June 1895.] EXTRACTS FROM DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR 63 



REPORTS. 



respectively with (1) the land occupied hy the peasants, and 

 their grazing and forest rights ; (2) the compensation to the 

 landlords ; (3 , the rural municipal institutions. 



The results of these Ukases are dealt with ab considerable 

 length in the Report, which finally refers to the present condi- 

 tion of the peasants in Poland. 



Mr. Grant states that during the 30 years that have elapsed 

 since the peasants became freeholders, their condition has un- 

 doubtedly improved, and they are now a fairly prosperous class, 

 but this is due more to the fact that their wants are small and 

 easily satisfied from the land they have received and the forest 

 and pasture rights bestowed upon them, than to any improve- 

 ment in the system of agriculture or development of personal 

 activity and industrious habits. 



Apparently, the principal want of a Polish peasant is fuel. 

 So long as he has enough wood to keep his stove going in winter 

 he is satisfied. His holding, however small, provides food 

 enough for his family and cattle, and a sheepskin fur in winter, 

 with a cheap suit or two of ^' baika" (fustian) in summer, is all 

 he requires in the shape of clothing. He is not, therefore, dis- 

 posed to exert himself to make money by using his spare time 

 in the service of others, and only high wages will occasionally 

 tempt him out of his home ; even then he has to be hard pressed 

 by the females of the famil}^ The only service which he appears 

 to perform with a certain pleasure and at comparatively low 

 wages is that of beater during the winter shootings, when he is 

 satisfied with from 4d to 7d. per day. 



The average yield of a pea.sant's holding under corn is not 

 much more than half of what it is on the farms of the landed 

 proprietors, principally owing to the fact that while the latter 

 manure one-sixth, the former cannot do more than one-tenth. 



One of the reasons for this is that in the winter the peasants 

 generally have more cattle than they have fodder for, and that 

 most of the straw which should be used as litter has to be 

 chopped up as food, to the detriment of the quantity of manure 

 produced. 



The average extent of the peasants' holdings appears to be 

 about 20 acres, but in the Government of Suwalki there are 

 peasants who have gradually accumulated as much as from 800 

 to 1,200 acres, without, however, ceasing to belong to the 

 peasant class. As a rule, the peasants hide any money they may 

 make, and it is only brought out when there is an opportunity 

 of buying land. 



Some of them are said to save enough money to complete a 

 purchase, others raise it on mortgage generally from the Jews. 

 But the Government, ever watcliful of their interests, and 

 desirous of seeing as much land as possible pass into their 

 hand, provided the peasants, or at least tried to provide them, 



