WHEAT GROWING

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22304, 19 January 1938, Page 13

WHEAT GROWING

SOCIALISTIC CONTROL THE RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE [By F.W.H.] After more than 15 years of the socialisation of the wheat industry in Russia it is fair to take a census of the progress that has been made, and this has been done by the 'Food Research Institute of California. All the figures used are from official returns published by the Central Russian Government itself. First, the area under food grains (wheat and rye) has increased during the last seven years by 13 per cent, or under 2 per cent, a year. In the last few years there are signs that the peak for the time has been reached because the area has decreased by 16 per cent, since 1931. In yield an acre, which the Government hoped to increase greatly by its mass production methods, there has been only a very slight improvement. In the five years before the war the average yield of wheat was 11.0 bushels ’ an acre, and in the last four years recorded it has been 11.6 bushels an acre. This is an increase of about 5 per cent, in 25 years, a figure which is surpassed by almost every other civilised country. In total production of bread grains the increase during the last seven years recorded has been 6 per cent, when the average of the last three years is compared with that of the first three years in the seven-year period. That is, the increase has averaged 6 . per cent, over five years, or just over , 1 per cent, a year. Now, the population of Russia is increasing at the rate of about 2 per cent, a year, and since the total production of bread grains is increasing at the rate of only 1 per cent, it is clear that the supply of food for the people is diminishing yearly. In fact the consumption of grain a head fell from 9.0 bushels in 1925-28 to 8.3 bushels a head in 1933-35. This serious decline in the production of the staple food has been caused by the reluctance of the peasants to co-operate in the government schemes, by the shortage of draught power, and by the breakdown of the State farm scheme. For instance, the horses in the Soviet Union decreased in the five years 1928-1932 from 33 millions to 19 millions, i.e., by 14 millions, while the tractors increased by the equivalent of only 3.4 million horses. To overcome these difficulties, the Government has now abandoned the most characteristic parts of its socialistic schemes for wheat production. The huge State farms have been reduced from 200,000 acres to working units of 6000 acres; the absolute freehold of the land has been passed to the peasants, not indeed as individuals, but in groups consisting of the workers in one village, this allowing the use of tractors and headers on these collectivised farms: wage rates have been differentiated so that the most skilled workers get the most pay, some men getting four times as much as others: and finally, the contribution to the State from each collective unit has been rigidly fixed in a form corresponding to rent or interest, so that the group that works hardest or most skilfully has more left for itself. All this works out to something nearly approaching a co-operative system in which the workers have the benefit of expensive machinery for the operations it is most suited for—-just as in New Zealand the dairy factory does better than the individual farmer. There is no likelihood of Russia again entering the world’s wheat market as an exporter for several years or perhaps for many years. The possibility of her doing so depends on the extension of the co-operative policy in place of the forced communism of the earlier years of the revolution. WOOL RESEARCH STATUTORY LEVY POSSIBLE PROGRESS IN EXPERIMENTS a*oJf Otm own COESSBPOHDENT.) LONDON, December 21. An appeal for greater support from the industry for research into wool is made in a report for the year 193637 Issued by Mr B. H. Wilsdon, Dlrecl°r of the Wool Industries Research Association at Torridon. Many members of the association feel, it is stated, that a statutory levy on the industry must ultimately be adopted if a final solution of the need for wider research is to be found, since a large proportion of the industry still bears no share of the burden which must be carried if the future well-being of the industry is to be assured. “It is encouraging to record that the in research possessed by members of the association has now been shown in a very concrete form,” the report continues. “Not only has a generous response been made by a number of individual firms for the purpose of meeting a deficit in revenue, but the council has taken the important steps of considerably increasing the rates of subscription in the processing sections of the industry. “This recognition of the urgency of providing for research on a more adequate scale, together with the interest shown by representatives of overseas wool producers, and their clearly expressed desire’ to promote co-operate research in the interests of wool, all combine to afford a more hopeful prospect for,greater usefulness in the future.” r Dominion Representative’s Comment “It is interesting to see that manufacturing concerns in Yorkshire intend contributing more largely to the support of the research association,” said Mr F. S. Arthur, New Zealand representative on the International Wool Secretariat, commenting on this part of the report. “When investigating the question of contributing financially to the research work at Torridon, the secretariat was definite that further support from the industrial manufacturing side was essential to progress being made in increasing the efficiency of the work, and so bringing the industry up to date with the excellent research work of the firms interested in artificial substitutes.” New Processes Developed With regard to the development of new processes, the report points out that it is not sufficiently recognised by many industrial • firms (especially when business activity is high) that a research organisation cannot be expected to produce revolutionary changes in processes without a willingness on the part of the industrialist to experiment. There must inevitably be troubles in the translation of a process from the semi-large scale of experiment to commercial production, and unfortunately there would not be the same incentive to be first in the field and bear the brunt of such troubles when working in an association, where results must be common property, as when the process and the ’ knowledge gained were the exclusive : property of a private firm. 1 i Avoiding Shrinkage ■ The attitude was felt to afford a ' partial explanation of. the slowness ( with which the association’s unshrink- 1 able process was being taken up. An- J other reason was that a new patented • process had been announced which ( presented certain apparently attractive features to the “finishing” section of the industry. A successful process of shrinkage should cause no marked i Jeterioration in "handle” of the treated i wool. It was quite erroneous to sup- I oose, as was suggested in trade litera- j ;ure recently, that there was any a lecessarily more deleterious action onlr

the wool in the employment of chlorination, either by "wet” or "dry” processes, than by reagents which produced the same effects in other ways. Provided uniformity of action could be ensured, the relative advantages of competing processes will be determined by convenience, accuracy of control, and by the costs of the treatment, which must depend on the scale on which the process was carried out. Rubberising Yarns After touching’ on the association’s investigations with regard to bleaching, the report mentions that it . has been found possible to rubberise wool yarns in hank form by treatment with a suitably prepared latex without any matting, .The wool could be dyed

either before or after the treatment, or colour coulcTbe applied in the latex itself. It was thought that the process would have useful application in producing strong yarns with little twist, in the manufacture of felt and in the production of permanent surface modification, as, for instance, in providing water repellance, moth-proofing, and so on. A remarkable degree of increase in abrasion resistance was found to be another useful effect of the