102 SIBEIUA. 



to arrest by more J'requent fallow, ihe rest-ihree field rotation is gradually abandoned for a 

 rest-two-field. At the sann! time the exhaustion of the land makes it ever less capable of 

 yielding satisfactory harvests (d' the more valuable grains and c(jm|i*'ls their replacement by 

 coarser kinds. Wheat and, where the forest luis been most cut, winter rye, are expelled by 

 spiing rye; Ihe latter, by barley. At the same tim(,' the lowering of the crops gradually brings 

 the iioj)ulalion to tli(! coiiviclion of the impossibility, under the changed conditions, of carrying 

 on farming in the old way and of the necessity of passing to new methods, namely with the 

 use of manure. Part of the population however does not wish to reconcile itself to this 

 necessity and prefers to leave for new places, where there is still plenty of land and where 

 its freshness permits farming by the customary rest method. The other part, the majority, 

 remains and continues in spite of everything to carry on the old methods. Finally, the moix' 

 energetic minority begins by degrees to pass over to the manuring system. As first individual 

 laint-hearted and frequently unsuccessful attempts at manuring the lanil lind more and more 

 imitators, and littl<> by little agriculture with manure from being a rare exception becomes 

 the general rule. 



Some localities of Siberia, in the main, the northern borderland of the agricultural 

 zone of the Tobolsk government, that is, the Turinsk district and the middle of the Tobolsk 

 district, have already passed through that critical period. In these localities, in some places 

 as regards all the lands under the plough, in others as regards only those nearest to the 

 farmsteads, this system has become firmly established. It is precisely of the form of the 

 three-field system as it has long existed in the central governments of European Russia, that 

 is, with a predominance of rye in the winter Held, oats and barley in the spring, and with 

 green fallow. As for the manuring, the extent to which it is carried is very different, in 

 dependence on the relation of the quantity of meadow land to that of the land under crops. 

 In the comparatively southern localities, where there is a fairly large amount of arable land, 

 and few meadows, a part of the fallow field, equivalent to ^h to ^'2, is manured. Further 

 to the north where there is very little arable land, and much meadow land, the whole fallow 

 field is manured, and as a consequence in spite of the comparatively unfavourable natural 

 conditions, larger and, what is particularly important, more constant crops are obtained than 

 anywhere in Siberia. Finally, still further to the north near the 60th parallel, at the very 

 northernmost limit of agriculture, even a heavy application of manure does not make it 

 possible to carry on the three-field system. Here two fields are used, with winter rye predom- 

 inating on the best lands, and barley on the rest. With heavy manuring agriculture even 

 here yields excellent results, but is incapable of attaining any considerable development, in 

 consequence of the extremely limited supply of lands suitable for sowing grain. 



The cultivation of the arable lands in Siberia is on the whole very satisfactory, far 

 better than on the peasant farms in central Russia. Such a superiority of the Siberian peas- 

 ant farming is determined mainly by the abundance there of w^orking cattle, possible on 

 account of the wealth of the country in hayland and pasture, and secondly of the compara- 

 tively good construction of the agricultural implements. 



The implements used in Siberia for ploughing, to wit, ploughs, here bear various names, 

 kolesianka, saban, rogaliukha, et cetera; but their fundamental construction is 



