Mr K. In Iowa TO THE FOUNTAINHEAD FOR FARM INFORMATION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29008, 24 September 1959, Page 12

Mr K. In Iowa TO THE FOUNTAINHEAD FOR FARM INFORMATION

(By WILLIAM KENNEDY of the "Economist’’] (From the '‘Economist’’ Intelligence Unit]

• London, September 18.—The official timetable of Mr Khrush-] chev’s tour of the United States] makes interesting reading. Run-j ning one’s eye over the names of the eminent people and distinguished gatherings that he is to meet, one has a mounting sense of the dignity and importance of the Soviet leader’s visit. The programme begins on a| sonorous note. September 15, Mr Khrushchev dines at the White House as the guest of President and Mrs Eisenhower. September 16, it goes on, tea with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. September 17, afternoon reception given by Mr Harriman. September 21, reception by the Mayor of San Francisco. And then, on September 23, lunch at Mr Roswell Garst’s farm near Coon Rapids, lowa. To the outsider this may seem surprising, even incongruous. But every agricultural expert knows that in fact Mr Khrushchev’s visit to Coon Rapids is a very important part of his tour. For Mr Garst is one of America’s most successful and progressive farmers, who in the course of the last few years has visited Khrushchev several times in Russia in order to keep him informed of the latest developments in American farming techniques, and especially his own. The visit to lowa, therefore, is not really an oddity at all, despite its strange appearance. On the contrary, it takes on the character of a friend’s return call or even of a tutor’s end-of-term cocktail party. On the Grand Scale There is certainly something in this method of gaining new information which challenges America’s reputation as the home of all that is big and breathtaking. For while Cpngress only grudgingly spares the dollars necessary to pay the backroom boys of its information services for gleaning the latest news of Russian agricultural progress, the Kremlin has evidently decided to do the job on a grand scalethrough the agency of its Prime Minister.

Not only that. Mr K. has gone on an official visit and, as a guest of the people of the United States, is to be entertained by a galaxy of dignitaries varying from President Eisenhower to the officers of the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, and in a variety of places wide enough to include both Mr Hammarskjold’s rooms in the United Nations building and the staff cafeteria at the San Jose International Business Machines computer plant. The importance he attaches to his agricultural studies could scarcely have been better emphasised. There is even an element of splendid impertinence in this method of taking lessons at the summit, and this is accentuated when one recalls the obstacles to similar co-operation on other subjects. Scientific information is guarded with the utmost secrecy; trade in strategic materials is severely restricted: but since the battle of the breadbaskets is not regarded as a- vital part of the cold war Russia is able to take her farming lessons free of charge, in broad daylight and under American tutorship. Garst’s Hybrid Grains

At the receiving end, too, the Russians have gone in for Mr Garst’s ideas in a big way. The pamphlets in which he gives his views on modern farming techniques have been translated into Russian and widely distributed among Russian collective farmers. Some of his varieties of hybrid grain—in which he specialises—have been bought and planted in Russia. On the basis of his advice some dozen Soviet farms have been mechanised completely. The knowledge gained to a large extent through the agency of one man, Khrushchev himself, has been disseminated widely in many parts of Russia. The giant size of Mr Garst’s farm and the close co-operation which he maintains with agricultural research stations in other parts of the country have enabled him to go ahead with a great range of experiments in new farming techniques. The Russians have shown particular interest in the breeding of hybrid strains of corn. Similar experiments have for many years been going on in Russia itself, but these have in general been more concerned with producing strains which will flourish in abnormal or unfavourable climatic conditions than with adapting the corn to its end use.

Thus, Mr Garst has experimented with a view to producing those types of corn which will be most suitable for the feeding

of pigs, cattle, and broiler fowls respectively. His researches have extended to the composition of chemical feeding stuffs for different kinds of livestock, and it has been found that a judicious mixture of urea and other chemicals in animals’ diet reduces not only the quantity of feeding stuff required but also its cost. Cost reductions can be of the order of 30 per cent., and even higher. Equally important has been progress in mechanisation, with consequent marked reductions in the harvesting period. This allows more time for the preparation of the land before sowing, and results in an enormous saving of labour. Such developments are particularly useful in climates where the period suitable for harvesting is usually short.

Problem of Human Relations

The results of Mr K’s private investigations are to be seen in the growth of Soviet output of silage and grain. The area under grain crops in Russia has trebled since 1939. The area under specifically fodder crops—grain for silage and green fodder—has increased fourfold. On the other hand, grain yields have increased only slowly, from an average of 7.7 quintals a hectare in the years 1949 to 1953 to 11 quintals a hectare in 1958.

It is hoped that by 1965 the yield will be nearer 15 quintals a hectare but, as the Soviet Government has found through painful experience, it is not nearly as easy to make progress in agriculture as it is in science and industry. In science the formula is relatively simple; a handful of experts and generous funds. But agricultural progress presents the difficulty of persuading large numbers of conservative and uneducated farmers to adopt unfamiliar and perhaps irksome methods, involving the correct mixing and application of fertilisers and the accurate timing of each operation. In the matter of planting and harvesting hybrid grains, this last factor is vitally important. The task Russia is attempting is formidable, and it may be that the Russian Government will find, not for the first time, that its greatest difficulties lie in the field of human relations.

The old saying, that it is difficult to get the silkworm through the Chinese wall may. ’ indeed, have to be amended. For on this occasion getting outside the wall has presented no difficulties. The difficulty is in teaching the silkworm to adapt itself to life on the other side. But if in the end the process is completely successful, its success will have been due in no small fneasure to the excellent quality of the butter, bacon, and eggs that Mr K. consumed when in September, 1959, he paid his visit to the farm of Mr Garst at Coon Rapids, lowa.