June 1895.] EXTRACTS FROM DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR 75 



REPORTS. 



The recent general fall in the price of grain in Russian 

 markets is regarded as the chief cause of agricultural depression; 

 Russia's average crop of rye, wheat, oats, and barley — ^her 

 four -more important grains — being largely in excess of her 

 requirements for home consumption, a considerable portion of 

 each year's harvest must find a purchaser abroad. The home 

 prices of Russian grain, therefore, move in close connexion with 

 those ruling in the international markets. In the case of v/heat, 

 as much as two thirds of the net yield of the harvest-— after 

 deduction joi the seed for the following year— is usaally sent 

 abroad, so that the influence of the foreign market is more 

 immediately and strongly felt; the export of rye represents 

 only about one-twelfth of the net yield ; that of oats one- 

 seventh. 



e; £Fhe unsatisfactory position of agriculture in a large part of 

 •Russia has made the loss of farming profits consequent upon 

 lowered prices very severely felt. The farming methods practised 

 in the Baltic Provinces are in general excellent, and in the 

 western districts they are also comparatively up to date. But 

 in the great fertile south-eastern section of European Russia, 

 .known as the Black Soil region, the southern portion of which 

 grows the bulk of the wheat crop, agriculture is still of a some- 

 what rudimentary type. And it is maintained, therefore, that 

 if the Black Soil crop reaches its actual dimensions on an ill- 

 tilled, scarcely fertilised and thinly-sown soil, then it must be 

 susceptible, under improved conditions, of a very considerable 

 expansion. Moreover, the Southern Steppe region contains a 

 large area of fertile soil which has yet to be brought under the 

 plough. 



The principal measures hitherto tried, and now under dis- 

 cussion, for the benefit of the agricultural interest, are reported 

 to take one of two directions. Firstly, in order to assist the 

 peasant to better systems of culture, the Zemstva, or provincial 

 councils, receive State aid in land and money, towards founding 

 agricultural schools, establishing model farms, making experi- 

 ments in crops. They are also supplied gratis with the best seeds, 

 improved implements, machines, &c., the use of which it is their 

 business to teach and encourage among the peasantry. Secondly, 

 loans for short terms are placed within easy reach of the peasants. 

 It seems that experiments in peasants' banks have not been a 

 conspicuous success in the past. The Government are now 

 fi'aming rules for the foundation of village banks, with funds 

 drawn partly from the contributions of groups of communities, 

 and partly from other private and public sources, under the 

 superintendence of the Zemstva, which will aim at supplying 

 the farmer with the small capital he needs on the most favour- 

 able terms. Advances are also made to peasants for short terms 

 on the security of their grain, to obviate the necessity of 

 hurriedly realising to meet demands for taxes; and of- these 



