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Show ! Disaster-Loan Plan For Farmers Grows Into Huge Business WASHINGTON, D. C. The simple relief measure started in 1949 to aid snow-bound ranchers in the west has mushroomed into a tremendous business. In fact, the disaster-loan program has grown into a $33,000,000 business and covers parts of 37 states and Puerto Rico. It is still growing by leaps and bounds. The program was born In April, 1949, to help ranchers in western Dakotas and Wyoming who suffered severe livestock losses In the "great blizzard." Since then It has expanded to include in-clude any type of production hazard, haz-ard, from bollweevil damage in the cotton states to wind damage in New England. Congress put the farmers home administration in charge of the program. The organization reports more than 26,000 loans have been made to farmers in 1,156 counties in 37 states as well as to 37 municipalities munici-palities in Puerto Rico. Tha loans are secured by real estate and chattel mortgages bearing bear-ing three per cent interest and, with few exceptions, are payable at the end of the next harvest. They average about $1,192 each, although there is no limit on the amount a farmer may borrow if he qualifies as a "disaster victim" and can put up sufficient collateral. The largest loan approved to date was $400,000 to a Mississippi farmer. farm-er. The number of regions designated as disaster areas are mounting, with one of the most recent being the entire state of Mississippi where the cotton crop was damaged by bad weather and weevils. Loans in the state are expected to swell the total of outstanding loans by several million dollars. "The end Isn't in sight," one official said. "It looks like the program is here to stay unless the government starts taking losses like it did in the feed-and-seed-loaD program of the depression era." |