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Farm Machines
Fascinate
Russ Visitors

By Russell Asleson
Minneapolis Tribune Staff Writer

If you want to stop the Soviet farm leaders now visiting in Minnesota, park a piece of new farm machinery beside the road.

It probably isn’t quite as easy as that, but American farm machinery holds a strange fascination for the Russian farm chiefs.

And any machine – common to American farmers but strange to them – can cause a minor sensation.

More than once, machinery has upset their rigid schedule. As it did Monday when the Russians got their first look at a roto-baler at the William B. Pearson farm near Ogilvie, Minn.

They were late and were to meet a second group at Cambridge. But not before they saw how the roto-baler worked.

Aleksandr Tulupnikov, member of the Soviet ministry of agriculture, led the Russian cheering section that insisted that Duane Pearson demonstrate the machine.

“It will only take 10 minutes,” said the determined Tulupnikov.

They stood in the hayfield as young Pearson rolled the baler in. There wasn’t any hay for the machine to work on, so two bales were unrolled for the demonstration.

The roto-baler, made by Allis-Chalmers Co., packs the hay into tight, round bale which is said to keep off any rain.

The Soviet leaders followed the machine so closely that a bale dropped by the machine almost hit one of them.

They hefted the roll, felt the bindings and then stood the bail up on end.

They also missed meeting their companions at Cambridge.

The day’s tour that ended with a field demonstration, appropriately enough, opened at a farm machine factory. The Russian delegation spent most of the morning at Minneapolis-Moline Co. Hopkins plant, peering into machines under construction, asking questions of workers and marveling at the parking lot full of bright cars – all owned by the workers.

Vladimir Matskevich, right, Russia’s farm delegation chief, expresses gratitude to his American hosts during a stop in Iowa. [The handmade sign says, “A thousand thanks,” according to a Star Tribune editor who speaks Russian.]

After the visit, Vladimir Matskevich, leader of the delegation and deputy minister of Soviet agriculture, asked if he could buy some machinery. Harold Morgan, general sales manager, assured him he could. So did F. N. Langham, director of sales.

“Who do I have to see?” asked Matskevich. He was told to contact any one at Minneapolis-Moline.

“Since we met you,” the Russian leader added, “we would like to do business with you.” The two Americans handed Matskevich their cards.

In Washington, the United Press reported a department of commerce spokesman said it presumably would approve shipment of non-strategic farm equipment. He added that it would depend on just what the Russians wanted to buy.

Touring the Minneapolis-Moline plant, however, didn’t satisfy some of the Soviet agricultural men. Three of them will leave Wednesday to visit Ford installations in Michigan.

“To visit the United States and not see Ford is like going to Rome and not seeing the pope,” said Matskevich. He will be accompanied by Aleksandr Ezheviski and Nikalai Bogach, engineers.

The visiting Russians saw a different type of agriculture yesterday as they resumed their farm visits, dipping into the lake region of north central Minnesota.

There, where the land was poorer than in Iowa and southern Minnesota, most of the farms were grubbed out of timber, and farming emphasis was on pasture and dairy cows.

As they’ve done previously, the delegation split up in the afternoon to cover all the ground. Half went to see the Odin Odegard farm near Princeton, where muck land has been converted into heavy crop production.

The remainder went north to the Mille Lacs lake area, stopping first at the Arthur Harms farm, just on the edge of the big lake at Isle. Harms showed the Russians his Holstein cows and DeKalb hybrid chickens but was disappointed they had to leave before they saw a demonstration of field chopping of grass.

“And they didn’t have time to take just a peek at my orchard,” he said sadly.

In the morning, the visitors also saw the rural electrification administration generating plant at Elk River and stopped briefly at Princeton, where they met Indian Chief Clear Sky and his wife, Evening Star.

After exchanging gifts of wild rice and Soviet medallions, the group started for a noon luncheon at Milaca but not before the photographers had a field day.

Matskevich, however, declined the invitation of photographers to put on the colorful Indian headdress that hung nearly to the ground.

Despite Indian feathers and western hats, an American traveling with the group continues to be the subject of more amateur photographers than the Soviet delegation. Dr. Constantine Nikiforoff, who has a flowing white mustache and goatee, looks more Russian than the Russians. He’s a member of the United States department of agriculture’s soil conservation service and is along to lend his agricultural background and ability to speak Russian. A former faculty member at the University of Minnesota farm, he once did soil surveys in the Red River valley.

The Russians also toured the Milaca Co-op creamery and dry milk plant yesterday.

With the Minneapolis stores open last night, most went on shopping excursions.

Several of the visitors sought slacks of combination dacron and wool material. Women’s nylons and men’s socks were purchased in large quantities.

In the evening, they will be guests of the management at a showing of “Cinerama Holiday” at the Century theater.

Today one group of the agricultural leaders will visit the Minnesota Valley Breeding association at New Prague and have lunch with the New Prague Rotary club. They will look in on Faribo Turkeys, Inc., a turkey processing plant at Faribault, then tour the farms of A.J. Lashbrook and Casper Peterson in the Northfield area.

A second group will tour the Sanitary Dairies farm in St. Paul, inspect the Green Giant canning operations at Montgomery, then join the others at the farms near Northfield.

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