A Bounty that Ended the Mutiny

EVEN in good times many farmers like to complain. In Bakersfield, Calif., Joe Garone looked out over his 2,800 acres rich with cattle and cotton and said: "It used to be that we had three major problems--weather, pests and markets. Now we've got one that's even bigger--Government interference." In the midst of the nation's harvest this week, Garone and the other 2.9 million American farm owners have scant reason to worry about any of those problems--least of all the openhanded Federal Government. The 1972 crop should show the most bountiful per-acre yield ever, and farm income has risen a healthy 8% this year. "Never in my life have I seen a situation like this," marveled a key Midwestern farm leader. "All across the board the prices we are getting for our crops are high. We see profits in hogs, corn, cattle, soybeans and wheat."

To be sure, some wheat farmers are up in arms over the huge profits in the Soviet grain sale that went to big grain exporting firms rather than to them (see THE NATION). But the fact remains that President Nixon went out of his way to become the nation's No. 1 wheat salesman during his trips abroad. "The Soviet grain deal was good for the farmers," says Don Paarlberg, the Agriculture Department's economic director. "It increased prices, reduced stocks and made possible an increased opportunity to grow wheat in 1973."

Subsidies Up. As for the rest of the Administration's farm policy, scarcely anyone could ask for more. The Agriculture Department will hand out some $4.1 billion in subsidies this year, a whopping 32% jump over 1971. Most of the increase will be for feed grains from mid-America, where the especially important farm vote seemed on the point of rebellion against Nixon only a year ago--reports Floyd Holloway, who farms 300 acres near Janesville, Wis. "Right now, 25% of my net profit comes out of subsidies." The Government's liberalized food-stamp program has helped keep demand for food at an alltime high; that in turn has propped up overall farm prices 13% higher than a year ago. Then there is Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz who has publicly exulted that high retail food prices are merely an overdue reward to the farmer. Says Billy Smith, who owns a medium-sized farm in Statesboro, Ga.: "That man is really telling the story of the farmer, and the President has made no effort to stop him."

New Tractor. In the Byzantine world of farm economics, prosperity does not necessarily depend on record production. In fact the Agriculture Department estimates that total crop production in 1972 will be about 1% less than last year. But since many crops were in oversupply last year, prices were down. This year, by contrast, the market belongs to the farmer. Tobacco auctioneers in North Carolina, where the crop was kept short by the weather, are being forced to ration tobacco at premium prices among customers; in effect the auctions, though performed for custom's sake, are a sham. In California an early frost scared buyers of grapes into believing that the crop might be sparse. Actually, the cold weather did only spotty damage, but in some cases prices were bid up by more than 50%. "This is the year we've all been waiting for," says Harry Gilfenbain, a grape grower, who stands to ship $7,000,000 worth of his product.

Few farmers are as openly ebullient as Gilfenbain, in part because some are using this year's profits merely to pay off debts suffered in bad years. Donald Curlee, executive assistant for the Council of California Growers, notes: "When farmers are happy they don't tell you, and when they're unhappy they tell everybody." Meat producers, who have borne the brunt of public wrath over food prices, are especially reluctant to flaunt their profits. Instead, they worry aloud about the possibility of a ban on fast-fattening feed additives that have come under attack as health hazards. "If they cut out the chemicals it's going to cost three or four cents a pound more to fatten beef cattle," says Edgar Skewes, who raises corn and soybeans on a 600-acre farm between Racine and Janesville, Wis. "That means," Skewes adds, "that you're going to pay extra for beef."

Agricultural experts believe that a typical Midwestern farmer with a good-sized efficient spread should be able to pay himself and his workers a fair salary this year and make 6% or so on his investment in land, buildings and machinery. That is easily enough for many farmers to settle in comfortably for winter and think about ordering a new tractor or combine--perhaps this time it will be one with an enclosed, air-conditioned cab and a radio. It is also enough to give Richard Nixon every confidence that he will walk away with the farm vote in November.

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