TABLE 29. Retail price of hog products at New York, apparent consumption of pork, including lard, and indexes of consumer expenditures for pork, including lard, and income of urban consumers, 1924-33

1 Compiled from reports of the Division of Livestock, Meats, and Wool, Bureau of Agircultural Economics.

2 Retail prices of hog products at New York, and the apparent consumption of federally inspected pork, including lard, were used in the computation of the basic data for this index.

3 Bureau of Agricultural Economics. This index was computed from indexes of pay rolls of factories, railroads, mining, public utilities, Government, and others, but it is preliminary and is subject to revision. • Estimate.

TABLE 30.-Retail price of hog products at New York, apparent consumption of pork, including lard, and indices of consumer expenditures for pork, including lard and income of urban consumers, November and December 1924-33

1 Compiled from reports of the Division of Livestock, Meats, and Wool, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

2 Retail prices of hog products at New York and apparent consumption of federally inspected pork, including lard, were used in the computation of the basic data for this index.

Bureau of Agricultural Economics. This index was computed from indices of pay rolls of factories, railroads, mining, public utilities, Government and others, but it is preliminary and is subject to revision. 4 Estimate.

TABLE 31.-Hogs: Average price per 100 pounds, Chicago, and slaughter under Federal inspection, November-May, 1920-21 to 1932-33

1 Base data from the Division of Livestock, Meats, and Wool, Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Packer and shipper purchases. Simple average, November-May.

Inspected slaughter from the Bureau of Animal Industry. Total live weight computed using inspected slaughter and average live weight from monthly reports of the cold-storage report section, Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

CHAPTER 17

EFFECTS ON FARM BUYING POWER

The agricultural adjustment program thus far put into effectnotably that portion affecting cotton, tobacco, and wheat-has brought increased purchasing power and striking improvement in the economic condition of farm communities. This improvement has been reflected in other parts of the country which manufacture goods bought by farmers. While corn-hog, dairy, and beef producers have been suffering severely from low prices, it is evident that if the Administration's program can be applied with equal effectiveness on their behalf, the results will be equally beneficial.

With their income increased by benefit payments made by the Government in consideration of their cooperation in acreage adjustment, as well as by the higher prices for their product resulting from the acreage adjustment and other portions of the Government's recovery program, the cotton, tobacco, and wheat farmers appear to be in better financial condition than they have been for years. The long-depressed farm communities of the South and the Middle West are being revivified, just as withered plants take on new life in all their parts when rain follows an extended dry spell.

Money put into the hands of the farmers is benefiting almost every group in their communities, it is indicated by a survey made by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration in typical counties in the Cotton and Wheat Belts. Though the survey covered only 3 counties, 2 in the cotton and 1 in the wheat areas, they are typical counties and the results are considered likely to reflect in a broad way the results in the cotton and grain regions as a whole. Delinquent taxes are being paid; banks are collecting on notes they had written off long ago; schools are reopening or staying open for longer terms; stores are doing an increased business; and money is flowing to the industrial centers of the Nation in the form of orders for clothing, household furnishings and supplies, farm implements, automobiles and automobile parts, radio storage batteries, paint, lumber, and many other things that farmers buy. Even transportation agencies which at first thought might be considered as having a smaller volume of farm products to transport as a result of the production reduction campaigns are deriving increased revenue from the larger volume of city goods now moving into the farm areas.

CAN NOW BUY BACK OWN COTTON

A striking fact revealed in the survey is that many farmers of the South are able, for the first time in 4 years, to buy back their own cotton in the form of cotton cloth and articles of clothing. One merchant in a small Georgia city estimated that the farm families in his community could each buy $50 worth of cotton goods without being oversupplied.

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"They hadn't been able to buy anything for 4 years", he said, "and their clothes were nearly worn out.

Few of the farmers, if any, are hoarding their money, the survey indicates. They are hastening to buy articles they have long gone without, and to pay debts or taxes long deferred. There is overwhelming evidence that they are using the money conservatively and making every dollar bear its full load.

In some of the wheat areas, stricken by drought 2 years in succession, the Government checks represent the only cash income the farmers have received this year. Their condition is so desperate that many of them are relying on this money to keep them from starving this winter.

Contrary to the impression held by many city people, not all farmers have been able to provide themselves with the bare necessities of life on their farms.

