I. The state of the drought question. 



..Drought and the means of striving against it" — in an ever-active 

 theme as ancient as agriculture itself, and much has been written on this 

 subject: for unbroken drought in some districts and, periodical drought 

 in others, prevents the agriculturalist from working peacefully and always 

 leaves him in a helpless position; for even now the means of preven- 

 tion are far from decided upon, inasmuch as drought itself, the na- 

 ture of drought has not been explained. At times it seizes upon great 

 areas — tens of million of acres or again limits itself to a trifling area. 

 They appear on the plains of Russia with singular force and persistence; 

 but here they carry quite an individual character frequently blighting 

 separate districts, separate farms. 



The latter case — drought in separate farms — offers peculiar interest 

 inas much as it shows that drought may be a local phenomenon 

 limited to a given farm with its faulty peculiarities in the technical pro- 

 cess of farming. Should these faulty peculiarities of technical farming 

 affect whole districts then the droughts becomes not a local, but a ge- 

 neral phenomenon. For that reason the means of contention shoued bear 

 a local character only in regard to separate farms; and only certain parts 

 L'f them should be applied to such as may come under the influence of 

 the governement or district for the attainment of simultaneous and simi- 

 lar treatment. 



The most detailed account of drought and the means of contending 

 against it was first give by A. Shishkin about 40 years ago. 



He brought down the means of contending against drought to the 

 following points: 



1) To establish, if possibls, connection between the bed-water and 

 the soil layer. 



2) Deep mellowing (the mellowing of the sub-soil should be re- 

 peated approximatively every 5 years) of the soil for the greater accu- 

 mulation and better storage of water for better developement and deeper 

 penetration of the roots and for the attainment of firmer structure. 



3) In the corporation of the soil a structure expedient for regulating 

 the penetration and evaporation of water. 



