NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL. ECONOMY IN GENERAL II5 



The lots were allocated b}^ a special office within the Mnistry of Agri- 

 culture and b}' temporary commissions on which the leaders of the peasants 

 and of the Kirghiz were represented. A grant to one man might not be of 

 more than fifteen deciatines (i) of land admitting of cultivation. 



734 allotments had been made on 31 December 1915 of a total area of 

 3,350,226 deciatines, of which 2,133,338 deciatines admitted of cultivation. 

 On the land so granted 174,363 Kirghiz men — or 8 per cent, of the male 

 Kirghiz nomad population — had been settled. 



SWEDEN. 



THE AGRICULTURAL LABOUR SUPPLY IN 1915. -— Sverigcs Officiella StaUstik: Arbe- 

 tartillgdng, atbctsiid och arbdslon inoni Sveriges jadbruk dr 1915 (Swedish Official Stati- 

 stics : The Labour Supplj^ in relation to the Need and Duration of Work and to Wages 

 in Swedish Agriculture in 191 5) Stockholm, 191 6. 



The official enquiry as to the relation between the labour supply, 

 and wages and the duration of the working day in Swedish agriculture 

 in 1915 followed the same plan as in 1914, and made use of similar docu- 

 ments, namely fairly detailed forms of questions which were filled up by 

 the }/residents of communal assemblies in 2,206 rural communes, that is 

 in 94.4 per cent, of those comprised by the enquiry. 



The first question on these forms concerned the proportions of the 

 labour suppl}^ in each rural commune. The answer should have been a 

 general estimate, and should have indicated whether the agricultural la- 

 /ourers domiciled in the place, or returning to it regularly, would ensure 

 /sufficient labour for all the coming agricultural operations. The material 

 collected shows that in 194 of the communes making returns, that is in 8.8 

 percent, of them, the labour supply was good, in 1,485 or 67.3 per cent, 

 of them it was sufficient and in 513 or 23.3 per cent, insufficient, while 14 

 or 0.6 per cent of them thought themselves unable to answer with cer- 

 tainty. As compared with those of the previous year these figures show 

 a slight diminution in the proportions of the labour-supply — evidently 

 due to the fact that the industrial depression produced after the outbreak 

 of war in the autumn of 1914, which caused the supply of labour on the 

 agricultural market to be abundant, has, it seems, gradually ceased to be 

 felt. 



The proportions of the labour supply in the various districts were 

 very different. But the figures which indicate the number of communes 

 in the different departments in which the labour supply was inadequate 

 do not allow certain conclusions to be made as to the greater or less 

 number of labourers in each department in relation to the cultivated area. 

 What is abo\-e all reflected in these figures is the greater or less progress 

 of agricultural organization in -different places, and the greater or less abil- 



(i) I deciatinc — 2.69 acres. 



