From a London reader
It has often been said that the ups and downs of Profim Lysenko's career are a relinble indication of the attitude of the ruling circles in the Soviet Union to the peasontrye Fe that as it may, it is a fact that poor Trofim has fallen from favour so many times that he must be reluctant to put forward his views. The latest episode was reported in a recent issue of Soviet News under the title Academician Lysenko's nist:kes," It reads: "A comission of the UeSeSeRe Academy of Sciences has come to the conciusion that Academician Trofim Lysenko disregarded scientific methcds in organising research work on his Gorky Leninskiye experimental farn ‘cam. Moscow, The commission's report has been approved at a joint meciing of the presidium of the UeS.S.R. Academy of Sciences, the collegium of the U.5.5.R, Ministry of Agriculture and the presidium of the Acadeny of Agricultural Sciences. Nearly the whole of the latest issue of the Proceedings of the UeSeSeRe Academy of Sciences is devoted to the findings resulting from an enquiry into the work of the farm. "The commission found that there had been a consideroble fall in harvests and milk yields on the farm in the past ten years, ‘It is a fact,* says the conmission in its report, ‘that this farm, which was widely publicised at one time, has been virtually .t a standstill as regards development and has even gone backwards in the yields of a number of important cropse! The commission did not obtain any trustworthy data confirming Lysenko's statements about the high degree of effectiveness of organic ond mineral nixtures or his: clains that one ton of manure«soil compost was equal to, or even more effective than, a ton of manure, Practical experience has shown that figures concerning the growth of output resulting fron the introduction of mixtures and composts, given to the press by nenters of the staff of the experimental farm, have proved to be unreliable. "In the past ten years, sys the commission, the average annul milk yield cow on the farm dropped from 6,785 kilograms to 4,453 kilograms, Although the average fet content of milk for the herd incrensed to 487%, the annual output of milk fat per cow dropped by 13.7 kilograms in connection with the fall in productivity. The commission analysed the data concerning the cross-breeding of cows with Jersey bulls on the Gorky Leninskiye farms This data, it says, does not confirm Academician Lysenko's conclusion that cross-breeding of this kind leads to the development of a stable fat content in the milk, and that the fat content of the milk of the daughters does not depend on the fat content of the milk of their mothers, The facts also show that the milk yields of the cross-bred cows are considerably reduced The milk has a low fat and protein content and the body weight is small, "The commission came to the conclusion that tried and tested methods of animal husbandry ond procedures for pedigree stockbreeding were ignored on the experimental farm, The presidium of the U.S.S.R.e Acadeny of Sciences, the Ministry of Agriculture and the presidium of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Agricultural Sciences have decided that it is no longe¥ permissible to use cross+rea cattle from the Gorky Leninskiye farm on Soviet farms which are engaged in pedigree stockbreeding. "Academician Trofim Lysenko is to submit to the Acadeny of Sciences a scientific report for 1964 on the work of the experimental farm, He has been advised to eliminate the shortcomings in the work of the farm which heve been revealed by the commission" All of which seems to say that either Academician Lysenko is a rogue or. doesntt know what he is doing. I wonder if there are ony wry smiles from scientists who were accused of being Western stooges during the genetics controversy of the late 1940s by Trofim Lysenkos