The Bismarck Tribune

Will Apply Only to Wheat in 1938 But Can Be Extended to Other Crops

EXPERIENCE HELD NEED

Feed and Seed Loans by Government to Be Available This Week Says Murphy

President Roosevelt Thursday recommended to congress adoption of crop insurance for wheat in 1938 as the Farm Credit administration announced that $50,000,000 will be available this week to farmers seeking emergency crop and feed loans.

Under the crop insurance program, the Associated Press reported, the farmer will be protected against drought, grasshoppers and hail up to 75 per cent of the farm's normal yield.

If the farmer loses a wheat crop, which would have threshed out at 12 bushels an acre, he would be protected against nine bushels of loss. He would be paid either in wheat or its cash equivalent with no insurance on the price of wheat.

Federal officials estimated that $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 would be needed to set up the plan and establish adequate reserves and pay necessary costs. The insurance, the president reported, would not be a substitute for any other federal farm measures but rather supplementary.

Farm Credit administration seed and feed loans will be limited to farmers "who have no other source of credit," Col. P. G. Murphy, who will direct the lending, said.

Size of the loan will be limited to the amount "actually needed to grow crops or maintain livestock until pasture or forage crops are available," Colonel Murphy said. The maximum loan permitted will be $400, at 4 per cent interest. Loans will be made by field representatives, aided by county crop loan committees.

With his message to congress on crop insurance, the president sent a report of his special committee which planned the program.

Said President Roosevelt- "I believe that legislation should authorize application of similar programs to other commodities when it is established that producers desire them and application of the plan to wheat has provided a backlog of experience in applying the principles of crop insurance."