the price support for the 1954 crop was at 85 percent of parity and this reduction in addition to a reduction in parity occasioned by transition from old base to new base reduces the national average of grain sorghum loans from $2.28 per hundred to $1.78 per hundred pounds, based on current parity.

It can readily be seen that a reduction of 50 cents per hundredweight has eliminated all profit to the producer and in so doing has seriously affected the farmers and the whole business economy in the grain sorghum area.

1954 United States Department of Agriculture estimate production of grain sorghums in Texas at 117,386,000 bushels.

1955 United States Department of Agriculture estimate production of grain sorghums at 138,424,000 bushels in Texas.

1954 United States Department of Agriculture estimate production of grain sorghums in the United States at 204,078,000 bushels.

1955 United States Department of Agriculture estimates production of grain sorghums in the United States at 228,695,000 bushels.

Considering that about 20 counties in the irrigation district of west Texas produce about 60 percent of the grain sorghum produced in Texas it can be seen that grain sorghums are as much a major crop for this area as corn is to the Midwestern States.

However, corn is still supported at 87 percent or parity in spite of the fact that some of the crop several years back is still on hand, whereas practically all the 1954 grain sorghum has been used.

We have secured certified statements from a large number of representative grain sorghum farmers as to their actual cost of production on irrigated acreage. A summary of these statements indicate an average cost of $30 per acre on approximately 3,000 pounds per acre production.

The 5-year average production of irrigated grain sorghums is somewhat less than 3,000 pounds per acre. However, computing gross revenue on this basis at the present 1955 support prices of $1.54 at Hereford, Tex., and deducting one-third customary rent, the average farmer has a net loss of $0.80 per acre.

It is recognized that in a given year unusual high production could result in a small profit. On the other hand, any adversity would in all probability send one more farmer to the overcrowded labor market. The above figures do not include any return on investments in machinery and equipment.

Our economy has been one of the bright spots in the Nation for the last 10 years up to the present time. There were 7,878 irrigation wells drilled in the High Plains Water District from May 1953 to the present time.

All of course consuming labor, pipe, pumps, engines, and so forth. Many farmers including GI's have purchased land in this area and have obligated themselves for the price of the land and irrigation improvement expenses which are a hopeless cause at the present time try

ing to raise grain sorghum at a loss or a support price of 70 percent of parity.

Our grain sorghum crop is only a drop in the bucket as compared to corn, since the United States production was only 204 million last year. However, it is as vital to our section of the country as any other crop raised in any other part of the United States.

The trend of grain sorghum production is spreading north and east and the production of grain sorghum has increased 96 percent since 1952.

Grain sorghum has as good a feed value as corn and some experiment stations rate it above corn for certain feeds. It can be readily seen that as the production of grain sorghums increases if no restriction is adopted the consumption of corn will go down and the corn surplus will increase to even a larger figure than that at the present time.

Last year the Secretary of Agriculture cut the support price of grain sorghum 15 percent with practically no carryover while at about the same time raising the corn acreage 8 percent saying that he was afraid that the supply of feed grains would not be adequate to take care of the demand.

As long as farmers are allowed to plant all their diverted acres in feed grain we are going to continue to pile up surplus feeds which is going to be a burden on the market, costing the government lots of money and at the same time decreasing the standard of living to our farmers and all other people depending indirectly on agriculture. Also, we in the shallow-water district are pumping our water from a depleting reservoir which according to Government figures will not last too many years. In some places the water level is dropping from

2 to 7 feet per year.

This water is a vital part of the assets of our community. If this water is wasted on grain sorghums which we sell for a loss we are depleting our assets of water and fertility of land as well as losing money on that particular crop.

It is the concensus of opinion from our area that acreage diverted from allotted crops should be summer tilled and the acreage of grain sorghums should be reduced in order to conserve our water and save the fertility of our land.

In order to do this the support price for grain sorghums must be made equal to corn, since for all practical purposes they have the same uses and values for feed.

This would make it possible for our farmers to make a profit on the grain sorghum raised on reduced acreage and will eliminate the economic depression for this area, which we are now entering.

If the farmers are unable to make a living on their farms, it is impossible for them to buy cars, tractors, gasoline, machinery, improve their farms and buy necessities of life. This in turn will decrease factory output and idle factory workers, thereby decreasing buying power in the factory area. The resulting increased unemployment will affect the whole economy of the United States.

It is easy for a manufacturer to only produce the supply of goods needed, as many of our goods are made after the order has been secured. However, the farmer cannot wait until he has an order for his prod

ucts.

