Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-06
Available for Distribution.


The government bill is accompanied by a
statement from the minister of agriculture
which gives the areas of land held by Diff
ferent classes ana available for distribu-
tion follows:
Total area of European Russia $50 9e0 coo
acres.
Forests, 140,000,000.
Unsuitable for agriculture, 262, 5000
Belonging to the peasants. 27T sec, 900.
Belonging to the communes. 227, 100000.
Belonging to the state, the crown and the
church, l12. 5oO,ee0.
Belonging to the peasants individually,
A 100000.
These figures seem a little confusing, but
more than most of the Russian gov
eminent statistics. Recent publications
show that the crown lands amount to about
a million square miles, much of them noun
tain and desert and entirely unavailable.
although many localities are supposed to be
rich in minerals and much of them are COW
cred with forests. The revenues from such
lands now go into the privy purse to pay
the household expenses of the czar and the
members of the imperial family.
+ There are about 220.000,00o acres of state
lands, of which the larger part is In for
ests, and they belong to the government as
distinct from the crown
The monks of the different religious or
ders Of the orthodox Greek church did
great deal of pioneer work In Russia, and
during the last eight or ten centuries have
to colonze and cultivate, amounting alto
gether to several hundred million acres.
Much of this area Is in, forests and pas
lures and has never been touched by the
plow. But a considerable part was culti-
waited with serfs under the direction of the
monks. Since the emancipation they have
impressed a good deal of labor and as
natural consequence have been in continual
trouble with the peasants, SO that the area
cultivated has diminished year by year.
Much OF the monastic land is leased, and
some OF II is worked on shares. Sew
eral of the orthodox monasteries are as rich
in land and other real estate as the Roman
Catholic orders In Spain
Lands of Large Owners.
The minister of agriculture tells me that
the land belonging to large owners, mobiles,
princes and other rich men-the greater
part of which has been handed down from
generation 10 generation in old families,
having originally been granted them for
services military and other-amounts TO
about 1T0.Oo0,000 acres. of which 90, 0O0, 600
are in forests, and the remaining sO,0o0 600
acres are in pasture or under cultivation.
OF this $4,000, 600. not less than 5000 600
acres are leased to peasant farmers on
shares. The minister of agriculture also
tells me that the government has already
received offers of 3, 1900 acres from pri-
vate owners which may be purchased on
addition to this there are something like
% 100000 acres of arabic land belonging to
the church, the crown and the state which
is Immediately available for distribution
under the laws now pending In the douma,
without forced appropriation.
The offers OF private estates will doubt
less be very much larger within a short
time. because private land owners are In a
state of stampede and are getting rid of
their property as rapidly possible.
l was Informed by st. Petersburg
| banker the other day that Prince Peter Dol
gorouki of Moscow and Prince Shapofsky
OF northern Russia, both leaders of the lib
eral party and among the richest men of
the empire, had sold nearly all of their
lands for remarkably low prices The
sales of farming lands have never been so
great as now. This shows a lack of con-
adence in the ability of the douma to solve
the peasant problem, but at the same time
Il is due to alarm over the outbreaks that
have been followed by such terrible devas-
tatton.