Plow-Under

Two years ago the Federal Farm Board advised the South to plow under every third row of cotton to reduce the crop and lift price. The South loudly mocked the suggestion. Why not, it asked, plow under every third member of the Farm Board? Yet last week the South stood pledged to plow under nearly one-quarter of its standing cotton crop.* What had changed its mind was the fact that the new Agricultural Adjustment Administration was ready to reward its sacrifice with $100,000,000 in quick cash. To sign the South up to Domestic Allotment required an intensive three-week campaign by 120,000 local agents bumping through 16 States in their muddy Fords and Chevrolets. In return for destroying 25% or more of their crop, farmers were offered an average of $9.50 for each acre taken out of production together with speculative options on Government cotton. A booming cotton market made many a planter hesitate to accept. President Roosevelt issued a patriotic appeal to help along the A. A. A.'s drive. Secretary of Agriculture Wallace had announced that his cotton plan would not go into effect unless at least 10,000,000 acres were plowed under. Last week he closed the campaign as a success after 700,000 owners of 9,000,000 acres had promised to take them out of production. That meant that some 3,500,000 bales of growing cotton would go underground, leaving the 1933 crop at less than 10,000,000 bales. In New York cotton futures crossed 12-c- per lb. To raise cash to pay the plow-under benefits Secretary Wallace figured as follows: The June farm price of cotton was 8.7-c- per lb. whereas the pre-War average was 12.7-c-. He therefore decreed a 4.2-c- per lb. processing tax to be collected after Aug. 1 from all spinners. Compensating taxes were also prepared for silk and rayon to prevent a consumption shift to those substitutes. A special tax will likewise be imposed on cotton imports to equalize domestic and foreign production costs. A. A. A. officials could see no reason for an immediate increase in cotton cloth prices inasmuch as cotton mills had already boosted their prices 30% faster than the rise in the raw commodity. With wheat and cotton out of the way, A. A. A. turned to corn and hogs as the next beneficiaries of Domestic Allotment.

*A plow-under problem: Could mules, long trained to walk only between the cotton rows, be driven atop the beds to pull a plow there?

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.