LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Hon. HAROLD D. COOLEY, United States House of Representatives. DEAR MR. COOLEY: In response to your informal request through R. L. Farrington, of the office of the solicitor of the Department, I am glad to give you information concerning the lending programs of the activities which would be trasferred to the Farmers Home Corporation under your bill, H. R. 4384. The following information is taken from reports to this Office by the agencies involved: The Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Division of the Farm Credit Administration, and its predecessor offices, making crop-production loans to farmers from the beginning of such work in 1918 through December 31, 1943, have made a total of 3,901,373 loans for the aggregate sum of $451,976,734, exclusive of the drought relief loans made in 1934 and 1935. Of the amount loaned through December 31, 1943, $344,952,035, or 76.3 percent, had been repaid. The regional agricultural credit corporations from their establishment in 1932 to December 31, 1942, had made loans aggregating $343,268,709, of which $336,849,339, or 98.1 percent, had been repaid. From January 1 through December 25, 1943, disbursements on regional agricultural credit corporation loans amounted to $75,791,618 and repayments during this period were $46,136,921. The Farm Security Administration and its predecessor, the Resettlement Administration, made 2,722,358 rural rehabilitation loans amounting to $809,215,750, from the beginning in 1936 through December 31, 1943. Of this amount $443,371,982, or 54.7 percent, had been repaid on December 31, 1943. As of the same date, the Farm Security Administration had made 35,146 tenant purchase loans totaling $201,659,859, of which $21,710,238, or 10.7 percent, had been repaid. The rural rehabilitation loans are usually repayable in 5 years and the tenant purchase loans run for 40 years. In addition to the foregoing the Farm Security Administration and Resettlement Administration, from 1936 to December 31, 1943, had made grants to 1,115,423 families in the total amount of $152,622,643. I hope the foregoing contains the information you desire. further service please let us know. Sincerely yours, 17, 344, 463 13, 218, 780 1, 724, 804 76, 981 If we can be of W. A. JUMP, Director of Finance. LETTER FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRiculture, Hon. HAROLD D. COOLEY, OFFICE OF BUDGET AND FINANCE, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. COOLEY: In response to your recent letter, received April 18, I am glad to furnish the information requested therein, taken from the files of this Office, as follows: 1. The total repayments on rural rehabilitation loans made by the Farm Security Administration were, as of December 31, 1943, 86.7 percent of maturities. 2. The peak of employment of the Farm Security Administration was reached in the fiscal year 1942 when employment was the equivalent of 19,789 man-years for a total salary cost of $35,394,219. 3. It is estimated that 1,227 man-years of work will be required to carry on the emergency crop and feed loan program of the Farm Credit Administration during the fiscal year 1944, for a total estimated salary cost of $3,204,967. 4. The total employment of the regional agricultural credit corporations for the fiscal year 1943 was the equivalent of 10 man-years, and the salary cost $33,535. Comparable figures for the fiscal year 1944 are estimated to be 20 man-years and $74,079. 5a. During the fiscal year 1944, the Farm Security Administration has 13 regional offices, 4 area (finance) offices, 48 State offices, 135 district offices, and 2,103 county and project offices. The 4 area finance offices are located in the same buildings as the regional offices at Indianapolis, Ind.; Montgomery, Ala.; Dallas, Tex.; and Denver, Colo. 5b. As of the present time, the Emergency Crop and Feed Loan Division of the Farm Credit Administration has 11 regional offices and 1 branch office in Puerto Rico, 30 State offices, and 1 Territorial office, and 488 county offices. 5c. At the present time, the regional agricultural credit corporation, and there is only one now, has its principal office in Kansas City, Mo., and one branch office in Wenatchee, Wash. I hope the foregoing information is adequate for your purposes. If we can be of further service, please call on us. Sincerely yours, C. G. GARMAN, Acting Director of Finance. O TRANSFERRING GOVERNMENT ACTIVITIES IN CON NECTION WITH DOMESTIC RABBITS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE MAY 9, 1944.