HOPE FOR THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY 59* 



was that strict justice should prevail, that the ratio between the value 

 of the land held and the annual payment made by the family should be 

 the same in every case. The nadiel, the land acquired by the community 

 when emancipated, was, therefore, divided into units of equal value, 

 one or more of these units being assigned to each family. 



There were three principle methods of division and all of these 

 resulted in cutting the land up into minute parcels. It may be inter- 

 esting, by way of illustration, to consider in detail the method which 

 was followed, for the most part in central Eussia. The nadiel, leaving 

 out of account pastures and woods which were ordinarily held in com- 

 mon, was first divided into three fields to provide for a rotation of two 

 different kinds of grain and fallow. Each one of these fields was then 

 divided with reference to quality. Areas of good black loam, of sandy, 

 clayey and other kinds of soil were carefully delimited. Each one of 

 these areas was then divided into a fixed number of strips equal to the 

 number of units needed at the time by the community. Each unit con- 

 tained one strip of every kind of soil in each of the three fields. The 

 number of strips in a unit was comparatively few in lands of uniform 

 quality and many, fifty, eighty, one hundred or even more, in lands that 

 varied much. In any case it was certain that each unit possessed exactly 

 the value of every other unit. Here was justice but at what a price? 

 Land cut up into such bits that it could be tilled only with the simplest 

 implements, endless time lost in going from one parcel to another, 

 sameness of crops necessitated by the fact that all must sow and all 

 must reap at the same time. More often than otherwise the only ap- 

 proach to a strip was across other strips. Once these had been seeded 

 they barred the way. The absence of fences made it impossible to plant 

 anything that would mature after the neighboring fields had been cut. 

 The cattle having been turned into the stubble of these fields would eat 

 the adjoining not yet ripened harvest. And what soil rendered utterly 

 fruitless in boundary lines, the furrow used to separate the strips being 

 sometimes one fourth as wide as the strips themselves. 



For long years the Eussian mujilc was slow to grasp these disadvan- 

 tages. He was used to community life. He liked doing what his neigh- 

 bors did. Why not all plant rye and buckwheat? Did they not all 

 eat black bread and kasha? What better than hemp and flax for the 

 weaving of household stuffs ? The fields were a long way off — yes, but it 

 was God's will, and one must be willing to harness the horse to the 

 telega and begin the five mile journey at break of day. And when one 

 grew hungry and thirsty there was the loaf brought along and the keg 

 of water hung on the hooks at the back of the wagon. True the fields 

 were sometimes so far away that it was necessary to spend nights there, 

 but the earth was a good place upon which to sleep, the baby's crib could 

 be suspended from two poles fastened in the ground and the mother 

 and children could help gather the precious kernels. Such sights are 



