5o6 Agricultural MACi-riNERY in Trans-Caucasus. 



of February, 1861, when the serfs were emancipated, and partly 

 by the general code of the Empire ; but chiefly by local custom. 

 The predominance of custom, which is perfectly admissible 

 when the civil laws possess the simplicity of patriarchal condi- 

 tions, no longer satisfies the requirements of the more complex 

 surroundings of the Russian peasant of to-day. The basis of 

 rural organisation is the family,'"' in the special meaning 

 that this word possesses for the Russian peasant.* This 

 state of affairs, in the absence of regulating principles, often 

 gives rise to domestic dissensions, to the dissolution of the 

 common tie, and to the depreciation of the common estate. 

 The uncertain character of the rights of each member of the 

 family over the property he has acquired, and of the duties he 

 owes to the head of the family, induces a slackening of energy 

 and a decreased productivity of labour. Simple additions to, 

 or amendments of, existing laws will not, in the view of the 

 Minister, remedy the defects of the present situation. The 

 great questions of principle which affect the organisation of 

 rural life in the Empire must be faced, and until this is done 

 no relief measures, such as the establishment of agricultural 

 credit banks and the opening up of fresh markets, will have 

 any permanent effect in ameliorating the condition of the 

 mass of the agricultural population. 



Agricultural Machinery in the Trans-Caucasus. 



In a report to the Foreign Office on agriculture in the 

 Trans-Caucasus, Mr. Consul Stevens states that the reduc- 

 tion of the duty on foreign made agTicultural implements, 

 which was referred to in a former number of this Journal, is 

 not likely to affect to any great extent the importation of a 

 more modern type of machinery than is at present in use by 

 the peasantry of the country, since the Trans-Ca,ucasus is not 

 an essentially grain growing" countr}^, and the localities in 

 which cereals are raised to any extent, viz., the governments 



" The "family" here impHes a collection of persons who exploit, or are enume- 

 rated as exploiting, in common one or several parcels of land. These persons may 

 not all be blood relations ; some of them may even be domiciled hundreds of miles 

 from the holding. 



