Newspaper Page Text
Griffin Daily News Thursday, April 18,1974
Page 28
***®k
Annov Muhamedkuliyev (left), combine operator of the
“Soviet Turkmenistana” collective farm in the Turkmen
Republic, Central Asia, takes time out from harvesting
U.S. outstrips Russian farms
By EDWARD NEILAN
Copley News Service
WASHINGTON - Ivan
Matskevich is a farmer near
the city of Saratov, which is
located in the Volga agricul
tural region of the Soviet
Union.
Ralph Benton is a farmer
whose spread is located a few
miles out of Des Moines,
lowa, United States of Amer
ica.
Ralph is a better farmer
than Ivan.
It’s not that Raph is intrin
sically any smarter or more
hardworking than Ivan; it’s
just that as individuals they
reflect the differences in farm
production in the Soviet Union
and the United States.
The United States is more
favored with agricultural re
sources than the Soviet
Union; the United States uses
a lot less land and labor, but
substantially more capital to
achieve a higher farm output.
The wide gap between
Ivan's output and Ralph’s out
put, between Soviet and
American agriculture, has
narrowed somewhat in recent
years — but it has not closed.
Most recent estimates from
the U.S. Department of Agri
culture show that the dollar
value of Soviet farm output
lias come up to around four
fifths of the U.S. total.
The reasons for the continu
ing disparity are many, most
frequently mentioned is the
American advantage in basic
agricultural resources.
land resources and land
use are a case in point.
The Soviet Union has about
45 per cent more cultivated
land than the United States.
But American advantages in
location and weather cancel
out the Russian edge.
Only around 1 per cent of all
the arable land in the Soviet
Union receives 28 inches of
rainfall per year — compared
with 60 per cent of the United
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States’.
Further, according to the
economic research service of
the U.S. Department of Agri
culture, up to two-thirds of So
viet farmland lies within
areas where temperatures
average 41 degrees Fahren
heit and below. Growing sea
sons and frost-free periods
are therefore considerably
shorter in duration than in
most parts of the United
States.
Soviet land is nearly all so
cialized and run under a cen
tral state plan, with guide
lines sent out from Moscow.
By the end of 1973, there
were 31,600 collective farms
in the Soviet Union averaging
some 15,000 acres of agricul
tural land and about half as
many state farms averaging
just under 50,000 acres.
In the United States, by con
trast, there are about 2.8 mil
lion farms. Most of these are
family-operated and average
just under 400 acres.
The total cultivated area in
the Soviet Union is divided
about equally between state
and collective farms.
About 3 per cent is made up
of private plots of half an acre
or less. These are worked by
collective farm members and
state farmers in their spare
time.
labor statistics of the two
nations are interesting. About
one-third of the Soviet Union's
135-million-man labor force
works on farms.
In the United States, out of a
labor force of 84 million, only
3.3 million are listed as farm
workers. That is only 4.4 per
cent of the labor force.
The United States, however,
has more nonfarm employes
in agricultural-related work.
The United States uses
much less land and labor than
the Soviet Union in agricul
ture. But the United States
has invested substantially
more capital to achieve its
higher output, its higher yield
M 'V
cisu
barley to smile for the photographer. Wayne Thomas
(right) who operates a farm near Fenwick, Mich., shows
off part of his bumper corn crop.
per acre.
Due to differences in natu
ral resources, technology and
farm organization, productiv
ity of American farm workers
far outstrips that of Soviet
workers.
The Department of Agricul
ture study does not delve at
length into motivations of a
Communist farm society vs. a
capitalistic one, but the evi
dence suggests that individual
farmers’ motivation and mo
rale has something to do with
the difference.
How else do you explain the
results of another recent
study which showed that each
farmer Ivan Matskevich in
the Soviet Union feeds seven
people while each farmer
Ralph Benton in the United
States feeds almost 50 people?
The leaders of the Soviet
Union can read statistics as
well as anyone else and they
don’t like what they read.
Seeking to correct the imbal
ance, the Moscow authorities
have taken several steps to
raise the level of farm inputs
and upgrade incentives for
the farm labor force.
