The Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed to correct the economic situation that is depressing American agriculture.² The aim of the Act is to restore and increase the buying power of our farm people. The Act is looked upon as an integral part of the whole recovery program of the federal government. In general, that part of the recovery program set forth in the farm act, is based very largely on the assumption that our national farm plant is too large—that there is a serious maladjustment between the output of our farms and the effective demand for food and other raw materials produced on farms. Farm people, and students of farm problems, are called upon to evaluate the soundness of the broad economic policies laid down in the Agricultural Adjustment Act. But there can be no correct appraisal of these policies without first thoroughly understanding the economic data and the economic theory which provide the most reasonable explanation of the factors responsible for the emergency, and depression in agriculture.³