ASSISTANCE TO FARMING 7157 
large Kolomna, the Ufa provincial zemstvo in 1916 opened 4 fact LGR > 
tory of agricultural machinery, and the zemstvos of Perm, Nizhni- 2 
Novgorod, and Kherson proceeded to equip similar factorics "he, = 
Penza zemstvo engaged, among other things, in the manufacture of 
binder twine, and the zemstvos of Samara, Perm, and Vyatka built 
special works for the manufacture of potash and sulphuric acid. 
To operate the farming machinery efficiently, special instructors 
and skilled mechanics were required, for the farmers themselves were 
frequently just as inexperienced as the refugees, soldiers, and stu- 
dents. This is why the zemstvo organized short courses of instruc- 
tion at which hundreds of special instructors were trained. As for 
the machinery that happened to be available, the zemstvos endeav- 
ored to turn it to the best account. Thus, a large number of zemstvo 
assemblies requested the authorities to make certain that machines 
and implements in the possession of private owners should be placed 
at their disposal on suitable terms, as soon as their work would be 
finished on the private farms. Finally, in 1917, the zemstvos very 
frequently petitioned the authorities for permission to cultivate, 
free of charge, lands which would otherwise remain fallow. 
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The Peasant Woman. 
All these measures naturally tended to affect the agricultural 
situation in Russia during the War; in fact, however, it was not 
these measures which saved the farms of the peasantry from total 
collapse. It was the peasant women who accomplished this great 
task. According to the census of 1916, there were 158 women for 
every hundred men engaged on the land. It was the peasant women 
who took the places vacated by the menfolk in the fields as well as 
at home and, with the aid of neighbors, relatives, cooperative so- 
cieties, and zemstvos, successfully carried on their worn shoulders 
the burden of Russian agriculture. It is interesting to note in this 
connection a curious evolution in the very character of the Russian 
peasant woman, as she found herself acquiring a new importance in 
the eyes of the community and was getting for the first time in her 
life into personal contact with the authorities. 
The Russian peasant woman now very often acted as the inde- 
pendent head of the household, straining all her resources, physical 
and mental, to prevent its breakdown. She began to develop a new