I06 RUSSIA - AGRICUI.TUKAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



CONCLUSIONT. 



The conclusions as to wliich the enquiry into the unified peasants' 

 farms has led are chiefly the following : 



(i) More than three quarters of the investigated farms on nadiel land 

 received their parcels of land (the site of the homestead being left out of 

 account) in a single self-contained piece after the land settlement. On the 

 other hand before the settlement more than three quarters of the farms had 

 their land distributed in at least six strips, and generally in thirty, forty, 

 or even a hundred. 



(2) Half the peasant farmers have been allotted nadiel lands distant 

 by hardly a verst from their homesteads. But before the laud settle- 

 ment three quarters of them held land more than a verst distant from their 

 homesteads, and a third of them land five versts or more thence distant. 



(3) The land settlement was most advantageous to the average peas- 

 ants' farms, those to which small or medium-sized holdings attached. The 

 extent of land provided for the newly settled nadiel farms was approxim- 

 ately equal to that locally normal, except in two districts where it was more 

 extensive and in three where it v/as noticeably less so. In general otroub 

 farmers are somewhat better provided with land than houtor farmers. 



(4) Of the 7.7 per cent, of the farmers who had given up their farms 

 on the newly settled land, 5.1 per cent, were those who, instead of the land 

 the3' sold, had acquired a larger piece from the Peasants' I/and Bank, the 

 crown or private owners ; others had emigrated to Siberia, and others had 

 made the chief part of their income as employees or traders. Only 2.3 

 per cent, sold the land allotted to them without having, at the time of the 

 enquiry, bought other land or provided for themselves by some trade. 



(5) Of the newly settled farms 2.2 per cent, were subdivided among 

 members of families, as the result of inheritance, after the settlement. 



(6) ]\Iore than 40 per cent, of the peasants have carried out on their 

 lands improvements of which the average value is 53 roubles a farm (about 

 47 roubles on farms on nadiel lands and some 70 roubles on those on bank 

 lands) . 



(7) After the land settlement the total value of the buildings and the 

 possessions on the newly formed peasants' farms rose b}^ 27.7 per cent. 



(8) About a fourth of the farmers were helped bj^ the crown after 

 the settlement with money. Of them 2.3 per cent, had the money granted 

 to them without obligation to repay it. The average amount of the grant 

 was 105 roubles a farm, or 44 per cent, of the average cost of removing build- 

 ings to new sites and carrying out improvements. 



(9) The number of the peasants who became members of co-operative 

 unions was, after the settlement, more than doubled among the otroub farm- 

 ers and quadrupled among the houtor farmers. 



(10) The number of farms on which fodder was grown and a success- 

 ion of crops maintained over several years was quadrupled after the land 

 settlement. , 



