Sternly trying not to look over his shoulder at political hobgoblins, Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson last week announced that a ruling known as "total acreage allotment" would be abolished. Farmers and farm-bloc Congressmen have complained more loudly about it than about flexible price supports.
Under "total acreage allotment," a farmer receiving supports for major crops (wheat, cotton, corn, peanuts, tobacco) had to restrict his total planted acreage to a Government quota and could not plant his excess land to anything but hay and pasturage. Now he can plant it to anything he pleases, except the major crops, potatoes...