Evening star., 1954-07-12
BY Charles |. Adoms

0y SNWHtGS hs fNUUtW9
North American Newspaper Alliance.
NEW YORK. July 12.-The
first year Of Russia's highly
touted New Deal for agriculture
has done little to ease the irrita-
tions and Illustrations besetting
the Soviet farmer.
This doesn't mean the SoyietS'
all-out drive for more food pro-
duction inaugurated last August
is q flop. If the number of milk-
maids. sWineherds and potato
growers who have recently be-
come Heros Of Socialist Labor
for exceeding their quotas means
anything, the us. S. r. will soon
be bursting with plenty.
Yet Moscow editors are being
swamped with letters from irate
field workers, machine-tractor
station personnel and local offl-
cials complaining against bu-
reaucratic fumbling. The writ
ers charge that government
promises Of better living and
working conditions in RuSsia's
rural areas are not being kept.
Cows Discouraged, Too.
Even the cows have become
discouraged in the Lyubinsky
district Of Omsk Province, ac-
cording to a complaint published
by the official Communist news
paper Pravda. Correspondent A.
Sorokin said state and collective
farmers in the area had labored
diligently to build UP dairy herds.
Cows were being MIXED three
or four times day, and milk
production during the first five
months of 1854 was far ahead
Of the same period last year.
Then suddenly. for unex-
planned reasons. dairy equipment |
became unavailable. Supply or
ganizationS could not obtain
milk cans. filters. separators or
bottles. Even cheesecloth dis
appeared from the market.
Milk had to be kept and trans
ported in wooden tubs and bar
rels where it spoiled before
reaching the consumers. With |
the equipment shortage cutting |
milkings to twice a day, the cows
In turn reduced production.
Prospectors Ruin Crops.
just as sad are the experiences
Of Kuibyshev province farmers
who have the misfortune of liv-
ing in an area of active oil ex-
ploration. Few capitalist farmers
would object to an oil rig work.
ing on the back 80 acres. But to
Russian peasants the appearance
of a drilling crew may mean
calamity.
p. Amanov wrote to the gov
ernment newspaper Izvestia: "Oil
prospectors and geologists :.
ceaselessly and without restraint
track their way over grain fields,
gardens and melon patches.
"A drilling crew marks a Spe-
ciflc area for test wells and lays
out an approach road which will
keep the fields from being tram
pied. Then some stupid tractor
or automobile driver cuts his own
road through. The next driver |
makes still another road. and so
on until acres of crops around |
the test wells are ruined.
isn't it time" pleaded Mr..
Amanov, that Kuibyshev prov
ince farmers be protected against
loss caused by oil and gas pros
pectors?"
Tractor Stations Short.
A key plank in the agricul-
tural development program an
nounced year ago by Premier
Georgi Malenkov was the pledge
to improve facilities at machine
tractor stations, which furnish
and maintain equipment used on
Russia's collective farms. Re-
suits have fallen short Of expec-
tationS.
At the Palyetsky tractor sta
tion in the Andreyev district Of |
Novosibirsk province. the repair |
shop is still crippled by lack of |
electricity. A new generator has
been idle for two years because
the factory hasn't been able to |
replace defective armature.
At the Byeklyemishev station
IN Chita province, where re-
pair work is carried on in a
dilapidated. primitive shop"
original plans called for con-
struction of an electric plant. |
tractor garage, fuel depot and |
arteSian well within the next |
year or two. But, complained |
the station director to Pravda, |
funds allocated were only enough |
to build shed and a fence.
To encourage higher food pro- |
duction. Soviet authorities prom
tsed improved farm income and |
said more consumer goods would
be available for purchase in VIII