Every one of the three counties surveyed has had on its relief rolls a number of farm families. In ordinary times these families are selfsupporting, but during the depression they have fared little better than their unemployed city cousins. With increased income from benefit payments and with higher prices, many farmers are finding it no longer necessary to depend upon public relief.

WHOLE COMMUNITY BENEFITING

The state of mind of many of the business men in the South is well illustrated by the comment of H. B. Bellenger, vice president of the Altus National Bank, Altus, Okla.:

The results of the Government's cotton program have been wonderful. Our whole community is benefiting from it. We are feeling the effects here in this bank. Our loans were in excess of $300,000. We have collected at least one third of this amount and we are not nearly through yet. One farmer came in the other day with several hundred dollars and paid up his note in full. He still has his cotton options and also the cotton in his field.

This program just about saved our lives. I never have seen anything work out better in my life.

If this bank had failed, all the farmers in the community would have suffered.

One of the farmers in Jackson County, of which Altus is the county seat, summed up his experience:

Last year I had 48 bales, which netted me less than $4 each after my cash costs were paid. This year I had 36 bales, which netted me nearly $12 each after the cash costs had been paid.

I work my farm on half shares. got $80 as my half. My share of six Last year I couldn't pay a thing. ceries, and buy a few things.

I

plowed up 20 of my 80 acres of cotton and bales of options will give me $60 more. This year I can live, pay more for my gro

Jackson County has approximately 2,750 farms, about 50 percent of which are occupied by tenants. The average farm is around 200 acres. About 99 percent of the farmers are white, though Negro labor is employed to some extent. There are 2 or 3 workers to each 100 acres, with 10 or 12 pickers during picking time. Some of the farmers practice one-crop cotton farming, while others diversify. Nearly two thirds of the land in crops is ordinarily planted to cotton.

Cotton production the last few years has ranged from 75,000 to 100,000 bales. The 1933 crop is expected to run about 70,000 bales.

Plow-up contracts were signed by 2,280 farmers, representing 182,173 acres, or 85 percent of all the cotton. The total number of acres plowed up was 67,468. Benefit payments received by the farmers totaled approximately $615,000. (The largest plow-up check was for $4,600; the smallest was for $20.) Options on 15,300 bales of Government-owned cotton will yield about $300,000 more.

About 75 percent of the crop had been sold before Government loans became available. Since that time, those who had cotton have stored it in the warehouses at Altus and at other points, and the loans have been assumed by the local banks.

Altogether, the returns to cotton growers of the county in the form of plow-up benefits, profits on options, and payments or loans for their cotton, will amount to approximately $4,000,000. This compares with a gross income of $2,180,000 a year ago.

Deposits in the two banks, the Altus National Bank and the National Bank of Commerce, have risen from $900,000 to $1,500,000. The latter bank is only 2 years old and its farmer loans, therefore, have been small, amounting to only $50,000. Practically all of these, according to W. B. Gover, president, have been liquidated with which came from cotton.

money

NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING INCREASED

The Altus National Bank has handled about $150,000 of the cotton loans at 4 percent, the same rate charged by the Government.

"We regard this as especially good business", said Mr. Bellenger. Harrington Wimberley, publisher of the Altus Times-Democrat, reported that the volume of advertising in his newspaper is up about 30 percent as compared with a year ago.

"The farmers are using their money to good advantage", said Mr. Wimberley. "They are not hoarding it and not squandering it. They are good spenders and are buying the things they need.

D. E. Sessions, superintendent of Federal emergency relief work in Jackson County, reported that of the 2,280 farmers who signed cotton contracts, 611 had been on relief rolls. Relief is no longer necessary for many of these.

Because of tax delinquency, school teachers in the rural schools have been paid with tax warrants, though the schools have stayed open the full period of 8 months. Formerly these warrants were discounted from 5 to 25 percent, but now, because of the improved outlook, they are being cashed at face value, according to C. O. Booker, the county school superintendent.

J. S. Wood, in the investment and loan business, declared that last year he considered himself lucky to get interest on his money, whereas this year farmers are paying up their loans in full. Some of these loans were made in 1929 and 1930.

Miss Vanna Hooper, county treasurer, reported that she had been taking in money so fast in payment of 1931 and 1932 taxes that she had not had time to add it up. In 1 day she took in $9,800 over the counter and had not had time to open her mail.

Many farmers have bought automobile license tags and have resumed operating their cars, according to Mrs. W. R. Livermore, the local tag agent.