340 EXTRACTS FROM DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR [March 1895 • 



REPORTS. 



The principal cause of this circumstance is attributed to tlie 

 geographical position and the natural conditions of the kingdom, 

 in consequence of which a greater intensity of culture has become 

 necessary ; another reason is that the expenses of cultivation 

 are much higher. These .expenses are, it seems, so great that, 

 coupled with the high land-tax, they compel nearly one-half of 

 the Polish landowners to work at a loss, and their estates have 

 either already been sold by auction (entailing deterioration of 

 cultivation for many years to come), or are to be sold at no very 

 distant date. 



It is pointed out, also, that the agricultural depression has 

 weighed as heavily on the peasants as on the larger proprietors. 

 The crisis has diminished the income of 72 per cent, of the 

 population in the kingdom, and lessened the purchasing power 

 of the peasant. And if the peasant's direct loss is less, because 

 he possesses less land, his indirect loss is greater, because the 

 diminished intensity of cultivation lessens the demand for labour, 

 and consequently lowers wages. The emigrjition of the peasants 

 to Brazil in 1890-91 is alluded to as being strong evidence of 

 this state of things. 



[Foreign Office Report, Miscellaneous Series, No. 347. Price 

 3|d] 



Agriculture in South Russia. 



In a report to the Foreign Office for the year 1894 on the 

 agricultural condition of the district of the Consulate-General of 

 Odessa, Colonel C. E. Stewart, gives some interesting informa- 

 tion as to the position of agriculturists in South Russia. 



The Odessa consular district extends over ten of the largest 

 provinces in South Russia, where almost every variety of cultiva- 

 tion obtains, from the vineyards of Bessarabia and the Crimea, 

 producing very large quantities of wine, to the wheat and rye 

 of the more northern portion. 



The crops of 1894 on the whole were of a decidedly dis- 

 appointing character. Early in the spring, the winter wheat, 

 which is the great crop of the more northern provinces of these 

 Governments, suffered in consequence of the absence of snow 

 in the winter to cover it from the effects of frost. In some places 

 it was ploughed up and spring wheat or other crops sown in its 

 place, but in very many places it quite recovered itself in the 

 genial weather of the spring, and up to nearly the time of harvest 

 there was good pronnse of an abundant crop of both winter and 

 spring wheat, but just before and during the harvest operations 

 heavy rain fell, damaging the crops while they were in the field 

 and discolouring them a good deal. Also, in consequence of the 

 rainy season, there w^as an abundance of straw, which in Russia is 

 of no value whatever, and is used for fuel in the steam thrashing 



