1/6 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



and the more so, as for several months every year the 

 Russian peasant has nothing to do in the fields. There 

 are regions where agriculture has been totally abandoned 

 for the industries ; but these are regions where it was 

 rendered impossible by the very small allotments granted 

 to the liberated serfs, and especially the bad quality of, 

 and the want of meadows in them, as by the general 

 impoverishment of the peasants, following a very high 

 taxation and very high redemption taxes. But wherever 

 the allotments are reasonable and the peasants are less 

 overtaxed, they continue to cultivate the land and their 

 fields are kept in better order, as also the average 

 numbers of live stock are higher where agriculture is 

 carried on in association with the domestic trades. 

 Even those peasants whose allotments are small find the 

 means of renting more land if they earn some money 

 from their industrial work. As to the relative welfare, 

 I need hardly add that it always stands on the side of 

 those villages which combine both kinds of work. Vors- 

 ma and Pavlovo two cutlery villages, one of which is 

 purely industrial, while the inhabitants of the other 

 continue to till the soil could be quoted as a striking 

 instance for such a comparison.* 



Much more ought to be said with regard to the rural 

 industries of Russia, especially to show how easily the 

 peasants associate for buying new machinery, or for 

 avoiding the middleman in their purchases of raw pro- 

 duce as soon as misery is no obstacle to the association. 

 Belgium, and especially Switzerland, could also be quoted 

 for similar illustrations, but the above will be enough to 

 give a general idea of the importance, the vital powers, 

 and the perfectibility of the rural industries. 



* Prugavin, in the Vyestnik Promyshlennojti, June, 188^, 



