150 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
sinister symptoms of serious trouble were becoming apparent. For 
one thing, the equipment of the peasantry was deteriorating and 
getting to be less and less serviceable. Then there was the drain 
upon the labor supply as each successive mobilization took more 
men from the fields. The consequence was that those who still re- 
mained were compelled to work to the point of exhaustion. Another 
difficulty was that in the consuming provinces there was often con- 
siderable delay in the delivery of the seed provided by the zemstvos. 
Live stock was growing scarce with the resulting shortage of ma- 
nure. Mineral fertilizers, ordinarily imported from abroad, could no 
longer be obtained. It was impossible to obtain a sufficiency of agri- 
cultural implements, not only expensive machinery, but even the 
most common tools. There were neither scythes nor sickles, and 
there was no way of obtaining steel parts for plows and harrows, 
iron for wagon tires, and nails and leather, so that even ordinary 
repairs could not be properly executed. In these circumstances it 
was useless to lease additional land from the large estates, the peas- 
ant being unable to take care even of his own land. 
Under these conditions the area cultivated by the peasants was 
shrinking more and more and gradually coming down to the level of 
their bare requirements. The peasants were sowing chiefly rye and 
partially neglecting their spring crops. With increasing frequency 
one now finds in the zemstvo reports appeals for help, not only for 
‘he wives of the soldiers. but for “farms undermined by the war” 
generally. 
On the estates of the landlords conditions were even worse. Rents 
were declining, much land ordinarily leased out to the peasants was 
now lying fallow, labor was almost unobtainable, and wages were 
mounting so high as to leave no assurance that the cost of produc- 
ing the grain could ever be covered. The area under cultivation was 
shrinking perceptibly. The reports describing these conditions were 
beginning to appear in the newspapers, often in an exaggerated 
form, and, coupled with the declining consignments of food to the 
-ities, began seriously to alarm the public. 
In the first half of 1916 the Ministry of Agriculture, yielding to 
the demands of the Unions of Zemstvos and of Towns, at last de- 
cided to take an agricultural census which would show, among other 
things, the available supplies of labor and live stock and the area 
cultivated. The census was taken by the zemstvos in twenty-one dif-