Good Year, Big Bill

The first comprehensive estimate of this year's farm crop was announced last week by the Department of Agriculture with a note of dismay. Though wheat, cotton and corn acreage had been cut in the hope of trimming some 5% from the huge U.S. farm surplus, this year's crop is still expected to be the second biggest in history, and the biggest since record 1948. Most farmers have lived up to their word, cut their acreage of "basic" crops as directed. But farmers, who have seen their products decline 23.5% in price in four years, did not let the land lie fallow. Instead, they put other crops into the ground. As a result, they may well produce the largest soybean crop on record, oats production will come close to setting a new high, and the sorghum crop may also reach a new peak.

Furthermore, good weather and fewer insects pushed the yields up for most crops. Corn farmers were well on their way towards producing an estimated 3,449,667,000 bushels, 16% more than last year's drought-affected crop.

At the prospect of the big harvest, prices went down. Cotton sold for about 34-c- a lb., 11-c- less than it was four years ago, while wheat sold for less than $2.15 a bushel, off more than 85-c- in some eight years. Last year, even with parts of the nation suffering from a drought, the Department of Agriculture had to buy $7,198,000,000 worth of surplus commodities under the price-support program. This year, it looked as if the bill would be still higher.

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