A SUMMARY OF THE TYPE AND QUALITY OF SOVIET RESEARCH IN SOIL CONDITIONERS AND FERTILIZERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00926A007500130006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 19, 2001
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: November 2, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
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A Summary of the Type and Quality of Soviet
Research in Soil Conditioners and Fertilizers
TN IS DOCUMENT CONTAINS INFORMATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL OFFENSE
OF THE UNITED STATES. TfI TN IN THE MEANING OF TITLE IS. SECTIONS 7E3
AND 704. OF THE U.S. CODE. AS AM EN OED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR REVE?
CATION OF 1T9 CONTENTS TO OR RECEIPT BY AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON IS
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REPORT NO
2 5X1X The following are _ comments on translations of the follo~ring Soviet publi-
cations:
(a) D M Guseinov - Primenenie Obrabotannogo Gumbrina v Tseliakh Po sheniia
~- S'rozhainosti S~1'skokhoziaistvennykh xu.l.'tur Utilization
of Waste Gumbrin for the Purpose of Increasing Productivity
of Agricultural Crops), appearing in Pror:hvovedenie 195Oa
735-7~5, December 1950 57.8 P3~
(b) R K Guseinov - EffektivnostT Granulirovannykh LTddbrenii s Primeneniem
Gu~ br3na Effectiveness of Grant:].ated Fert~ilivers with
Gumbrin -Experiments with Corn), appearing in Sovet Agson
9(12)076-80, 20 So8i+, December 1951
(c) P Ia Tkachev - Vliianie Organo Mineral'n kh Granulirovannykh Ud?brenii
~- na .1Jrozhai Podsolnechika~E~fect of Organic-I~Iineral Gs~anu-
lated Fertilizers on Yields of Sunflower), appearing in
Sovet Agron 10(2)?87-90, 20 So8~+, February 1952
(d) A Prugalov - NOS. Preparaty dlia Udaleniia List'ev xhlopchatnika (~Tew
Compounds -Calcium Cyanamide -for Defoliating Cotton
Plants) , appearing in Khlopkovod stvo 7 e i+2 -~+7, ~Tuly 1952
72.8 x522
1. In a recent summary of 17 Soviet articles on soil microbiology
2 5X1A it seemed characteristic of Soviet research that ever ~.ng a -
tempted proves to be effective, and that everything the Soviets try turns out
to be successful. Thus, it may safel be inferred that the Soviets tend to
25X1A ba7-l-yhoo results more than in the US. However, this
tendency was more striking in the 17 earlier papers, and tha in e move four
papers under review, the claims appear to be more justified by the results ac-
complished and the papers themselves reflect much more thorough work.
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2. Nevertheless, the four papers cannot be considered, in the strict sense, to be very
scholarlyo They are reports of research in the applied, rather than the pure,
sense. They-seem to have been written neither for the theoretical. chemists and
scientists. nor for the general run of soviet farmer (most of whom, 2 5X1X
-cannot read or write). They appear rather to have been written for ~~ ose w o
supervise and run the Soviet communal farms, and, wauI.d be rander- 25X1X
stan.dable by the average. intelligent Ufi farmers, especially those who have at-
tended agriculture schools or who customarily read the farm journals.
3. The first article deals with a substance termed Gumbrin, described as a waste
product obtained when petroleum oils are purified with the use of bleaching clay,
and apparently named for the village of Gumbri, near the town of Hu:~aisi, in the
Georgian SSR, where it is obtained. there is no similar
material in the tdS, although the art? c_e _a~ _R ,:o Q ~.A the formula or chemical
o-._
composition of Gumbrin, nor does it indicate that this composition might vary
25X1X with a variation in clays.
specialists in petroleum chemistry. None of them had ever heard of Gum-
. r h, or any similar product; and apparently there is no indicati~an. #hat, in the
tTS, there are any soil conditioners made from petroleum products, ar that clay is
used to purify petroleum< However, it might be both profitable and rewa~?ding to
ascertain whether this method of purifying petroleum as described bar the Soviets
is in fact used in the US; and if so, what the composition and physical. condition
of the waste material are, and what is done with it; inasmu~:h as soil conditioners
in.the ~s are still too expensive to be used except on a small garden scal~^,
since the`cost runs approximately US~2O0 per acre.
