at
they must look for the means of subsistence. If the fields do not
supply enough for their support under the existing primitive methods
of cultivation, better methods must be adopted. To use a favourite
semi-scientific phrase, Russia has now reached the point in her economic
development at which she must abandon her traditional extensive system
of agriculture and adopt a more intensive system. So far all competent
authorities are agreed. But how is the transition, which requires
technical knowledge, a spirit of enterprise, an enormous capital, and a
dozen other things which the peasantry do not at present possess, to be
effected? Here begin the well-marked differences of opinion.

Hitherto the momentous problem has been dealt with chiefly by the
theorists and doctrinaires who delight in radical solutions by means of
panaceas, and who have little taste for detailed local investigation and
gradual improvement. I do not refer to the so-called "Saviours of the
Fatherland" (Spasiteli Otetchestva), well-meaning cranks and visionaries
who discover ingenious devices for making their native country at once
prosperous and happy. I speak of the great majority of reasonable,
educated men who devote some attention to the problem. Their favourite
method of dealing with it is this: The intensive system of agriculture
requires scientific knowledge and a higher level of intellectual
culture. What has to be done, therefore, is to create agricultural
colleges supplied with all the newest appliances of agronomic research
and to educate the peasantry to such an extent that they may be able to
use the means which science recommends.

For many years this doctrine prevailed in the Press, among the reading
public, and even in the official world. The Government was accordingly
urged to improve and multiply the agronomic colleges and the schools of
all grades and descriptions. Learned dissertations were published on the
chemical constitution of the various soils, the action of the
atmosphere on the different ingredients, the necessity of making careful
meteorological observations, and numerous other topics of a similar
kind; and would-be reformers who had no taste for such highly technical
researches could console themselves with the idea that they were
advancing the vital interests of the country by discussing the relative
merits of Communal and personal land-tenure--deciding generally in
favour of the former as more in accordance with the pe