登陆注册
5382300000234

第234章 CHAPTER XXXI(11)

Of the land classed as unfit for cultivation--19 per cent. of the whole--a large portion, including the perennially frozen tundri of the far north, must ever remain unproductive, but in latitudes with a milder climate this category of land is for the most part ordinary morass or swamp, which can be transformed into pasturage, or even into arable land, by drainage at a moderate cost. As a proof of this statement I may cite the draining of the great Pinsk swamps, which was begun by the Government in 1872. If we may trust an official report of the progress of the works in 1897, an area of 2,855,000 dessyatins (more than seven and a half million acres) had been drained at an average cost of about three shillings an acre, and the price of land had risen from four to twenty-eight roubles per dessyatin.

Reclamation of marshes might be undertaken elsewhere on a much more moderate scale. The observant traveller on the highways and byways of the northern provinces must have noticed on the banks of almost every stream many acres of marshy land producing merely reeds or coarse rank grass that no well-brought-up animal would look at.

With a little elementary knowledge of engineering and the expenditure of a moderate amount of manual labour these marshes might be converted into excellent pasture or even into highly productive kitchen-gardens; but the peasants have not yet learned to take advantage of such opportunities, and the reformers, who deal only in large projects and scientific panaceas for the cure of impoverishment, consider such trifles as unworthy of their attention. The Scotch proverb that if the pennies be well looked after, the pounds will look after themselves, contains a bit of homely wisdom totally unknown to the Russian educated classes.

After the morasses, swamps, and marshes come the forests, constituting 39 per cent. of the whole area, and the question naturally arises whether some portions of them might not be advantageously transformed into pasturage or arable land. In the south and east they have been diminished to such an extent as to affect the climate injuriously, so that the area of them should be increased rather than lessened; but in the northern provinces the vast expanses of forest, covering millions of acres, might perhaps be curtailed with advantage. The proprietors prefer, however, to keep them in their present condition because they give a modest revenue without any expenditure of capital.

Therein lies the great obstacle to land-reclamation in Russia: it requires an outlay of capital, and capital is extremely scarce in the Empire of the Tsars. Until it becomes more plentiful, the area of arable land and pasturage is not likely to be largely increased, and other means of checking the impoverishment of the peasantry must be adopted.

A less expensive means is suggested by the statistics of foreign trade. In the preceding chapter we have seen that from 1860 to 1900 the average annual export of grain rose steadily from under 1

1/2 millions to over 6 millions of tons. It is evident, therefore, that in the food supply, so far from there being a deficiency, there has been a large and constantly increasing surplus. If the peasantry have been on short rations, it is not because the quantity of food produced has fallen short of the requirements of the population, but because it has been unequally distributed. The truth is that the large landed proprietors produce more and the peasants less than they consume, and it has naturally occurred to many people that the present state of things might be improved if a portion of the arable land passed, without any socialistic, revolutionary measures, from the one class to the other. This operation began spontaneously soon after the Emancipation. Well-

to-do peasants who had saved a little money bought from the proprietors bits of land near their villages and cultivated them in addition to their allotments. At first this extension of peasant land was confined within very narrow limits, because the peasants had very little capital at their disposal, but in 1882 the Government came to their aid by creating the Peasant Land Bank, the object of which was to advance money to purchasers of the peasant class on the security of the land purchased, at the rate of 7 1/2

per cent., including sinking fund. From that moment the purchases increased rapidly. They were made by individual peasants, by rural Communes, and, most of all, by small voluntary associations composed of three, four, or more members. In the course of twenty years (1883-1903) the Bank made 47,791 advances, and in this way were purchased about eighteen million acres. This sounds a very big acquisition, but it will not do much to relieve the pressure on the peasantry as a whole, because it adds only about 6 per cent. to the amount they already possessed in virtue of the Emancipation Law.

This arrangement extinguishes the debt in 34 1/2 years; an additional 1 per cent, extinguishes it in 24 1/2 years. By recent legislation other arrangements are permitted.

同类推荐
  • The Passing of the Frontier

    The Passing of the Frontier

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 晋中兴书

    晋中兴书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • MY WORLD

    MY WORLD

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • On the Frontier

    On the Frontier

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 九品往生阿弥陀三摩地集陀罗尼经

    九品往生阿弥陀三摩地集陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 十不善业道经

    十不善业道经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 厨房新手做菜秘籍

    厨房新手做菜秘籍

    本书为介绍做菜入门书,从材料的选购和处理到最后的掌握和驾驭菜肴,作者将多年来的烹调心得通过最简单的文字叙述给读者,让青涩的新手也能轻松做好菜。本书共分为酱汁调味料篇、饭粥篇、蔬果篇、肉类篇、熬汤篇、素食篇、熬汤篇等七章。
  • 续晋阳秋

    续晋阳秋

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 老残游记

    老残游记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 死囚

    死囚

    《死囚》的内容全部来自丁一鹤对案件当事人的亲自采访和他所接触的相关案卷,而且是对案件鲜为人知的内幕进行原汁原味的展示和披露。因为作者的采访和掌握的资料是一手的、真实的、独家的,所以《死囚》对于案件的报道是具有一定深度和广度的,而且大多内容是读者闻所未闻见所未见的。丁一鹤用纪实文学的方式记录中国法制进程的一些片段,《死囚》所展示的案件都在北京和全国产生过一定影响,有的案情也通过各种传播渠道为广大读者所知。
  • 高血压健康生活指南

    高血压健康生活指南

    高血压与心肌梗死关系密切。有资料表明高血压病人中约14%可出现心肌梗死,其中男性多于女性。在男性患者中,高血压病人心肌梗死的发病率比血压正常者高2~4倍。其次为临界高血压,而血压正常或偏低者心肌梗死的发生率较低,这说明高血压是引起冠心病心肌梗死的主要原因。
  • 冷王霸爱:大龄丫鬟

    冷王霸爱:大龄丫鬟

    一朝穿越,让在现代人人称颂的菜馆女老板,变成了某个美艳妖娆男人的细作。她当细作的同时,也成了某位冷漠残酷的王爷府上最大龄的丫鬟。当丫鬟就当呗,谁知这妖娆的男人还让她去给冷漠残酷王爷最宝贝的侧妃下药!若是那个冷漠残酷的王爷发现了,她还有得活?而许久后的一日,这位冷漠残酷的王爷却附身在她的耳边,幽幽地道,“灵瑞啊,既然你助本王的侧妃怀上了别人的孩子,那你也应该好好听话,给本王生一个孩子啊?”而这幽幽还带着一丝阴森的语气,便让俞灵瑞一颤,“你该不会是想……”于是,这冷漠残酷的王爷又一次期身而上,而她却不知他如此待她,只是因为她心里装着别人。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 笛鸣悠悠

    笛鸣悠悠

    眷念,是一种情怀,是一份刻骨铭心的爱。当岁月的年轮翻飞,烟尘一路远去,面对故土,眷念也便愈发深切。风来了,且听……这悠悠笛声,似文字,似旋律,似实景,亦是意象,不管怎样,我总感觉到她来自于心灵,来自于心灵深处自然流淌的点点滴滴……
  • 刘子遗书

    刘子遗书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 德风禅师般若语录

    德风禅师般若语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。