~. Be.~h,at s,s it mad, the Soviet study shows that Gumbrin improves the physical
properties of heavy soils, decreases evaporation of moisture from. the ss~il,
pr~Yents,:fgrmation of a crust on the soil surface, raises the temperature ~~f the
soil, improves the nutritive conditions of the plants, and increases ex~ergence
of cotton plants and other crops.
5? The Soviet results. are eonvincing, and apparently al'L stem from the-fa~~t that
Gumbrin markedly improves the physical condition of the so3..l, and especially the
physical:- properties of the heavy soils, by granulation a Fun.dam,ent?3,.l.l.y then, its
action and function appear to be similar to those of our soli, a~:ond'Lti~aners here
in the US, such as_ KriJ.i~7n. and the other organic synthetic-resins.
6. The second article discusses the relative merits of grantalated fertil.i~ers~
prepared from waste Gumbrin combined with superphosphates, sheep manure: with
superphosphetes, Gum'brin with ammonium sulfate, and sheep manure s~ith ammonium
sulfate . Proportions were 200 grams of Gumbrin or sheep manus?e ts~ Ei?0 grams of
dry superphosphate or ammonium sulfate, or a ratio of one to fo~su~ o It was found
that mixtures containing Gumbrin were much superior to those containing sheep
manure, and that Gumbrin with either superphosphate or ammonium, sulfate made a
better fertilizer than either superphosphate or ammonium sulfate al~ane .
7. No explanation is given in the article, but the reason i.s obvious if Gumbrin is
actually a superior soil conditioner. Likewise, no mention is made of any
Chemical addition to, or change in, the plant resulting from the use of G?umbrin;
but there is ar,. implied suggestion that Gumbrin increases the efficiency with
wh~.ch plant$ can obtain added phosphate and nitrogen from bath the fertii,izer
and.-'the natural soil itself. The effects on corn, beets, cabbage, and onions
were noted, but there was na suggestion that use was restricted to these.,
$. There is nothing really new in the third article, as this sort of thing was
done 150 years ago. It describes the preparation of organic-m~in~?~ral granu~..ated
fertilizers by combinin a "compost" (the materials of which were not given)
with superphosphate and~or ammonium sulfate. Granulation was accomplished by
employing liquid cow manure (probably urine) for moisture. It was found that
the organic mineral material combined with phosphox?us and nitrogen is superior
to either of the latter two alone.
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9. lrffects are part chemical and part soil conditioning-. Any organic material is a
soil conditioner. Decomposable compounds in fresh manure release energy in
the :form of heat and- hence burn plants o Thus., a compost, ox? old manure, is
superior as the decomposable compounds have alxeady released the energy in the
farm bf heat, and there is a much lesser tendency. to burn plants- Qrganie
material brings about granulation by aggregating the mineral particles, and soil
conditioners stabilize soil conditions existing when applied
1.0, The a~r].:y t9aing ne'w in the fourth article is the mixture of calcium cyanamide
(GaCl~2) with sodium fluosilicate (N'a SiF) for a more efficient defoliation of
25X1 X cotton. p7:ants . do not find that
I~a~iF' has ever been used in the US for defoliating cotton ? f)nly GaG~~ .s
customarily employed in the US, but here again a check of the industry might be
both profitable and rewarding, inasmuch as the Soviets report that-defoliation
is more `effective with 'the added pa2SiF, because the presence and acti~sn of the
sodi~am~increases the penetration of the GaGN2 into the cotton leaves much more
rapidly; and"causes a quickex complete defoliation, resulting ixi a more coetaneous
maturing of all the- bolls .
The Soviets xeport that application of the mixture of calcius~ a~yan.ami~]e and
sodium fluosilicate~to cotton leaves is done through dusting ox' through dombined
treatment oi' a solution of calcium cyanaffiide through sprayingo They f?ugd that
the 'best ratio- of Ga?1F~:--to _l~a~Si~~ 3 02, used as a dust, -but that the two
cheni.icals used in solution were most effective, although agitation in the sprayer
was required to. 'prevent a precipitate from settling- The calcium cyanamide is
mixed Stith the sodium fluosilcate in the proportion of 60 kg to ~0 kg, and sifted
through a screen with a mesh of one mm diameters The calcium cyanam.%.de solution
is px?epared izt the proportion of 10 kg GaG~2 tv 100 liters of water, and this 10~,
can~eentration diluted with five parts of water down to a 2~, cor~centrati?~n before
u~s ing a
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