at a reasonable rent, he might cultivate it in addition to his
own and thereby gain a livelihood; but if he had not the good luck to
find such a piece of land in the immediate neighbourhood, he had to look
for some subsidiary occupation in which to employ his leisure time; and
where was such occupation to be found in an ordinary Russian village?
In former years he might have employed himself perhaps in carting the
proprietor's grain to distant markets or still more distant seaports,
but that means of making a little money has been destroyed by the
extension of railways. Practically, then, he is now obliged to choose
between two alternatives: either to farm his allotment and spend a
great part of the year in idleness, or to leave the cultivation of
his allotment to his wife and children and to seek employment
elsewhere--often at such a distance that his earnings hardly cover the
expenses of the journey. In either case much time and energy are wasted.

The evil results of this state of things were intensified by another
change which was brought about by the Emancipation. In the time of
serfage the peasant families, as I have already remarked, were usually
very large. They remained undivided, partly from the influence
of patriarchal conceptions, but chiefly because the proprietors,
recognising the advantage of large units, prevented them from breaking
up. As soon as the proprietor's authority was removed, the process
of disintegration began and spread rapidly. Every one wished to be
independent, and in a very short time nearly every able-bodied
married peasant had a house of his own. The economic consequences were
disastrous. A large amount of money had to be expended in constructing
new houses and farmsteadings; and the old habit of one male member
remaining at home to cultivate the land allotment with the female
members of the family whilst the others went to earn wages elsewhere
had to be abandoned. Many large families, which had been prosperous and
comfortable--rich according to peasant conceptions--dissolved into three
or four small ones, all on the brink of pauperism.

The last cause of peasant impoverishment that I have to mention is
perhaps the most important of all: I mean the natural increase of
population without a corresponding increase in the means of subsistence.
Since the Emancipation in 1861 the population has nearly doubled, whilst
the amount of Communal land has remained the same. It is not surprising,