Calyculus

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Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 20, 2013 at 2:11am

it's a laconic, farmer-talk for working things out, doing the math.

Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 20, 2013 at 1:58am

It is pretty much average politics

Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 20, 2013 at 1:34am

there you go: price support farming!

Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 20, 2013 at 1:04am

yup

Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 20, 2013 at 12:39am

That could be a Kansas farmer, or maybe just a symbol of someone who has a farm, some cattle and government payouts on price support. The upper level of the stamp is void, since price support farming includes not planting anything at all and still getting paid.

Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 20, 2013 at 12:03am

There are tree farms in much of the South of the US. 60% of timber comes from them. Very strange, silent forests. However, it means that there is less pressure to cut down the other forests. That is the problem with price supports: the little farmers can lose out in just a single season. Maybe.

Comment by Ian C Dengler on November 19, 2013 at 11:26am

I have stamps for all the 50 states. The choices are not equal: I have not visited them all, and even then, don't remember very much. Today's stamp is about Kansas--an agricultural state with a short name that fits easily into the small corner in the lower left. All things being equal, I am likely to use the state with a shorter name--unless I am trying to fill out or cover over a bad spot in the visual. When that happens you will see long state names: NEW HAMPSHIRE POST, MASSACHUSETTS POST, CONNECTICUT POST. For the state of Texas I use an abbreviation: TEXPOST. The shortest is USA, and space limitations often lead me to use that designation, rather than some individual state.

The story is about the complicated structure of food price supports. Farmers can make more money working the changes in price support programs than choosing fair market crops. However, this is off set by the importance of maintaining agricultural integrity: a collapsed or fragile food sector can mean very erratic swings, feast or famine crises and --the loss of farm land for other uses.

Encyclopedia of the Great Plains | AGRICULTURAL PRICE SUPPORTS
plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ag.007   Cached
AGRICULTURAL PRICE SUPPORTS. Since the 1930s the United States and Canada have operated agricultural price-support programs. The intent has been multifaceted, but ...Within the United States Department of Agriculture, ... Agricultural price supports often stimulate larger production, tax consumers, and impede international trade.