TEXT D In the 1920s demand for
American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World
War I and instituted austerity (紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result
was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers
than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient.
They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying
consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while
prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse
by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the
1939s. In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm
Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference with
supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide
greater economic stability for farmers. President Hoover’s
successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first
measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933
was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was subsequently passed by Congress.
This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production
through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out
of use. A deliberate scarcity of farm products was planned in an effort to raise
prices. This law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on the
grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of
people. However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result
of resting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on
the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that
rebuilding the nation’s soil was in the national interest and was not simply a
plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government
guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid (杂交)
grain, and fertilizers. The Agricultural Adjustment Act encouraged American farmers to ______.
A．reduce their scale of production B．make full use of their land C．adjust the prices of their farm products D．be self-sufficient in agricultural production