548 Wheat Cultivation in Russia. [dec. 



kinds have, however, increased very rapidly of late years, and the 

 most improved and modern agricultural machinery is to be 

 found on some private estates, and in the south-western 

 provinces smaller implements are in universal use even by the 

 small landholders and peasants. Great efforts in this direction 

 are made by the Zemstvos, who have in many districts estab- 

 lished stores for the sale of machinery to the peasants. 



Manuring. — Another great cause of the low yields is the 

 insufficient manuring, as the three-field system to a great extent 

 substitutes fallowing for manuring. In the non-black-soil 

 region the entire winter field is manured, but in the black-soil 

 districts the practice is much less common. Lack of agricultural 

 knowledge and lack of manure owing to insufficient cattle are 

 perhaps the principal causes, while the communal ownership also 

 tends to discourage the practice. On the whole, the causes of 

 the backwardness of Russian agriculture are to be found on the 

 one hand in the system of land tenure, and on the other in the 

 antiquated methods of agriculture due to the poverty and 

 ignorance of the people. 



Cost of Production. — Labour and rent have a very great 

 influence on the cost of production, and it is stated that the 

 cost of wheat growing in Russia, while extremely variable, is, on 

 the whole, far from being as low as would be thought, judging 

 from the extremely low wages, and that the low average yield 

 and high rents are the essential causes of the comparatively 

 high average cost of production, which oscillates between is. 5^d. 

 and IS. io|d. per bushel, exclusive of rent. 



In addition to European Russia, two of the less known por- 

 tions of the Russian Empire offer immense possibilities in the 

 direction of wheat cultivation, and in both this crop is at the 

 present time the main object of cultivation. 



Caucasia. — Neither the total production nor the total acreage 

 of the whole of Caucasia can be given, but a normal crop of wheat 

 in Transcaucasia is officially estimated at 8i million bushels 

 and the production in Northern Caucasia in 1904 was practi- 

 cally the same. The acreage in both countries is believed to be 

 rapidly extending, but the population is very scanty. The yield 

 is higher than in European Russia, and an increased population, 



