3i8 AN OBJECT-LESSON FROM SERVIA 



as well. Especially important is the work done by the 

 Servian Agricultural Society. Formed at Belgrade in 

 1869, this society not only became in itself a powerful 

 factor in the agricultural situation, but it formed, in 

 course of time, a network of no fewer than forty 

 branches throughout the country. It also promoted 

 both national and provincial exhibitions of live-stock, 

 etc. ; it set up a model farm of its own on 74 acres of 

 land, where special attention was paid to fruit-culture 

 and courses of practical instruction were given ; it 

 encouraged local societies to adopt a like policy in 

 accord with local conditions ; it carried on experiments 

 with seeds and plants, or gave demonstrations of the 

 use of machinery, in a considerable number of provincial 

 districts, in order to afford further practical instruction 

 to the cultivators ; and it organized competitions for 

 the best-managed farms, fields, orchards, gardens, 

 vineyards, woods, etc. 



But M. N. Lukitchevitch says : ' It is in acting as an 

 intermediary for the purchase and distribution of seeds 

 and agricultural implements and machinery that the 

 society has contributed the most effectively to the 

 progress of Servian agriculture.' Prior to the formation 

 of the society it was, it seems, a rare thing to find in 

 Servia a steel plough, and it was still more rare to 

 find other modern implements and machines, or good 

 qualities of cultivated plants, etc. The society began 

 to introduce these things, and already in 1870 it was 

 responsible for the first threshing-machine, operated by 

 horse-power, seen in Servia. It subsequently followed 

 with steam threshing-machines, etc., and though it was 

 a work of time to get the people to appreciate the 

 innovation, they hastened to make use of the new 

 advantages offered to them when at last convinced of 

 their utility. So much was this the case that the value 