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. VOORHIS, from the Committee on Agriculture, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 4404] The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 4404) to transfer Government activities in connection with domestic rabbits to the Department of Agriculture, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass. STATEMENT The raising of domestic rabbits, while not a large industry in comparison to major branches of agriculture, offers a means of making a living to a considerable number of citizens in certain portions of the Nation and has during the war been a significant factor in supplying meats to help overcome the shortage which at times has been so severe in certain sections of the country. The Federal Government has for a number of years conducte scientific research and experimental work in the field of domesticrabbit culture. But the main portion of that work has been under the Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of the Interior. The domestic-rabbit industry has no connection whatsoever with either fish or wildlife. It is a farm operation pure and simple, comparable to many other types of animal husbandry, every one of which is of course served, insofar as the Federal Government serves it, through the Department of Agriculture. The domestic rabbit is essentially a meat animal, and governmental work regarding it belongs in the Bureau of Animal Industry, where other problems relating to meat production are handled. Fur production is a secondary consideration, since the sale value of the meat is ordinarily much greater than that of the fur. H. Repts., 78-2, vol. 3- -34 The Bureau of Animal Industry has extensive laboratory facilities, staff, and libraries covering the general subjects of animal breeding, feeding, and disease. No other governmental agency has facilities remotely approaching these proportions and possibilities for effective and economical operation in this field. The broad principles of genetics, nutrition, and disease are similar in all animals. Many of the disease organisms and parasites of domestic rabbits are closely related to, or identical with, those of other domestic stock. Domestic rabbits are extensively utilized in laboratories of the Department of Agriculture as test subjects in studying the diseases of other more valuable animals. So long as the present situation pertains, there is necessarily duplication of effort and expense. Nor can the industry be as well served as would be the case if this work were concentrated in the Department of Agriculture, where it properly belongs. The case for H. R. 4404 is ably summarized in the following resolutions adopted by the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Farm Bureau Federation, and the Los Angeles County Pomona Grange: RESOLUTION TRANSFER OF RABBIT INVESTIGATIONAL WORK TO THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 1. The meat rabbit of today has long since lost any resemblance to the wild hare. It is a completely domesticated animal and should be in every way referred to as a domestic meat animal. Associating the domestic meat rabbit with the Bureau of Fish and Wildlife infers that the meat rabbit is wild. This tends to mislead the consuming public because there are certain diseases which infect the wild hare and which may be transmitted to man, but the domesticated rabbit is not subject to these diseases. 2. The domestic rabbit is a clean animal, as it is raised in sanitary hutches and fed a correctly balanced diet of grains, hay, and vegetable proteins. 3. The rabbit raiser is dependent on other farmers for supplies of feed and this supplements the other agricultural industries. 4. The domestic rabbit produces a quality of meat that is not equaled by any other meat animal either in nutritive value or in ease of assimilation. Convalescents are able to digest and assimilate properly prepared rabbit meat more readily than any other meat. 5. The Department of Agriculture is largely organized to carry on research on improvement of domesticated animals and fowls and therefore is more competent, experienced, and prepared to organize, direct, and carry out research work to aid the rabbit raiser. The rabbit raiser has not had intelligently planned and conducted nutritional and pathological research and has been for this reason unreasonably handicapped. 6. The rabbit industry would develop and expand more freely if it is known and accepted as an established agricultural pursuit because businessmen tend to shun an industry the relationships of which are not well understood as agricultural. 7. The Bureau of Fish and Wild Life in the Department of the Interior is primarily interested in programs dedicated to conservation and recreation and this fact makes it incompatible for a strictly production pursuit to be so associated or governed. 8. Many rabbit raisers are engaged in other agricultural pursuits whose problems are directly under the Department of Agriculture and thus would be able to use the well developed extension and research facilities of the Department if rabbit work was under that Department. |