1 How come[33], that while comprising a negligible proportion of the population and despite restricted output, America’s farmers are in a position to feed not only their own country, but half the world into the bargain? The clue is simple. It derives not only from the industriousness with which the farmers produce, but from the pattern[34] of relationships between every party involved[35], from farmer and bank to machine maker and landowner.
2 Many own land. Some are farmers themselves. However most are investors or banks. In America most farmers cultivate land that is owned by others. When it is said that in America all the cultivated land is privately owned, meant are[36] not farmers but landowners. Generally speaking, the farmer owns his farm like any businessman his own firm. But in the same way as a factory owner need not necessarily possess the buildings, so the farmer need not necessarily cultivate exclusively his own land.
3 The landowner is one of the basic factors involved in the agronomical process. He purchases land to lease it to farmers and collect rent after each year’s crop. As the purchase of land like all other property is an investment, this means firstly that he must pay the bank its rates, as few can afford to buy land with cash on the barrel[37] and, secondly, pay the annual land tax. The money invested in land must necessarily yield the dividend not less but if possible even more, than if invested elsewhere.
4 No wonder that after leasing his land the landowner doesn’t wash his hands off the whole affair. He has many cares. His land must not only retain, but even improve its fertility, as it is upon this that the crop and hence dividends, as well as the future price of his land depends. Good landowners never lose sight of that. To this end they employ the services of a special land management agency that, in turn, allots a special manager to look after the land. As a competent agronomist, the said manager implements a perennial strategy of land tenure, watching over the rational and prompt use of fertilizers, crop rotation and a drive against weeds and pests. As his own earnings depend on crop yields, he has a personal stake in land fertility and bumper crops.
5 Some of the parties involved in the agronomical process contribute to the end product indirectly. These are the countless promoters of new machinery, the salesmen who demonstrate agricultural novelties, new chemicals and seed materials, as well as the staff of the management firms mentioned.
6 The relationships between farmers, managers, landowners and other parties involved comprise part of the overall system of production relationships under capitalism. Interests more than simply interweave, they dovetail. Small wonder they conjointly yield such abundance in the country year after year.
B. Give Russian equivalents to the following agricultural terms:
land tenure, farm, farming, to cultivate land, to lease land, fertility, fertilizer, to retain and improve fertility, seed materials, crop rotation, bumper crops, crop yields, after each year’s crop, a drive against weeds and pests.
C. Find in the text English equivalents to the following phrases:
быть в состоянии, составлять незначительную часть (целого), не удивительно, в придачу, начиная с чего-то и заканчивая чем-то, когда говорят, что…, не обязательно принадлежит другим, мало кто может позволить себе купить, приносить доход, быть лично заинтересованным в чём-то, точно так же как фермер, так и владелец фабрики, а также, такой как, как таковой, так как, как правило, следить за, заботиться о, иметь много забот, пользоваться услугами, стороны, участвующие в процессе.
D. Give Russian equivalents to the following derivatives:
a factory owner, a land owner, farmer owns his land, his own farm, land is owned by the bank, most of land is privately owned, ownership.
