Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-11-21
RUSSIA'S BIG FARM ACREAGE
Largest in the World, But Farm Meth
DDS are Crude and Unscientifc.

Russia s economic resources are of q
richness and variety fully commensu-
rate to her extent.
In tact, Russia is land of great
latent opportunities. for lack of CAPT.
tai, bad political and social conditions,
and insufficient means of transporta-
tion have hitherto notably retarded her
economic progress,
How tar Russia's actual production
lays behind its potentiality is striking
ly illustrated by the state of Russian
agriculture. Russia Is prominently
an agricultural country. Seveu-eighths
of the population OF European Russia
are engaged in agricultural pursuits of
one kind or another, 81 per cent of the
the people being officially listed as
peasants.
The area devoted to cereal crops and
stock-raising is enormous. In 1918 the
area under cultivation for these pur-
poses alone totalled 368, 600. 900 acres,
divided as follows: cereal crops. 257.-
900, 900 acres; potatoes, 1900, 900
acres fax and hemp. $500. 1000 acres; ;
meadows, 90, 900. 900 acres.
The output of this acreage yields inn
posing totals. In 1918, reckoned in
pools q pood Sc pounds) they we're:
cereals, $3.50, 900, 900 pools; potatoes,
2, 1871, 900, 900 pools; sugar, LOG, 900, 600
pools; hay 3, 246, 600, 900 pools.
Besides these major crops, Ameri-
cans would do we'll to note that Russia
is also a large scale producer of cotton
and tobacco. In 1914 the cotton acre.
age in Central Asia and the Caucasus
was 1900. 900 acres. yielding 1.250. 600
5OO.pound bales, while in 1918 the to-
bacco acreage was $4,000, yielding
$500. 900 pools.
As might be inferred from the size
of the hay crop and the extensive
stock ranges in the steppe-lands of the
Empire, Russia is also great pro-
Queer of livestock and dairy products.
In 1914, Russia possessed 5000. 600
horses, 25.OO0,00 hsrned cattle. IT,
900, 900 sheep and goats and $4,000, 600
pigs.
Now at first blush these figures
would seem to Indicate great agricul-
turaI prosperity, especially, when we
remember that the great "black earth"
belt of South Central Russia is akin to
our best prairie soil, while vast areas
in Siberia are the counterparts of the
wheat lands OF the Guardian North
west.
Certainly, even as things stand, Rus
STA IS one OF the leading agricultural
producers of the world. And yet,
when we come to examine social condi-
tions. we find such ignorance of mod
ern scientific farming, Anticipated
methods. lack of capital, and general
inefficiency that the Russian peasant is
usually poor. debt-ridden and threaten.
ed with chronic starvation.
mat Russia, under these nanolcaps,
can still produce so much, shows what
Russian agriculture might accomplish
under methods similar to those prevail
ing IN America.
The Russian Empire as 1t existed in
1914 covered an area of $500. 700
square miles NEARLY three times the
size of the United States), while It's
population numbered 178, 900, 000 souls.
Stretching uninterruptedIy from Cen
trail Eruope to the Pacific and from the
Arctic Ocean to the mountainous back
bone of Central Asia. this huge politi-
cal organism engrossed nearly tne-
sixth of the total land surface of the
globe. From Russia: A Bird's-Eye
View" by T. Lathrop Stoddard, in the
American Review of Reviews for No.
vember, 1917.