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The biggest, most stubborn surplus problem facing the nation is corn. This year's estimated corn carryover will be more than 1.4 billion bu., an alltime record, and the Government owns more than goo million bu. of corn, for which there is no market. But the utilization laboratories of the Agriculture Department are working on processes for using corn in plastics, paper, oil drilling mud, glue, heatproof lacquer, tanning agents and a host of other industrial needs. Anticipating a major industrial market for corn, the American Maize-Products Co. and Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts have set up a program for Midwest farmers to grow 30,000 acres of a special variety of corn tailored to industry's needs. Farmers will be guaranteed a price at least 12% above the regular corn market. Floyd J. Hosking, executive vice president of the privately financed Corn Industries Research Foundation, estimates a potential industrial need for up to 1.3 billion bu. of corn each year, more than last year's corn carryover, with $4 billion in new plants built to process it. But first there must be more basic research. The Federal Government recently increased from three to twelve the team of scientists working on a crucial phase of corn chemistry. Says Dr. Hilbert: "If a team of 50 could be put to work we could clean it up in two or three years."
Not even the research enthusiasts expect the farm problem to be solved quickly. But they argue that it makes more sense to spend $200 million or $300 million a year on research that will provide permanent solutions than to spend $3.7 billion a year on support plans that only make the farm problem worse. Says Purdue University Biochemist Roy L. Whistler: "The experimental stations at the universities are waking up to the fact that it isn't enough to tell farmers how to grow more. They have to be told what to do with the crops they've grown."