GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE NEW RUSSIAN LAND REFORMS I59 



from the rule might be avoided by gi anting comparatively larger holdings 

 of a single piece of inferior soil to correspond with smaller areas of soil 

 of good quality or by having recourse to sale by auction. 



(2) The new holdings are often of too oblong a form ; this form, it is 

 said, is given them in order that there may be an equitable distribution of 

 the various kinds of soil, or in order that the parcels may be in immediate 

 proximity to watercourses. Especially in locahties where water is not abund- 

 ant or where the water is at too great a depth underground for the sinking 

 of wells (and this is one of the geological peculiarities of the Russian plain), 

 the parcels must be arranged in the neighbourhood of brooks or streams. 



(3) The peasants generally insist on the maintenance of common mead- 

 ows and pasture lands. 



(4) Roads, streams of water and the configuration of the soil render 

 scientific distribution and the farming of the land difficult. 



(5) Communication and traffic between villages are made difficult 

 through the want of roads and the bad state of those existing. 



(6) The studies for the water supply are made in advance, which again 

 gives rise to a series of technical errors in the work of the new farm read- 

 justment. 



]S evertheless, it may now be stated, finally, that the new farm readjust- 

 ment has everywhere promoted the progress of agriculture, whilst the tent- 

 ative efforts inevitable in all first attempts have been quickly followed 

 by work scientifically and technically more complete. And this gives ground 

 for hope that the new reforms will soon lead to a general improvement in 

 the conditions of existence of the Russian peasants and will contribute 

 to assure them of certain prosperity in the more or less near future. 



All the progress dealt v/ith in this part of our study naturally suffers 

 from the State having laid it down for all districts that the peasants must 

 buy the farms necessary for their existence, granted them out of the Crown 

 Lands. And, since as a general rule the peasants have not enough ready 

 money, the above principle is equivalent to an obligation for them to 

 mortgage to the Peasants' Bank the land they possess or purchase, up to 

 its fuU value. So the indebtedness of the peasants to the Bank has increased 

 from 500,000,000 roubles at the commencement of the work of farm 

 readjustment (1907) to 1,000,000,000 roubles. It is true that the 

 manifesto of November 3rd./i6th, 1905, relieved., as we have seen, the peas- 

 ants of a total debt of more than 1,500,000,000 roubles; but it is evident 

 that since then a new mortgage debt of more than 500,000,000 roubles has 

 been incurred by them. Details relating to this matter will be found in 

 our article in the number of the Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelli- 

 gence for September, 1911, dealing with land credit and agricultural 

 indebtedness in Russia. 



Finally, it must be observed, we think, that, even without considering 

 this drawback, the purchases of landed estates and their division among the 

 Russian peasants, while considerable, wiU only suffice for a time to meet the 

 increasing demand for peasant farms, as, in spite of the extraordinarily large 

 area of land still available, the possibility of new purchase of land in Russia 



