Evening star., 1948-10-31
Soviet SOil-Use
Boast Disputed
American Experts S ay
Our Farmers Are
Doing Better
By Sierid Ame
By Siorid Arne

American farm leaders f1atly con-
tradict Soviet claims that the SOIL
use program the Russians have
announced will be bigger and better
than anything O. capitalist nation
could do.
Experts here say the American
farmer has already done more in
the past few years than the Rus
slams say they will do in the next
Is yeats.
The Russian plan was announced
with much fanfare 1t filled five
and one-half pages in the two big
papers In Moscow, Pravda and L.
vestia. One Moscow editorial said,
Nothing like it exists or can exist
under the conditions of capitalism.
L. s. Accomplishments Cited
In reply, Allen 3. Kline, president
of the American Farm Bureau, says:
American farmers, with their
freedom of education and research,
and with the help Of Federal grants
in-aid. have done more in the past
few years than the Soviets propose
to do In the next Is years"
Undersecretary Of Agriculture Al
bert J. Loveland feels about the same
way. He says:
Tn view of the Russian announce
ment, and the accompanying charge
that capitalism is incapable Of such
a program, 1t is important to re-
member what the United States has
accomplished in Is years.
Moreover the American program
is being done on democratic basis
with committees of locally-elected
farmers in charge of the program.
Judging from news accounts of the
projected Russian plan, 1t Is evident
that farmers in the United States
are accomplishing each year as
much soil and water conservation as
the Russians aim to do in is years.
Even 50, based on our own expert
ence, the Russian project appears to
be o worthy plan and should be
fine thing for the Russian people" I"
Both the United States and Russia
seem to be up against similar
problems.
Both must protect crops against
the hot prevailing winds in their
bread basket farm lands.
Both Have Wind Problem
Both nations appear to need
reservoirs, irrigation. rotation of
crops. They both look to tree belts
to help. Both appear to be fighting
erosion and to be hunting more
grazing land and water for livestock.
Here's how the two programs
compare:
/. The Russians plan to plant
"eight basic systems of forest belts
in four basic defense lines" These
are to break the winds. Total
length of the belts will be more
than 5000 miles.
The United States started this
tree planting in the '30s. American
tree belts run from Canada to Mex
leo, $4,000 miles of them. The trees
stand on 10000 American farms. A
recent survey shows 96 per cent of
the trees lived.
2. The Russians plan a forest de-
fense" on their big collective farms.
BY 1865 they want to plant IS, 900 900
acres of forest.
3. The Russians plan to put in
$4,000 reservoirs and ponds on COL
lective farms for irrigation, manu.
facture Of electric power, and to
help keep up a high ground-water
level.
We have built $4,000 such reser-
voirs since 1895.
4. The Russians say they'll place
10000 collective farms on an i'm
proved grass and crop rotation sys-
tenn in the next six years. They
don't say how many acres this in
wolves.
In the past II years American
farmers have terraced 14,117,37s
acres. There was virtually no ter.
racing when the program got going
BY 1947 they were using improved
grazing methods on 95,000,000 pri-
vately-owned acres. In 1885 only
$4,000 acres were under this pro-
gram.
Since 1885 fertilizer and better
grass seed have been put on $751;
900 acres of pasture. This sort OF
ftnvestment was almost zero in 1888
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