114
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114
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Transcription
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The only parts available were 5000 miles from Turkey, so this machine sat in the corner for six months before parts arrived.
It now appeared to me that the aid we were giving from the United States was geared to methods used in the States, and it had little value on the small farms in Western Turkey. To farm it the American way was out of question, big tractors and equipment to fit were not practical.
Every farmer had a team of horses or oxen, and was skilled in handling small farm equipment. This equipment could be bought at home and repaired in local shops. The skill of the Turkish blacksmith and the people who made the plows, cultivators and wagons were as good as any I have worked with. I felt that Turkey could do a better job in farming with improvement in the equipment they had, and could make, than with the equipment that was being imported from other countries. All imported equipment required oil and gas, and Turkey had none, and it all required scarce foreign exchange.
YOU CAN DO IT BETTER WITH WHAT YOU HAVE, AND CAN MAKE THAN YOU CAN WITH IMPORTED EQUIPMENT. This became my theme song for the next five years.
The idea of using animal power and homemade equipment was not shared by many Turks in high places. They wanted to do as we did in America, by using modern equipment. Many machine manufacturers in America were of the same opinion, so it took some time to convince the Governments that we should give the small, homemade equipment a try. We could make the equipment in the blacksmith shops, and use the farmers' teams of horses or oxen. It appeared now that I was going to have to call to mind, many of the things I had done as a boy. We could be making the earth-moving equipment, we could hitch four horses to a fresno, three would do for the ditcher. How could I now be an advisor, if I directed the entire operation? My Counterpart, Naki had no idea how to harness a horse, or hold a plow in the ground.
What would I be now, THE BOSS, THE DICTATOR, or could I NOW be called an Advisor?
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
