THE RESULTS OF THE NEW AGRARIAN REFORM 'TO7 



(11) The harvest yield in 1912 and 1913 was in the oven\'helming 

 majority of cases higher on the newly settled farms than on those still 

 in common ownership, and still burdened with the system by which a hold- 

 ing was made up of scattered parcels. Not infrequently it was higher on 

 the newly settled farms than on the estates of private owners. 



We repeat that when these results are considered it should always 

 be borne in mind that the newly formed peasants' self-contained farms, 

 enjoying conditions created by the land settlement, had at the time of the 

 en(|uiry existed onl}' for three or four years. Their reorganization, the re- 

 modelling of all farming on them, had only just begun ; and it had been ne- 

 cessary for the farmers to spend much time, labour and money in order to 

 make them fit for agricultural operations a§ quickly as possible. As regards 

 production the first years were of course the least fruitful : they were the least 

 fa\'ourable period in the existence of the farms. And although agronomic 

 enterprise on the part of both the government and the zemstvos helped the 

 peasants in their farming, both with advice and more practical^, the peasants 

 nevertheless, since help of this kind became available comparatively late, 

 depended most on themselves and on their own experience and initiative. 

 I^'inal conclusions could not therefore be made as to the position of the farms : 

 the enquiry could only indicate their possible developments and establish 

 their tendencies. For these ends the available material was sufficiently 

 enlightening. It showed that almost all the investigated farms have happily 

 survived the critical period of reorganization and that their economic posi- 

 tion points distinctly to improved and more profitable farming. An unen- 

 cimibered title to the land, the emancipation of labour from all local and 

 communal burdens, the concentration of all force and all knowledge on 

 the better employment of a holding granted "for eternity", the conscious- 

 ness that trouble spent on the soil will not be lost — all this has had a mar- 

 vellous influence on the whole course of farming as well as on the holders' 

 daily Hves. Among individual peasants fixed and strengthening halnts 

 of temperance are to be observed, habits which were introduced on that 

 memorable day on which by the Tsar's will they were proclaimed as com- 

 pulsory for the whole nation. 



