Evening star., 1952-06-13
Russiu Redeems Desert
Of 70 Million Acres
British Scientist Describes
Vast irrigation Project
By Thomas R. Henry

Oy InomoS x. Heny
Russia is Transforming 70 million
acres of desert into q garden.
The magnitude of this project is de-
scribed as "dwarfing anything hitherto
undertaken by mankind"
This is reported to the British AS
sociation for the Advancement of Sci
ence by a fellow of the Royal Society.
DR.. S. M. Manton, who travelled through
Russia last summer and claims no re-
StrictionS were placed in her way.
Il am a member of no party" DR..
Manton says in her lengthy report just
published in Nature, official organ of the
British Association.
The area being redeemed by vast
irrigation and reforestation projects ex-
pected to be completed by 1857, she
says. lies in the Asian states of Kazakh-
stan, UzbekiStan and Turkmenia, which
now are so per cent desert and growing
dryer every year. 1t is equal to half
Of all other irrigated land in the world,
DR.. Manton says. and larger than the
United Kingdom, Holland. Belgium,
Denmark and Switzerland.
Personally Observed Work.
She reports she saw hundreds Of
miles OF canals being built through the
desert, together with eight enormous
reservoirs. The project calls for $4,000
water basins. There will be $500 miles
OF major tree belts and lines of trees
37O miles long already are appearing
between the Volga and Ural Rivers, she
says.
THE effect" she says, will be to
interrupt the airflow of the lower at
mosphere, which will diminish the force
OF the hot dry winds blowing westward
from the desert"
DR.. Manton says she personally OBJ
served much of this work. Nature is
among the most eminent and responsible
Of scientific journals.
Russian science has been best known
to the outside world for the past few
years because of its very peculiar
genetics and its condemnation of all
other agricultural breeding methods as
''capitalistic." Scientifically the Rus
sian theories, officially adopted by the
government. generally have been char
acteriZed as nonsense.
An eminent British scientists report
on her personal observations are. at
least, interesting.
At one experimental farm, She says,
she saw wheat stalks bearing both an
ear of wheat and an ear of rye. In
addition some of the wheat ears showed
isolated grains of rye. She was assured.
she said, that when the rye seeds were
planted they produced only rye. When
the wheat seeds were planted they pro-
duced the combination.
The eminence of DR.. Manton as q
prit CT o,,l iOI, cfo
of Nature give the report a high degree
of reliability.
A 600-pound "half-a-heart," a blood
pump which can be substituted for the
right side of the heart in living ami
mails, has been constructed by United
States Bureau of Standards physicist
and Georgetown University apprehension
specialist.
Based on the same principle as the
automobile fuel pump, it has been used
with complete success in several animal
experiments. 1t was constructed by DR..
Herbert P. Broida of the bureau staff.
1t is by no means intended to function
as an artificial heart for patients, it is
stressed by DR.. Edward d. Fries, the
Georgetown apprehension expert, but is
expected to throw much light on the
effect of variations in the amount Of
blood, the speed Of pumping. and the
rate at which it is elected on the basic
mechanics Of high blood pressure.
Not Designed as Substitute.
The "half-heart" is not designed, DR..
Fries emphasizes. to substitute for the
entire heart and lungs system. 1t may
be used to replace either the right or
left ventricle. In the experiments car
ried on to date it is connected to the
left auricle and the blood output goes
directly to the aorta. The lungs and
opposite chamber of the heart function
normally.
Among the medical phenomena being
studied are the effects of any sudden
increase in the amount of blood sent
through the heart on arterial and venous
pressure. It also is used to reproduce
the effects on the arterial system Of
various drugs and hormoneS.
The machine makes it possible to
vary the amount of blood pumped
through a dog from two to eight liters
q minute. It can vary the pulse rate
from 40 to 200 beats minute and study
the effects in both directions from the
normal.
This half-heart was made possible.
DR.. Broida says, by the present avail
ability of plastics with which heart
valves can be made which will not cause
blood clotting or breaking down Of red
blood cells.