U.S. farm mechanization amazes Chinese visitor
HARTLEY, lowa Sha
Zhifan came all the way
from a fann in the People’s
Republic of China to see how
food is grown in America.
After working more than a
month on Alvin Dykstra’s
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farm here,
worried,
“No people in fields,” he
said sadly.
Back home, Sha was used
to seeing flocks of people
invade the fields for each
Test drive a Kubota diesel tractor now at:
Sha’s
a bit
day’s work. Without the
modern machines and
chemicals fanners use in the
United States, China needs
plenty of people to grow
food.
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Sha, 31, was one year old
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when his government came
into power. He will work on
the farm of his sponsor,
Dykstra, until the spring of
1980. Eleven other Chinese
farmers will work on other
U.S. farms.
In China, Sha specializes
in raising hogs but he’s
keenly interested in
everything agricultural.
Here, Sha lives in a tan
clapboard house with
Dykstra’s daughter and son
in-law, Tom and Marcia
Aupperlee. The Aupperlees’
two preschool boys follow
him about much of the time.
He is hard-working, even
helps clear the table, do the
dishes and vacuum the
house. He said in China
there’s no line between
men’s and women’s work.
Sha can’t believe Dykstra
and Aupperlee turn out 1,500-
2,000 hogs a year, 100 or so
sheep, grow 550 acres of com
and soybeans and handle all
the other farm chores by
themselves. Behind the
observation he sadly made
in halting English that there
are “no people in fields” was
an apparent fear the plan
ting wouldn’t get done “with
just the three of us to do it,”
Dykstra said with a smile.
“He said he really likes to
see a lot of people working in
the field,” said Marcia.
“One day when all four of us
were out planting trees, he
said ‘Ah. Many people in
field.’ I’m always kidding
him about all the people they
have in China. But, boy! If
we had 20 like Sha, what we
couldn’t get done.
, “From what Sha has told
me,” Dykstra said, “to
handle the production we do
would take 120 people in
China’s labor-intensive farm
style. Most would specialize
in one area or another of the
work. A million dollars in
vested here in land and farm
equipment baffles Sha. He
often asks how much things
cost.
“Among those 120 people
Sha counts would be
veterinarians, machinery
repairmen and other
specialists. We do that work
ourselves when we can and
hire a vet or some other
expert when we can’t.”
Dykstra said, “He was
eager to see how we plant. I
think he believed we
wouldn’t get it done in time.
fT#
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 28,1979—129
We had a wet spring and we
were late. He wants to see
how we harvest and how we
weed. His people do much of
that by hand. I find they’re
still planting some types of
com we used in the ’3o’s.
He’s interested in American
seed com, which he’d heard
about. He has a com har
vesting machine on his farm
but the com ears are too
close to the ground to fit in
the machine.
“He’s amazed at the
freedom American farmers
have to grow what they
want,” said Dykstra. “In
China, Sha’s production
team leaders make
production decisions for
him. He has 200 people on his
production team, counting
the parents’ children. He has
about 10,000 people in his
commune, we think.
“Sha likes working with
hogs best at his commune
but he’s also interested in
poultry. He said it takes
them two months longer
than us to raise a hog for
market,” Dykstra said,
“because their feed lacks the
potency ours has. But with
their manpower, they keep
their pigs cleaner than we do
ours. They clean most pens
daily and the farrowing pens
four times a day. I’ve seen
Sha trying to clean our pens
in his free time.
“He’s very aware of ef
ficiency. I had to drive to a
sale one day to buy calves. It
turned out I didn’t buy any.
Sha told me I wasted gas,
lost work time and didn’t
even buy anything. ‘No
good,’ he said.”
Dykstra taught him to
operate a tractor. Sha thinks
it won’t be a useful skill in
China, since he won’t have
one there. “But he hopes his
commune will get several
soon,” Dykstra said. “Sha
said a manual auger-type
post hole digger he used one
day will be most useful.”
Sha had an intensive eight
week English language
course before coming to
America. Since his wife, who
stayed behind with their six
month-old son, teaches
English, Sha liad a head
start.
Dykstra said, “While he
has trouble understanding -
he says we talk too fast - he
can write in perfect English
any sentence he un
derstands. Sha keeps a little
notebook of strange English
words, their phonetic
spellings and Chinese
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translation. Sometimes I
can’t run a point all the way
down. But we’ll learn more
as his English improves. The
Aupperlee boys will learn
some Chinese, too.
“Sha has adapted to
American food well,” said
Marcia, who gets insight into
that phase of Sha’s
“Americanization.” “He
heard about hamburgers in
China and likes them a lot.
He likes spaghetti, pudding
and cold breakfast cereals,
which are new to him. He
dislikes toast and jello. He
salts his bread and butter
heavily, even when it’s
covered with peanut butter
and jelly.
“For some reason,” she
said, “it surprised us to
learn they used peanut
butter in China.”
“He didn’t like butter
when he first arrived. He
doesn’t like tea but drinks
water, milk and cocoa. His
favorite is ice.dfeun. Since
th(Uabi*B&t<«*iKM«ierally
have retngeration in rural
areas, he doesn’t get'much
Ice cream oack home,” she
said.
“Sha thinks Americans
‘cook quick’ but spend a lot
of time washing all the
dishes it takes us to prepare
food. He says in China they
often use only a few bowls
for a family meal. He says
alphabet soup is the funniest
thing he’s ever seen. He
can’t believe Americans
would bother to put letters in
their soup,” Marcia said.
“He said he eats a lot of
vegetables in China and
some pork. Chinese produce
a lot of pork but Sha says
they need many more hogs, ”
Marcia said.
“By our standards, Sha
lives a spartan life. He and
his family have only cold
water in the few rooms of
their home. They share a
kitchen. He laughed when I
showed him the gadgets in
my kitchen and asked if his
wife had a blender.” His
experience with a vacuum
cleaner is limited to one he
knows of in his part of the
commune. Sha told me, ‘lt
will be many years before
we have auto.’
“We pay him a regular
salary, which goes to the
International Farmers
Association for Education.
They helped bring Sha over
here. They do this with
farmers all over the world.
They in turn pay him and
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