208 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



of each peasant averaged 4| desatins per head. They 

 paid two roubles per desatin. After the public- houses 

 had been open for some time, 13 per cent, of these 

 peasants were entirely ruined, 25 others had no horse, 

 and 53 had. not even a cow. As the possession of at 

 least one horse and one cow is the minimum of 

 prosperity, 78, or 38 per cent., of the peasants of Jarnova 

 had not even attained that minimum. Contrasted with 

 this sad spectacle of poverty was the state of the smaller 

 village of Petrovskoye, which fortunately was without 

 any public-houses. Of its 55 homesteads only one was 

 entirely ruined, and only 4 were without a cow. Yet 

 the peasants only owned 2 desatins of land, and paid 

 for it 3 roubles 73 kopecs. Thus, although they had 

 to pay more per desatin, and only owned half the quantity 

 of land held by those of Javnovo, only 7 per cent, are 

 below the minimum of prosperity, as against 38 per 

 cent, in Jarnovo. 



' The same contrast, MM. BektifF and Khvostoff report 

 is to be found in all the other villages they examined. 

 The wine-shops (kabaki) are now regarded as the village 

 cancers, and some of my friends in Russia would be 

 enthuastic supporters of the United Kingdom Alliance. 

 Mr. Katkoff's Moscow Gazette publishes almost daily long 

 columns in favour of very drastic measures against too 

 great facilities for the sale of wine. Mr. Akaskoff's Russ 

 is just as emphatic on the subject. But it is only natural 

 for such enlightened and cultivated patriots as those two 

 to take such a course. Let me mention two others, who 

 although they have risen from the lower classes, may 

 nevertheless play an energetic part in the direction of 

 this question. I mean Mr. Tichomiroff and his uncle 

 Mr. Labsine. At present they are at the head of their 

 large manufactory at Bogorodsk, near Moscow. They 

 employ a great number of workmen, but they will never 

 engage a single man who is not a total abstainer. Extra 

 tea is willingly provided, and the wages are rather higher 

 than usual, but still the results economically and morally 



