 Lysenko had a difficult time trying to grow various crops (such as peas and wheat), through the harsh winters.However, when he announced success, he was praised in the Soviet newspaper "Pravda" for his claims to have discovered a method to fertilize fields without using fertilizers or minerals, and to have shown that a winter crop of peas could be grown in Azerbaijan, "turning the barren fields of the Transcaucasus green in winter, so that cattle will not perish from poor feeding, and the peasant Turk will live through the winter without trembling for tomorrow.