148 



RUSSIA - MISCELLANEOUS 



First of all, special provincial sections of the board of the Bank v/ere 

 founded, by decisions taken on July 20th., August 4th. and November 6th./ 

 19th., 1906 by the Council of Ministers. Delegates of this board of the 

 Bank were charged to supervise, in concert with the members of the Central 

 Committee of Land Organization at Saint Petersburg, the sales of landed 

 property made to the Bank through the medium of these provincial 

 sections of the board. The latter, in their turn, put themselves in relation 

 with the provincial land commissions, increased the staff of the provincial 

 branches of the Peasants' Bank and perfected the technical service both by 

 engaging surveyors and agricultural engineers and temporarily utilising 

 the services of the staff of the local commissions for farm readjustment. 

 In 1908, 26 managers with 291 trained surveyors and 105 hydraulic 

 engineers for the sinking of artesian wells to provide water for individual 

 farms (khoutor) were attached to the provincial branches of the Bank. 

 The land commissions also supplied the Peasants' Bank in the same 

 year with 771 surveyors, but the number is still insufficient. 



The return of the sales of land made by the Bank, in the course of the 

 last five years through the medium of its branches, witnesses to the success 

 of the work, reall}^ extraordinary both as regards area and thoroughness. 



Table XII. — Fluctuations in the Amount of the Land Reserved 

 by the Peasants' Bank {Deciatines). 



Years 



Situation 

 on January ist. 



New Purchases 



Made in the 



Year 



Land Sold 



Increase ( + ) and 



Decrease ( — ) 



in the Amount 



of Land Reserved 



1906 



1907 



1908 



1909 



1910 



Total 



314.786 

 1,471,164 

 3,312,872 

 4,478.148 

 4.198,716 



1,196,012 



2,032,507 



1.497.033 



283,551 



60,486 



39,634 

 190,799 



331,757 

 562,983 

 371,786 



+ 1,156,328 



+ 1,841,708 



-\- 1,165,226 



— 279,432 



— 311.30C 



5,069,589 



1,496,959 



Thus, in the course of the last five years the Bank has sold land of 

 an area of more than twice the total of that sold to the peasants in 

 the two preceding periods of five years (1896-1905). 



When we dealt (in the previous section) with the work of the land 

 commissions in connection with land readjustment we showed that the Peas- 

 ants' Bank also participated in the other land reforms (readjustment of 

 peasants' farms) precisely in virtue of the sales of land it conducted. 