Included among these rela
tively new incentives are im
proved credit for farmers;
higher prices for farm prod
ucts; increased supplies of
fertilizers, pesticides and ma
chinery; additional building
complexes, and expanded ir
rigation projects.
When Soviet leaders look at
the bottom line in production
figures, their embarrassment
can only be heightened. In
grains, for example, the Sovi
ets plant twice the area but
harvest a fifth less than the
United States.
How can the United States
produce so much more grain
when planted area in the Sovi
et Union is so much larger’’
The answer is partly that
high-yeilding corn makes up
more than half the U.S. crop
while relatively low-yielding
wheat — mostly spring wheat
— is the dominant crop in the
Soviet Union.
Soviet meat and egg pro
duction stands at a little over
half the U.S. figure.
The Soviet Union produces
about one and one-half times
as much milk as the United
States and nearly double the
butter. Yields per cow, how
ever, are only half the U.S.
rate.
Are Russian cows affected
by Communistic motivational
malaise?
Despite considerable gains
over the last several years,
the Soviet Union still lags well
behind the United States in
farm mechanization Russia,
for example, claims less than
half as many tractors and
trucks on farms.
The Soviet Union reports
only one tractor for every 250
acres of cropland. In the
United States, the figure is
one tractor for every 66 acres.
These comparisons are
based on a study by Fletcher
Pope Jr., Valentine Zabijaka
and William Ragsdale of the
foreign demand and competi
tion division of the U.S. De
partment of Agriculture.
Their studies show, among
other findings, that the Soviet
Union has been a net grain
importer while the United
States has been a net grain
exporter.
mis aßgpllllfi
OUTRAGEOUS is how
Sen. William Proxmire (D-
Wisc.) has described salary
increases for many top
American corporate ex
ecutives. Proxmire claims
that while most American
wage earners have been
held to 5.5 per cent salary
increases in accordance
with Cost of Living
guidelines, corporate ex
ecutives have been receiv
ing hikes ranging from 20
to 50 per cent.
Space
seeds
checked
MOSCOW (UPI) - Using
mustard seeds flown in space,
Soviet scientists have decided
that weightlessness may change
heredity, the Tass news agency
said Wednesday.
Nikolai Dubinin, director of
the general genetics institute at
the U.S.S.R. Academy of
Sciences, said the more com
plex the organism, the greater
the change.
So far the length of space
flights has been short enough to
reverse such changes in as
tronauts, Tass said. There is
uncertainty whether this would
hold true on longer flights and
Tass said, “Only the long stay
of plants and animals in space
will show whether this may
cause more serious changes.”
The space flight caused the
mustard seeds to reproduce
brown instead of green seeds.
“Specialists believe this is a
result of weightlessness,” Tass
said.
Dubinin said the seeds taken
into space were also more
susceptible to various chemical
substances, radiation and other
environmental factors.
60 cent bet paid for him
SALVADOR, Brazil (UPI) -
A few days ago, Francisco
Couto Portela, 25, was earning
less than S2OO a month working
as an accountant’s assistant in
Salvador, capital city of Bahia
state.
Now he is worth more than $2
milion.
Portela was the only person
in Brazil who chose correctly
the results of 13 soccer games
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Assortment Bras - Manufacturer's Discontinued Styles.
Were $5.00 and Up $3
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Use Your Crouch’s Account
played throughout the country
last weekend. It got him the
world’s largest lottery prize —
$2,291,000. He managed it by
betting less than 60 cents.
After two days of hiding out,
Portela accompanied by offi
cials of the Finance Ministry
told newsmen at a news
conference Wednesday that the
first thing he intends to do with
the money is pay off some
debts.
He said bet the minimum
allowed —two cruzeiros —
almost 60 cents.
“I bet illogically, not really
believing I had the slightest
chance at winning. I bet in
favor of three ‘zebras’” —the
term for weak teams that
usually lose.
He said that he also planned
to help his family and donate
some money to charities.
His greatest dream however
is to become a lawyer, and “as
soon as I put my life back in
order again I will try to get
myself accepted into law
school.”
Portela studies business ad
ministration in the University
of Bahia.
He is married and has an 11-
month-old son. His wife works
as a secretary and earns less
than SIOO a month.