THE QUESTION OF WHEAT. 355 



our farmers are deeply in debt, and are at the mercy of all kinds of 

 intermediary agents whose honesty is not of a very high standard. 

 AVith regard to this, the singular fact appears that last year, at such 

 an important market as Kharkov, the farmers were not informed as 

 to the prices current of grain; so that oats of the same quality 

 were sold simultaneously at thirty-five cents and seventeen cents and 

 a half the pood of thirty-six pounds. Further, instead of upholding 

 our commerce in cereals with foreign markets, our exporters con- 

 tinue to compromise their rej^utation. A great number of mer- 

 chants in London and other seaport markets complained in 1886 that 

 the cargoes of cereals and flax coming from Russia contained an 

 abundance of heterogeneous matter." 



Owing to imperfect or expensive transportation, the peasant is 

 not in the best position to obtain the full benefits of markets. " The 

 harvest ended, each man brings his grain to market. Hoping to 

 realize a more remunerative price by carrying his produce to a 

 central or larger market, he makes application to travel. Here the 

 factor steps in. In conjunction or in collusion with the local police, 

 obstacles are thrown in his way week after week. Ten, twenty, or 

 one hundred are in the same predicament. Finally, with the local 

 station or market glutted with the yield of a county, the factor steps 

 in and agrees to take all the grain in sight for about twenty-five per 

 cent below its market value. They have no choice, and thus a crop 

 grown at a cost of twenty-five per cent interest (paid to the factor 

 for advances) frequently pays twenty-five per cent additional after 

 its maturity." * Not only does such a system of handling grain 

 cause loss to the farmer through low prices, but even more through 

 the actual destruction of grain. It is estimated that millions of 

 bushels of grain are lost annually on account of the failure of rail- 

 ways to afford transportation facilities or shelter for grain brought 

 to them for transportation. 



ISTor is the question of transportation the only indication of 

 inchoate economic conditions. The land is, as a rule, subject to a 

 mortgage indebtedness, which takes each year an appreciable part 

 of the produce. The usurer or money lender (in Russia the terms 

 are almost synonyiuous) calls for his per cent on loans, and this per 

 cent may range from a moderate rate to one that is virtual confisca- 

 tion. A failure in the crops only throws the peasant deeper into 

 debt, for he must borrow to obtain seed and food; the latter for 

 immediate support, and the former as a venture in the future. Two 

 bad seasons bring ruin, for the means of obtaining further advances 

 have been exhausted, and only as a tenant, bound to the soil as 



* Report by United States Consul-General Way, May, 1889. 



