tered into an agreement with a machine-tractor sta-
tion, explain the broad extent and development of the
machine-tractor stations and their significance in the
further reconstruction of agriculture.
The machine-tractor stations lead to a decided in-
crease in yield due to better cultivation of the fields
and to the agronomic aid rendered the farms. They
played a big role in the sowing campaign of the cur-
rent year, by cultivating an area of 1,999,700 hec-
tares. It is necessary to direct special attention to
these indexes which are furnished by machine-tractor
stations as regards utilization of tractors. These are
shown in the table on the preceding page.
The total annual number of working hours per trac-
tor will in 1930 be 2,300 hours. Under the plans
for establishing machine-tractor stations their number
is expected to increase in 1931 to 551, in 1932 to 796,
in 1933 to 798, with a horse-power of 3,987,300.
As a result of such a development of the machine-
tractor stations over a territory which in 1929 com-
prised 56,700,000 hectares of sown area, it is antici-
pated that the area under cultivation may be increased
58 per cent by 1933.
The reconstruction of agriculture in the Soviet
Union is already in full swing. It is sufficient to
analyze the data as to the share of the several groups
of grain producers before the revolution, in 1927, and
in the present year, in order to see the nature of the
changes which have taken place in agriculture in the
Soviet Union during the period of revolutionary recon-
struction. Before the war there fell to the share of the
large grain farmers, landowners and kulaks, 84 per
cent of the sown area, 40 per cent of the gross yield
of grain, and 61 per cent of -the commercial grain
crop, exclusive of local village consumption.
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