The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-14
SOViets Grow
Food in Once
ArcticW astes
Rich KoIa Mine Region
Conquered by USSR
Farm Scientists
BY VERN SMITH

came to start great mining. chem
ical and metallurgical industry
there.
Now there are in this town of
Khibinogorsk, Kola Peninsula. over
5000 people, and around it 25,000
lore, making in one small Geci-l
ome $4,000 people. They have to
1T, and since they are working on
ne of the fronts where body neat
nd physical energy are needed
more than in any other parts Of
he country, they need lots of meat
md fat, and great deal of fresh
7reen vegetables TO Danish that old
5courge of the Arctics, scurVy.
Food could have been shipped in,
out since it would be fresher and
better if raised locally, as well as
saving a long haul, Soviet scientists
set to work systematically to zee
what could be made to grow in the
Khibinogorsk region, outside of
grasses, moss, fir and beach trees
and blueberries that were the sum
total of vegetation already there.
I went with the udarniks (shock
troopers, touring the North as a
premium for their good work in
Leningrad factories, to the botanical
gardens maintained by scientists in
Khibinogorsk.
1t was one of the pleasantest
evenings" there. We strolled in
while it was still broad daylight,
about II o'clock at night. At this
season of the year (August) the sun
sets for couple of hours in the
North, and rises again in the North,
with period of twilight for that
length of time; twilight strong
enough, however, to read news
paper by. Three weeks earlier, the
sun never set at all, but just went
around the sky in circle.
The young manager of the farm
explained to us that this continu-
Gus daylight does all sorts of queer
things to plants. Some plants
simply die-they have to have their
sleep, and without it they cannot
exist.
Wheat and rye grow splendidly,
very high, strong and green, but
don't ripen. Cabbages we saw
growing luxuriantly, half a yard,
with long, green leaves something
like banana leaves, and no heads.
Some varieties of potatoes grow
like bushes, but produce no pota-
toes.
Grow Cattle Feed
In general, forage is easy to grow.
Leaves and stems grow better than
seeds and tubers. There is a big
Sovkhoz at Apatite, the station
some fifteen or more miles away
where the Khibinogorsk branch
railroad joins the main line to Len
ingrad. This Sovkhoz Estate farm
has proved that it is possible to
raise plenty of cattle in the Kola
region.
It Is likely that there will some
day be a big reindeer industry here,
These animals do not need to be
housed as carefully in the winter
as cows.
But the scientists were deter
mined to grow green food that the
human could eat. They found that
under glass frames, tomatoes and
cucumbers do very well. Then by
diligent testing in the experimental
nursery of all sorts of plants from
all sorts of places, they discovered
varieties that could stand the eli
mate out of DOORS They found
types of beets, turnips, potatoes,
barley and kolrabbi that grow quite
we'll. From the high Altai noun
tains they got an onion that flour
ishes in this weather.
Expect to Raise Total Food Supply
The Kola Peninsula is going to
experience an agricultural develop
ment soon, the ambition of those in
charge being to raise locally all the
food needed for the almost ex-
ploSively expanding population and
big industry of the towns. All this
new agriculture will be socialist
farming, right from the beginning
either state or collective farms
There never was any private prop
erty in land here, nor any kulak
farm owners to overcome, nor any
age-old inherited theories and Gus
toms of small peasant economy to
patiently argue away. Here the
only struggle socialism will have on
the land is the struggle with the
forces of Nature, and these forces
are already beaten, in theory at
least.
The determination of the Soviet
workers, their state and Communist
Party leaders to develop agricul-
ture here is the reason for this re-
versal of Nature for the benefit OF
mankind. But much credit belongs
to those who were the instrument
of this determination; five scien-
tlf1c workers and eleven laborers
who have been in charge of the
botanical garden and agricultural
experimental station at Khibino-
gorsk since 1880.
AS you climb the steep hills
which all the udarniks did for sport
you will find anywhere within ten
miles of the park little fenced off
plots of ground in the most out OF
the way places, on a slanting hill
side, in little dell half full of snow
water near the top of mountain
on the bank of some lake that it.
self is located precariously high in
a pass or canyon. These little ploJs
contain meteorological instruments
for recording the weather changes
and few plants carefully set out
to see what they will do in thai
particular soil and location.