ACTIVITY OF ZEMSTVO OF VLADIMIR AND KOSTROMA PROVINCES ON PROVIDING PEASANTS WITH QUALITY SEED MATERIAL IN THE EARLY XX CENTURY

Abstract

The article deals with activities of zemstvo assemblies, councils and agronomists of the Vladimir and Kostroma provinces for distribution high-yielding seeds among peasants. The author gives the names of the most active local agronomists at the beginning of the XX century and considers the specific assistance they provided to the peasants. These agronomists were assisted by the most enterprising peasants, who served as examples for their neighbors in the introduction of new varieties of seeds and other agrotechnical innovations. The author also analyses the printed and oral agitation, which agronomists carried out among peasants to distribute quality seeds among them. The article deals with activities of agricultural warehouses; in fact they were universal hardware stores. Here peasants could cheaply buy fertilizers, agricultural tools and machines, as well as planting material, qualitatively different from their own seeds. The author shows the spread of stationary and mobile zemstvo points, where grain was cleaned and sorted for farmers. The villagers actively used the services of these points. Zemstvo also took up scientific and practical work in seed production. Of course, zemstvo had neither a material base nor specialists to bring out new varieties, but in their experimental fields they were engaged in zoning and testing of certain varieties of grains and technical crops for the provinces of the Upper Volga. The article also deals with the effectiveness of the work of local agronomists, here examples are given how these activities increased yields and well-being of farmers.