New-York tribune., 1921-06-05
Russian Survey
Shows Products
She Can Export
Fair Supply of Cotton, Flax
and Hemp Available for
Shipment, With Tim
Der Resources Untouched
Linen Industry Healthy
Agricultural Machinery Is
Needed to Bring Grain
Production Up to Normal

British traders know what Russia
wishes to buy from Great Britain,
writes Michael Farbman, The Man
chester Guardians special correspond
ent; but what Russia has to offer in
return is less we'll known. He writes:
Let us turn in the first place to food
Has Russia any surplus Of foodstuffs
to export? Everybody knows that the
population of Russia is ragged and
starving, and it would seem from that
that to put the question is to answer
it, But there is considerable section
of public opinion which believes that
in the Ukraine and in Siberia there
must be large stocks of grain inacces
sible to the rest Of Russia because of
the ruinous state into which Russian
transport has fallen.
1t is true that transport is so shaken
as to be unable to deal adequately with
these large stocks of grain, even were
they in existence, but the needs of the
hungry provinces of Russia are so
enormous that no attempt should be
province in which there is q surplus to
the coast for export abroad until the
bare needs Of the population of the
whole Of Russia are satisfied.
Before the war Russia exported an
yearly, or about one-fifth of her total
yearly crops. Since the war, however,
her Agricultural production has gone
down by at Lease 40 per cent. The first
reason for this is that there has been
great decrease in the area actually
under cultivation. In 1917, just before
the revolution, the area under cultiva
tion had already decreased by 10 per
cent of the pre-war area. During the
next two years the area under cultiva
tion decreased by another % per cent,
making the total decrease in the cult
waited area 33 per cent This was
partly due to the civil war, during
which large stretches of land became
of economic reasons having their
origin in the agrarian revolution.
Decrease in Productivity
Apart from the enormous decrease
| in the area actually under cultivation
! there had been, in addition, great de-
crease in the productivity of the soil
cultivated. 1t is difficult to estimate
the full extent of this decrease, but it
is probably sufficient to state that the
yield per dessatine of crops of winter
rye (the principal Russian crop de-
creased from 40 pools per dessiatine in
1913 to 43 pools per dessiatine in 1919,
or by IL per cent. Thus the decrease
| in agricultural production, as COM
| pared with pre-war days, is IS per
cent. Yet 1919 was a good year of
harvest. This year is q year of bad
| harvest and consequently the yield will
be much worse.
Still, in spite of this terrible decline
in agricultural production it is believed
that Russia should nevertheless have q
surplus of grain, ready for export for
two reasons. First, because she must
have accumulated the surplus which
was not exported during the war, and,
| second, because of a greatly reduced
consumption since the revolution. AS to
| the mountains of grain lying ready for
shipment in the Black Sea ports during
the war;" which seem so to fascinate
some of the leading Allied statesmen it
is now we'll established that this sur
| plus existed only on paper In fact,
there never was real surplus of agri-
cultural produce in Russia; there was
only undernourishment. Russia ex-
ported grain only at the expense of her
home population.
Great Increase in Prices
| The food crisis which started during
| the war, and which shocked the Allies
so much because they thought such an
eventuality impossible, was, in fact,
| the natural outcome of war conditions,
when millions of peasant soldiers were
for the first time in their lives properly
| fed, while the mobilization of Russia's
| peasantry and of three-quarters of
their horses brought down production
| to deplorable extent.
| How quickly the crisis set in is to be
seen from the fact that already in the
! spring of 1915 the price of rye went up
II per cent, while barley went as
high as 100 per cent over the prices
ruling in 1914. In the early part of
1915 the shortage of food in the cities
and the disorganiZation of army food
supplies became so acute and the
specter of revolution so real that the
monarchist government was compelled
to introduce system of requistioning
| food from the peasants.
The present system of wholesale con-
/ fscation of grain is, in fact, contin-
uation of the methods first applied in
1916 by the Cars Minister of Agri-
culture, Rittich (who by this method
raised 194,000,000 pools of grain and
fodder, and later by Shingariov, who,
! after the first revolution, established
the state grain monopoly
When Russia once again begins to
export food it cannot be, as it was in
the days OF the cZarS, at the cost OF
| the slow and deliberate starvation of
Russia peasants. This time there
must be real surplus; no mountains
of grain" suatched from the hungry
mouths of. its peasant producers. To
return to the position of a food ex-
porting country (and this time with a
! real surplus) Russia must, in addition
to great educational campaign among
peasants (Which indeed she already has
! started) obtain adequate supplies Of
! agricultural implements, develop her
| great deposits OF artificial manure and
restore her transport.
I Farm Tools Greatly Needed
| How great is Russia's immediate need
| of agricultural machinery is shown by
| the very conservative estimate of the
| Soviet Department of Agriculture.
A summary Of the amount Of ma
chinery necessary for working the de-
creased area under cultivation at the
present moment shows there Is q
yearly need for 900 new plows.
| 900 reaping machines, 1900 thresh-
| ing machines, 100000 drill pIows,
$4,000 winnowing machines and over
100000 each of scythes and sickles.
When we consider that after 1915 the
import of agricultural machinery prac-
ticslly ceased, while the production of
agricultural machinery in Russia,
which was restarted at the end of 1918
has so far resulted in the supply of
only about one-seyenth of the total
yearly requirements, it becomes obvi-
i,, m hripor al ~