The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-10

8@eA farmer who has exceeded his triple-A acreage allotment this year, and see what can happen to him:
 Making it easy, suppose Farmer Friend has a wheat acreage allot- ment of 100 acres. Don't ask who decided Friends allotment was only 100 acres, or how or why it was fixed at 100 acres for that would only add to your confusion. Just take it that a representative of the man with the whiskers came around and told Farmer Friend that he could grow wheat this year on only an even hundred acres.
 Farmer Friend, however, figuring rightly that there would be a good market for wheat this year, decided l to grow wheat on 125 acres.
 AN EXPLANATION, PLEASE
 Friends average yield on wheat has been, say, 10 bushels to the acre, but this year, what with too much rain, his yield was only five bushels to the acre. Instead of getting 8 normal 1000 bushels on his allotted 100 acres, he gets only 625 bushels on 125 acres. You might think that since his total yield is still under his normal yield, it wouldn't make any difference, but it isn't that easy.
 The government told him he could grow wheat on only 100 acres. So, he is permitted to sell without pen- alty only the wheat grown on those 100 acres, or 500 bushels. The other 125 bushels is what causes him the ] trouble.
 AAA recommends that Farmer Friend store his 125 bushels. If he stores 1t under seal on his own farm, the gov'ment will pay him 2 cents a bushel the first year, plus 5 cents more the second year. If he stores until April 30, 1943, the government will pay him 12 cents a bushel, or $15, just for keeping his own 125 bushels of excess wheat of the mar ket. If a shortage should develop before the expiration date, the gov- ernment might permit him to sell u. In storing the 125 bushels, the 1 farmer has to put up personal cash or surety bond or get a couple of his neighborS to 90 on his bond guaranteeing the wheat won't be sold. If he gets the neighbors to go on his bond and then sells, the neighbors may be stuck. The amount of the bond in this case is fixed at 49 cents buShel, or for 125 bushels, it would be $61 .25. If Farmer Friend sells, he forfeits bond.
 supposing Farmer Friend is little hard up and wants to borrow money on his surplus 125 bushels. Well, his big-hearted Uncle Sam will extend him a loan at 3 per cent interest cal- culated in this simple little manner: The AAA national loan ratte average on wheat for this year is 98 cents a bushel. Again, don't worry about how they arrived at that figure. Just take it, and don't ask silly questions Anyway, the government will loan ur to 60 per cent of that amount, which is 58.8 cents per bushel. On 125 bushels in Farmer Friends sad case this amounts to a loan of $63.40.
 Supposing Farmer Friend says to heck with all this red tape. Well maybe he can bootleg it and gel away with 1t, but the chances are he can't. For every farmer, just before harvest time, gets his market card. Without the market card, the farmer can't sell to an elevator or to any first buyer. And all first buyers are checked by AAA inspectors to see that there's no cheating.
 FINE THING, THIS FINE
 To sell legitimately, Farmer Friend must pay 8 penalty on this 125 bush- els of surplus wheat he grew on the 25 surplus acres, and that penalty amounts to one-half the national loan rate average of 98 cents bush el, or 49 cents a bushel. For 12s bushels this would be $61 .25, which is & pretty steep fine to pay fol growing too much wheat, in any. body's court.
 Supposing the farmer decides k outsmart 'em by feeding this excess wheat to his stock. That's all right says the government, as long as ht doesn't sell the stock. But if he i' selling the stock, it would be illega for him to feed his own hogs witt surplus wheat grown on his own sur plus acres.
 From this point it might be con. cluded logically that the farmer could grind his own wheat into hi own flour for his own wife to bakt into his own bread to feed his owr children-provided he didn't intenc to sell the children.
 Anyway, the foregoing is offered as evidence of why one farmer 1T Michigan burned his whole crop That was. perhaps, the easiest solu' ton to the whole matter.