The Sidney herald., 1956-08-02
Lassey Tells
OF Farming
In Turkey

.Samsun, Turkey
July IS, 1856
Hello from Samsun, Turkey:
1 have had a good view of the
agriculture and the people OF
northern Turkey in the last two
weeks and have even gone SWIM
ming in the Black Sea. The area
we are now in Is a real beauty
spot bordered on one side by the
Black Sea and on the other by
tree-covered mountains. 1t re-
minds me a lot of the Yellow
| stone Valley with a couple of ex-
ceptions, of course.
The major crops in this region
are corn, nuts, fruit and tobac-
CO. The tobacco is something en-
tirely new to me AS you may
know. tobacco from this req is
exported to many parts of the
world including the United States
and makes a part of our Ameri-
can cigarettes. Pail Mall con-
tains 20% Turkish tobacco.
We were taken through a Gig
arctic factory a few days ago
and watched the entire process
which the Turkish tobacco goes
thru on its way to becoming a
cigarette. / was surprised to dis
cover that all of the machines
in this large 900 employee plant
were imported from the United
States. 800 of the workers in the
factory are women.
One thing that we noticed par
ticularly as we drove from An
kara to Samsun was the sharp
contrast in farming methods. We
saw many wheat fields being
harvested by hand sickle and in
the next field you might see a
large Massey Harris self-propelled
combine at work. The contrast
Is just as sharp between peoples
income and social status. Those
who have property and money
are set apart quite sharply from
the poorer people. Unfortunately,
we have had very little oppor-
tunity so far to mingle with the
ordinary villagers. They simply
cannot afford to keep extra peo-
pie around and also, the Turks
are far too hospitable to allow
guests in their country to suf-
fer any discomfort if they can
avoid it.
We have visited a government
farm and a private farm in the
past week and have enjoyed
both farms immensely. Govern
ment farms in this country are
set up in somewhat the same
manner as experiment stations
in the United States, only on a
larger scale.
The intention is to establish
an example of the right methods
and machinery so that the village
farmers might come here and OBJ
serve, then 60 back to their farms
and make use of what they have
learned. It seems to be working
but moves very slowly as you
might imagine. 1t is very diff
cult for farmers here to change
the methods they have been using
for hundreds of years and many
of them never bother to come
to the state farms to observe.
/ feel right at home here on
this government farm. They have
all the latest farm machinery,
modern buildings and green
fields that you. see In Montana
or North Dakota. The grain they
raise on this farm is given to
the villagers SO that they can
improve their seed. They also
raise trees and poultry, most of
which is sold to villagers at a
very low cost. They have 5000
young chickens, imported from
the u. S. Good poultry is a new
thing in Turkey and they are
working hard to get flocks of
good birds established. We had
an opportunity to talk with a
young man who is in charge of
poultry on all of the "a govern
ment farms. He told us that
were something farmers
could raise quite inexpensively
at first and they would add cal
Dries to the diet and income if
the farmer could be convinced
their value. He almost talked
US into going home and raising
These young Turks are inspir-
ing to watch. They have real
vision and ambition and are out
70 do their best for their coun-
Try. Our host at the second farm
was n of these. He is a gradu-
ate of the Agricultural Univer-
'ity of Turkey and is doing a
job in his community
improve the lot of the people.
He looks just like a tough young
farmer and even wears
he same kind of clothes. We
became real friends even tho
We could talk to each other only
/ little in my poor Turkish.
The farm was 800 acres, more
han the average size, but small
~ American standards. He had
tractors and machinery to
70 with them, which he had pur-
only last year. We stayed
their 5-room house and / am
lfraid some of the family slept
N the floor so there would be
DOM for us.
They seemed overjoyed at hav-
ng us stay with them and told
Is to be sure and recommend
hem for some IFYE's in 1857.
We liked them just as well and
eally hated to leave.
We went visiting at another
arm one afternoon and were dis
IISSinQ farm nriceS and farmer