250 



EUSSIA. IN EUROPE. 



some of the labourers have become owners, and since 1866 the distribution of the 

 Church and Crown lands has begun with those who had hitherto received nothing. 

 Analogous steps had been taken in the small towns and hamlets. Before 1864 no 

 more than 13 of the 468 towns stood on ground belonging to the burgesses, all the 

 rest being the property of the nobles or the Crown. Of these so-called towns 

 337 have been changed to rural villages, and the ground assigned to the peasantry. 

 These agrarian reforms have been followed by important results. In 1872 the 

 extent of arable land granted to the peasantry amounted to about one-third of 

 Poland, and over one- tenth was communal property. Each peasant family owns 

 on an average over 20 acres, and in the ten years between 1864 and 1874 the 

 land brought under cultivation was increased by 1,360,000 acres. Over 2,000,000 

 individuals; including the families, now share in the possession of the land ; the 



Fior. 118.— MOVEMKNT OF THE PoLISH POPULATION FROM 1816 TO 1876. 



Population. 

 6,000,000 



5,000,000 



2,000,000 



1,000,000 



corn crops have increased by over one-third, or from 74,000,000 to 118,000,000 

 bushels ; and the yield of potatoes has more than doubled. The live stock has also 

 greatly augmented, and far more on the small farms than on the large estates. 



The produce of the manufecturing industries has also been more than doubled 

 since 1864, and rose from £8,000,000 in 1857 to over £16,000,000 in 1873. The 

 development of material progress is further rendered evident from the growth of 

 the population, formerly so frequently decimated by revolutions, massacres, and 

 epidemics. The birth rate increases, while mortality diminishes ; the mean of life 

 is prolonged ; and by an unexpected phenomenon the Polish element develops more 

 rapidly than the German. The religious returns show that between 1863 and 

 1870 the Catholics, mostly Poles, increased 21 per cent., while the Protestants, 

 nearly all Germans, gained only 12 per cent. The establishment of new schools 



