THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE 247
ing that some machines were out of repair and that it would cost too
much to make them serviceable. On the suggestion of the Zemstvo
Union, the military authorities thereupon requisitioned the factory
and handed it over to the Union’s committee of the southwestern
front to be set working once more. Within a fortnight the entire
plant was cleaned, repaired, equipped with new machinery, and put
into operation. At first, in the spring of 1915, it produced 10,000
to 12,000 puds of tanning extracts a month, as against a maximum
of 10,000 puds which it had been producing before the War; later,
the output was increased to 18,000 puds. With 15,000 puds a
month it was already possible to assure the tanning of 50,000 hides a
month, which furnished sufficient material for 150,000 pair of army
boots. Hides and tanning extracts were supplied exclusively to those
organizations which undertook to supply boots to the army, in
quantities corresponding to the contracts that they signed. The
Union’s committee of the southwestern front also entered into contracts
 with several private factories for the production of considerable
 quantities of sole leather, of which the shortage was acute. The
hides and tanning extracts were issued to these factories from the
zemstvo warehouses. The Union was thus able to sell sole leather at
thirty rubles a pud, when the market price was ninety rubles.
Starting with thirty-five depots of hides in March, 1915, the
committee had already seventy-four depots by September, and by
the end of the summer the average monthly receipts of hides
amounted to 100,000 pieces. In June the collection of hides became
very difficult, owing to the retreat of the Russian army from Galicia.
[n September, 1915, in view of the successful work accomplished in
the collection and distribution of the raw hides, the Army Supply
Department offered the Union of Zemstvos to extend its activities
to the western and northern fronts. This proposal was accepted,
and a number of receiving depots were established, with the principal
 storehouse at Minsk, and later at Smolensk.
In August, 1915, a similar agreement was concluded in the Caucasus
 between the Zemstvo Union and the Army Supply Department.
 Collecting more than 20,000 hides a month, the Tiflis Committee
 provided also for the salting and drying, and dispatched the
hides to Moscow at the earliest opportunity. It did not assume any
obligation, however, for the distribution of the raw hides for manufacturing
 purposes. Thus a certain quantity of raw hides from the