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Strongest minor civil-division data from 1954 census production-Continued PART II. IS LIKELY TO PRODUCE (NORMAL YIELD WITH WEATHER ADJUSTMENT AND DIVERSION CREDIT)

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Mr. WALKER. Now if you will refer to this table, the first table on the left, on this map, we give here the data on Robeson County, N. C., which caused these two counties in South Carolina to come in. You will notice there that we have data for the 10 years as prescribed by law, 1948 through 1957.

We have in the first column, the yield per acre planted basis, excluding silage. And in the next column the acreage planted to corn excluding silage.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Whose figures do you take?

Mr. WALKER. These are the official figures of the Crop Reporting Board.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Why didn't you take the figures of the ASC committees in the State?

Mr. WALKER. At this time we didn't have ASC committee figures on the township basis.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I have a letter from the ASC chairman which says that you refused to accept their figures.

Mr. WALKER. Oh, no; they were not available.

Furthermore, the ASC committee does not make an estimate of the yields of corn. That is made by the Crop Reporting Board of the Department.

Mr. MCMILLAN. In that letter it goes on to state that your committee accepted the AMS figures and would not accept the ASC figures. Mr. WALKER. That is for the purpose of determining the commercial areas?

Mr. MCMILLAN. That is right. The ASC committee figures show that county grows 40,000 bushels of corn, and the committee that you had investigated said it grows 26,000.

Mr. WALKER. That is acres that you are referring to as bushels? Mr. MCMILLAN. Yes.

Mr. WALKER. I believe I can clarify that.

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Mr. MCMILLAN. Those are the questions that I cannot answer.

Mr. WALKER. The commercial corn area is established on the basis of official estimates of the Department of Agriculture on the yields, acreage, and production.

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The Crop Reporting Board certifies to the Grain Division its estimate, county by county, as requested by us, that is, where on the basis of previous investigation we know where corn is on the increase, where the counties are likely to come in. So we make a request to them to supply us with official Department estimates for such counties.

Now at the time this investigation was made the ASC county office or State office did not have any data on the acreage of corn or yield of corn in those counties. And on the basis of the latest available information we had to use the official estimates of the Department. These data we finally got after placing these two counties in the commercial corn area. They went down the road and visited the farmers and got the information. If we had used the information obtained through that survey, these counties would have come in stronger than the data we have here represented.

Mr. MCMILLAN. If what you say is true under this law about this one precinct or one township in those counties, it is not verified by the county ASC figures.

Mr. WALKER. The acreage they obtained through this survey could be used for purposes of apportioning the State's share of the allotment to the counties.

Mr. MCMILLAN. It shows they cut corn acreage 50 percent. That is the reason the farmers are furious since they had 2 years' reduction in tobacco which amounted to about 50 percent. I cannot believe the Department of Agriculture is trying to move every man off of the farm. I am certain it is not their intention.

Mr. WALKER. That is right.

Mr. MCMILLAN. If this keeps up they will, certainly, have to leave the farms.

Mr. WALKER. If I may proceed?

Mr. MCMILLAN. You have the ASC figure now at the present time? Mr. WALKER. That is right.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Why couldn't you use those that you have now? Mr. WALKER. The commercial area has already been announced. But even so we have never used ACD county data in establishing Mr. MCMILLAN. You mean ASC?

Mr. WALKER. Yes, ASC county data in establishing whether a county would come in on a 10-year basis.

Mr. MCMILLAN. We, certainly, could not consider the crop reporting figures in South South Carolina official. They only have 1 or 2 men in Columbia. We have an ASC committee in every county. Mr. WALKER. That is true.

Mr. MCMILLAN. Would not that be much more accurate?

Mr. WALKER. The ASC committee for this 10-year period would not have acreage back in 1948, acreage in 1949, they would not have it in 1950. They will have the data only for the years included in the survey that was made after these counties were placed in the commercial area. So we could not use on a 10-year basis ASC data. So we have to use the official estimates of the Department of Agriculture. You will notice here that Robeson County, N. C., that causes the trouble in South Carolina, produced 489 bushels per farm for the 10-year period and 6.1 bushels of corn per acre of land, more than meeting the minimum requirements for inclusion in the commercial corn area on the 10-year average production basis.

The next sheet will show the same data for Horry County.

Mr. MCMILLAN. On Horry County, which township there in that county causes that?

Mr. WALKER. The township tested in Horry County is Bayboro. Mr. MCMILLAN. I know where it is. I think the average acreage of any farm in that county is 35 acres in the whole county. I never found enough commercial corn in that county to bring it under the commercial corn area.

