Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 36, DeMotte, Jasper County, 5 August 1949 — U.S. Will Raise More Com This Year Than Ever [ARTICLE]

U.S. Will Raise More Com This Year Than Ever

May Cause Government To Broaden Its Program To Boost Storage Washington, Aug. 3. Prospects of the greatest U. S. com surplus in history may cause the government to broaden its program to boost grain storage construction in the corn belt. Agriculture officials are worried ■about where farmers and the government will find storage space for the corn they will own this fall, if the 1949 crop turns out to be as big as forecast. Unless something happens to curtail production prospects, the nation s total corn on hand may sky-rocket into the neighborhood of 4,300,000,000 bushels. That would be 500,000,000 more than the record-smashing supply last fall. *• The 1949 crop was forecast last month at 3,530,000,000 bushels. Indications now are that about 800,000,000 bushels of last year’s crop will be carried over into the new crop year. The government already has taken two major steps to expand corn belt grain storage. A great expansion in farm storage construction is underway under the liberal plane of construction loans to farmers announced two months ago. Furthermore the government this month plans to. contract for construction of 60,000,000 bushels of additional storage in the corn belt to help hold grains from 1948 crops which aril expected to be dumped into the government’s lap. Even so, many grain experts believe the additional storage tremendous surplus to handle the tremondous surplus now in prospect. Furthermore, they point to reports that the crop has improved in recent weeks. Some observers believe Secretary of. Agriculture Charles F. Brannan may start a plan to expand elevator storage in the cornholt. This might be done through a government guarantee that it would rent any additional storage capacity built under the program for a given period. That would assure the elevator owners of income from the investment. Ralph S. Trigg, president of Commodity. Corporation, disclosed recently that a program of this nature has been under consideration.