Many months of preparing are necessary before planting time and then he has a very limited time during which his planting has to be done if he is to produce a crop.

Should he wait until the planting season is over it means that someone will go hungry or be delayed 12 months for his products.

I would like to call attention to the fact that the industrial and transportation facilities of our economy are being supported either by direct subsidy or through defense spending. The result being that all manufactured and processed items are maintained at prices so high the farmer cannot buy them unless he is assured a comparable price for his commodities.

It has proven through eras of high support prices and eras of low support prices that high supports can be maintained with no more cost to the Government than low supports cost.

The reason being that the market price maintains the same relationship to the support price in either case. The market will exceed the loan only at times when it is necessary for buyers to acquire additional stocks.

It is my belief that under a support of 90 percent of parity on farm products, that the additional revenue to the United States Treasury through income tax paid by the farmer will more than repay the cost of the support program.

Not to mention the pyramiding of taxable income resulting from the dealer and manufacturer's profit on farmer purchases. Under the present supports on feed and grains the revenue will be nil.

It is my belief that it is as important to keep our food supply stored in reserve as adequately planned as it is to plan our military procurement of arms which we may have to use for the protection of our country.

The procurement of both takes months and years to accomplish. Arms and ammunition are no good without food.

I believe it is in the interest of all the people of the United States that the production of all agriculture commodities be reduced by acreage controls to the point where there will be a firm market and at the same time adequate food stored for future emergency. The only long-range program of this kind which will work successfully is for the Government to support such a program at 90 percent of parity.

The old theory of supply and demand will not work in our type of economy without the consumer getting hurt when the supply is not sufficient and the producer going broke when there is a temporary oversupply.

In conclusion, I hope that our representatives which have been elected by the people will see fit to support sorghums on the same level as corn, since they have a comparable value as feed grain, and stop this depression which is starting in our area as a result of the drastic reduction in the support price on grain sorghums.

The so-called sound agriculture policy now in effect, if not changed, will make the depression of the early thirties seem like years of prosperity for this major grain sorghum area.

The State of Texas produces approximately 58 percent of the grain sorghum produced in the United States. Our problem, without taking up too much of your time, you have been very kind to hear every

body here, is that we think that we should have grain sorghum as a basic commodity. We would like to leave out some acreage in order to alleviate the surplus that we have around here, to get our business where we can sell what we raise. Since 1953, we have drilled 7,878 wells up there. Our economy up to the present time has been one of the bright spots in the Nation in all of this development, et cetera.

The GI's, as well as everybody else, have come up there and bought this land and have paid big prices for it. They have gone in debt for both the land and the development of these irrigation wells.

The Government loaned a lot of money through different agencies to finance. When we get on a 70-cent price, why it costs the boys $30 an acre to farm this land, and on a 3,000-pound average, why the average farmer is losing 80 cents an acre this year.

They are not going to be able to stay there.

The bankers tell me, unless the man has got some other assets, why they are going to have to send him over to the FHA, and the Government will have to finance that man next year. We are taking money out of one pocket, you might say, and putting it in another.

There is another thing that I would like to call your attention to, and that is that grain sorghum production since 1952 has gone up 96 percent in the United States.

The CHAIRMAN. That is what I pointed out a while ago.

Mr. PEELER. I was up in Iowa this summer. They have test plots in Iowa testing grain sorghum this summer.

The CHAIRMAN. Your recommendation is that grain sorghum be placed in the class of the basics.

Mr. PEELER. Be placed on the same level as corn, since it is comparable. Some experiment stations say that it is 2 or 3 percent less than corn. And some say 2 or 3 percent better than corn.

The CHAIRMAN. Would you say that the price support should be that of corn?

Mr. PEELER. That of corn.

The CHAIRMAN. How about oats-would you say the same for that? Mr. PEELER. I think so.

The CHAIRMAN. And barley?

Mr. PEELER. I think oats, barley, and all feed grains should be put on the same basis as corn.

Do you know we have a little over 1 billion bushels of oats right today. That is hanging right over the corn situation and the grain sorghum situation. We are all getting in the same boat together around here.

There is another thing that I do not think has been brought up today.

In the newspaper publicity-I will not say it is not good-there is too much spoken of this as high parity that is going around. I think the spirit of our country depends upon our having some grain food in the case of emergency, as much as having arms and ammunition. The CHAIRMAN. More so.

Mr. PEELER. It takes time to secure both of them. So I think that our planting should be as good so as to keep a store of food on hand as it is to procure guns and ammunition.

In conclusion, I hope that our Representatives who have been elected by the people will see fit to support grain sorghums on the same level