Mr. WALKER. On the second sheet here you will see for Horry County; the same data just described for Robeson County. You will notice here that we have the annual yields for the 10-year period, and we have the estimates of acreage for each of the years in the 10-year period, and that the yield here has been adjusted for abnormal weather conditions.

If you will note in 1954 we had a drought down there.

Mr. JOHNSON. What sheet are you on, the second page?
Mr. WALKER. Yes, and the yield is 14.7.

Well now, under provisions of law it says that if because of drought, insect pests, or other uncontrollable natural causes, the yield in any year of such 10-year period or 5-year period, as the case may be is less than 75 per centum of the average computed without regard to such yield, such year shall be eliminated in calculating the normal yields per acre for the county.

That year 1954 was eliminated.

So the 10-year average is 26.4. And when we make that adjustment for abnormal weather conditions, the adjusted yield is 27.7. Applying the 27.7 yield to 58,508 acres, 10-year average acreage, gives an adjusted production, excluding silage, of 1,620,699 bushels for Horry County. So that is a pretty good corn-producing country to produce that much corn.

Mr. JOHNSON. It is a large county and it is in area as large as any other 2 counties that I know of.

Mr. WALKER. We have the number of farms there, 5,051. And that is from ACP records.

Acres of farm land, 381,260.

On the county basis the production per farm is only 321 bushels per farm but it is 4.1 bushels per acre of farm land.

You could not put that county in on a 10-year basis because it did not meet both requirements. It has to meet both of them.

Mr. JOHNSON. It is composed of small farmers. I imagine that they eat and feed all of the corn they make?

Mr. WALKER. I do not doubt it a bit.

Mr. WATTS. You said that they didn't meet the 10-year criteria which was 450 bushels?

Mr. WALKER. Per farm.

Mr. WATTS. Per farm, and 4 bushels per acre.

Mr. WALKER. Of farm land.

Mr. WATTS. It is not required then to become a commercial corn area to meet both?

Mr. WALKER. It must meet both requirements. It must meet the 450 bushels per farm, and at least 4 bushels per acre of farm land. But this does not meet the requirements for the 10-year basis, because it only produced 321 bushels per farm.

Mr. WATTS. How did it get in?

Mr. WALKER. This is a fine question. Now we go to this first sheet.

Mr. WATTS. Thé rectangular sheet, the long sheet?

Mr. WALKER. It goes with this sheet. That other is only to select the township for the test. But here is where the actual test is made We have this sheet for Horry County and I want to go through it so we can see how it got in the commercial area.

This is sheet 58-C-3 for Horry County, S. C. Your inquiry was since it didn't meet it on the county basis how did it get into the commercial area.

You will recall a moment ago we read the provisions of paragraph 4 (b), which states that any county that is adjacent to a county meeting the requirements on a 10-year basis shall be examined and investigated to determine if any minor civil division in such county is producing such amounts of corn. Here is that test.

This is Bayboro Township. The top part of this sheet, if you will notice, has the name of the township, and the minor civil division production per farm in 1954 of 249 bushels. The census for 1954 was the only recent data we had on the minor civil division basis.

Item C here shows the production per acre of farmland was 3.8 in 1954. That is based upon the estimate of 708,675 bushels that was produced in the county in 1954, a drought year.

We move now to test it on the basis of current production, 1956–57. You will notice item 1 there shows official estimate of the production of corn, excluding silage, in 1956, 1,658,500 bushels.

Mr. MCMILLAN. How about the previous years? I thought you were supposed to take 10 years?

Mr. WALKER. We have just gone through the 10-year test.
Mr. MCMILLAN. And the average was what?

Mr. WALKER. An average after adjusted for abnormal weather conditions, was 1,620,699 bushels. You see the 10-year average is

less than 1956.

Mr. MCMILLAN. I imagine so.

Mr. WALKER. And less than 1957.

In item 2, we show a factor for adjusting the minor civil-division quotient from the 1954 census data for this township to the 1956 production basis. In item 3 we show the adjusted minor civil division production per farm and it is 583 bushels in 1956 per farm in that township. And in item 4 the production per farmland is 8.9. The similar data for 1957 is 540 bushels per farm, and 8.2 per acre of farmland. The minimum is 450 bushels per farm and 4 bushels per acre of farmland.

Mr. WATTS. I thought that was all on a 10-year average?

Mr. WALKER. This is on the minor civil division. The same provision applies to the township when you are making the test on current production. You see the provisions, for 450 bushels per farm, and 4 bushels per acre of farmland, applies both to the 10-year county basis and to the township on current production basis.

Mr. WATTS. You have it different-on the township part it is current?

Mr. WALKER. That is right.

Mr. WATTS. On the county as a whole it is the 10-year average? Mr. WALKER. That is right. On the township we make a test to determine is it producing such amounts of corn.

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