THE CONDITIONS OF RUSSIAN AGRICULTURE 191 



region : in one province, that of Voronezh, there are no less 

 than 230 breeding studs, and more than 370 studs in the 

 adjoining provinces of Tamboff and Orel. Towards the town 

 of Orel there is a Government Agricultural School where lads 

 from the surrounding villages may go to receive practical 

 instruction in farming. This establishment is managed on 

 good lines; the pupils are not taken from their humble sur- 

 roundings and placed in circumstances far in advance of that 

 of their homes. They live together, under proper supervision, 

 in a commodious building and they keep house for themselves, 

 taking it in turn to cook and to clean. They are shown how 

 to make use of the material at hand, be it indoors or out, 

 how to construct farm carts, wheels, tubs and so forth, so that 

 when they return home they become improvers instead of 

 grumbling talkers who cannot do anything for want of the 

 appliances upon which they have been taught to depend. 

 Dairy work, pig-breeding, poultry-farming, smithery and 

 harness-making all form parts of the course of instruction. 



In some places agriculture is mainly carried on by the 

 womenfolk, the reason being that their household is capable 

 of cultivating more land than is at their disposal, so the men 

 go away to the towns and seek employment at hotels or practise 

 a handicraft while the women carry on the farming operations. 

 One of the most difficult in the north Steppe region is the 

 management of the hemp crop, which, like flax, requires much 

 judgment and labour and for this reason, although large 

 quantities of hemp are raised in Russia, it is a crop which is 

 generally grown in small plots. 



In Russia hemp is grown both for seed and for fibre, 

 necessitating a separate treatment for the male plants and for 

 the female plants. The male plants come first to maturity and 

 are cut or pulled as soon as the stems show signs of changing 

 colour ; the female plants, which grow to a greater height, are left 

 standing for the seed to develop. At a later period, when the seed 

 is almost ripe these plants are also cut and after properly drying 

 them the seed is pulled off. Generally speaking the male plants 

 are spread on the ground and allowed to rot by the action of the 

 dew. The female plants yield a much coarser fibre and are sub- 

 mitted to a water retting process similar to the treatment of flax. 

 Rectangular pits are dug in the black earth in the vicinity of a 

 stream, so that water will accumulate there and bundles of the 

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