SOVIET UNION: Reaping a Bad Harvest

Ever since Soviet grain-purchasing agents first came scouting in the U.S. and Canada last April, the suspicion has grown that the U.S.S.R. was headed for yet another of its periodic poor harvests. Then a summer drought hit the European U.S.S.R. In October, rains, frost and snow blighted Central Asian grainfields. Prematurely freezing temperatures killed winter wheat in the Ukraine. As Soviet grain purchases mounted, U.S. Department of Agriculture specialists estimated that the Soviet grain failure might be as much as 56 million tons short of the 215.6 million ton goal set by...

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