Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 55 Part 1.djvu/113

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PUBLIC LAWS-CH. 39-APR. 3 , 1941 [CHAPTER 39] AN ACT April 3, 1941 [H. R. 3546] To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, for the purpose [Public Law 27] of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in peanuts, and for other purposes. Agricultural Adjust- ment Act of 1938, amendments. 52 Stat. 62 . 7U. . .i§1351- 1356. Annual proclama- tion. National acreage al- lotment. Proviso. Minimum. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That title III of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, is amended by inserting after part V of subtitle B thereof the following new part: "PART VI-MARKETING QUOTAS--PEANTS "L EGISLATIVE FINDINGS "SEC. 357. The production, marketing, and processing of peanuts and peanut products employs a large number of persons and is of national interest. The movement of peanuts from producer to con- sumer is preponderantly in interstate and foreign commerce, and, owing to causes beyond their control, the farmers producing such commodity and the persons engaged in the marketing and processing thereof are unable to regulate effectively the orderly marketing of the commodity. As the quantity of peanuts marketed in the channels of interstate and foreign commerce increases above the quantity of peanuts needed for cleaning and shelling, the prices at which all peanuts are marketed are depressed to low levels. These low prices tend to cause the quantity of peanuts available for marketing in later years to be less than normal, which in turn tends to cause rela- tively high prices. This fluctuation of prices and marketings of peanuts creates an unstable and chaotic condition in the marketing of peanuts for cleaning and shelling and for crushing for oil in the channels of interstate and foreign commerce. Since these unstable and chaotic conditions have existed for a period of years and are likely, without proper regulation, to continue to exist, it is imperative that the marketing of peanuts for cleaning and shelling and for crushing for oil in interstate and foreign commerce be regulated in order to protect producers, handlers, processors, and consumers. "MARKETING QUOTAS "SEC. 358. (a) Between July 1 and December 1 of each calendar year the Secretary shall proclaim the amount of the national market- ing quota for peanuts for the crop produced in the next succeeding calendar year in terms of the total quantity of peanuts which will make available for marketing a supply of peanuts from the crop with respect to which the quota is proclaimed equal to the average quantity of peanuts harvested for nuts during the five years immedi- ately preceding the year in which such quota is proclaimed, adjusted for current trends and prospective demand conditions, and the quota so proclaimed shall be in effect with respect to such crop. The national marketing quota for peanuts for any year shall be converted to a national acreage allotment by dividing such quota by the normal yield per acre of peanuts for the United States determined by the Secretary on the basis of the average yield per acre of peanuts in the five years preceding the year in which the quota is proclaimed, with such adjustments as may be found necessary to correct for trends in yields and for abnormal conditions of production affecting yields in such five years: Provided, That the national marketing quota established for the crop produced in the calendar year 1941 shall be a quantity of peanuts sufficient to provide a national acreage allotment of not less than one million six hundred and ten thousand acres, and [55 STAT.