Meat and Milk

For more than ten years now the peasants of Estonia have belonged to collective farms of which there are 752 in the republic today. They are all big, each owning an average of almost 6,000 acres.

Furthermore, there are also 134 state farms with an average of about 12,000 acres each.

At the beginning the collective farms made rather slow headway. But in recent years, thanks to the agricultural policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, they have forged ahead.

Very great progress has been made in the last five years. Thus in comparison with 1953 the output of milk was a third more, of meat (including the natural increase in the herd) 59 per cent more, and of eggs a quarter more than in 1948.

The number of cows, pigs and sheep has also gone up. The income of the collective farmers has doubled and they are leading a prosperous life. The life of Salme Lepa, an ordinary dairymaid of the Tuzuia collective farm, in Mariamaa district, is a typical one. In old Estonia she worked as a farm-hand for a rich peasant. Nobody had ever heard of her and she led a drab, humdrum life.

At the collective farm she became famous. She obtained a yield of nearly 5,000 kilograms1 of milk from each cow and won the right to participate in the U.S.S.R. Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow where she was awarded a Gold Medal.

She has also been decorated with the Order of Lenin and the Badge of Honour for her good work. She has a fine house and owns a car.

Could she have dreamt of anything like that in old Estonia? Of course not!

How will Estonia's agriculture develop in the next seven years?

It will continue to specialise in dairy and pedigree livestock farming and in the breeding of pigs for meat and bacon.

In 1965 the meat output is to be 60 per cent more than in 1958. We might note that the 1957 per capita output was already 63 kg. (139 lb.). In 1965 the per capita output is planned to be the same as it is now in the U.S.A.

But this is not the limit. Estonian farmers have decided to achieve the seven-year target in five years and more than double the meat output by 1965. Hence the per capita output per annum will be over 120 kg. (280 1b.) or much more than in the United States today.

As for the milk output, it will increase 80-90 per cent in the seven-year period. In 1957 Estonia's per capita milk output was 618 kg.—nearly twice as much as in the U.S. in that year (335 kg.).

By 1965 the per capita milk output in Estonia is to be 1,000-odd kilograms, or three times as much as the United States figure.

A big programme to boost agriculture is to be carried out in Estonia in the next seven years. The state has earmarked 1,133 million roubles for this purpose-to buy machinery, reclaim marshland by which much of the republic's territory is taken up, build new farm premises and electrify agriculture, especially milking.

The number of tractors will increase from 10,000 to 17,500 and of grain harvester combines from 1,400 to 1,900. The collective farmers are themselves drawing up seven-year plans for their farms. August Pent, Chairman of the Edazi (Forward) collective farm, says:

"We are accustomed to work according to a plan. This helps us to utilise our resources and energies rationally and properly. We carried out our previous five-year plan.

"Things have greatly changed at our farm. In 1953 we had an income of just over 800,000 roubles; in 1958 it was close to 2 million.

"In the five years mentioned we built two big cattle yards, a pig sty and a poultry yard, all of which are fully mechanised. The cows are milked by electricity.

"We now have twenty-five electric motors altogether. We also have our own radio station, and nearly all the farm members have radio in their homes.

"Now we have drawn up a seven-year plan. All our farm members made suggestions for it and actually discussed each target. We want to forge ahead in the seven years and raise our living standards.

"We have decided to increase the dairy cattle herd to eight cows per 100 acres. We have outlined ways and means for sharply raising the milk yield and for obtaining 80 cwt. of meat per 100 acres.

"We shall be able to pay the collective farmers far more for their work. We intend to build a new cattle yard, a garage and a repair shop, as well as a club and several houses for the collective farmers."