ACTIVITIES BEFORE THE WAR 45 
perts and enabled the population to study the application of im- 
proved farming methods adapted to local conditions. Such model 
institutions, of which there were sometimes several in one district, 
were established by about one-third of all the district zemstvos. 
Experimental stations. These were as a rule organized by the 
zemstvos, and more rarely by the Government or by agricultural 
societies, aided by the zemstvos. At the stations tests were made and 
experiments conducted with various methods of cultivation, varieties 
of seeds, special crops, etc. Thirty-seven out of the forty-three zem- 
stvo provinces maintained 159 such establishments. During the few 
years preceding the War the. zemstvos, as well as the agricultural 
societies aided by the zemstvos, maugurated a system of control 
stations to examine seeds and fertilizers. In 1914, seventeen zemstvo 
provinces had a total of twenty-five control stations. The zemstvos 
also began to pay attention to the high percentage of impurities in 
the seed grain used by the peasants, and the result was that the zem- 
stvo provinces were soon covered with a regular network of grain- 
cleansing stations. 
Improved breeding of draught animals and cattle was greatly 
promoted by the zemstvos importing special breeds of foreign as 
well as domestic sires (stallions, bulls, and even rams and boars) 
and establishing breeding stations. The government studs main- 
tained at various places throughout Russia were, as a rule, heavily 
subsidized by the zemstvos. 
The activities of the zemstvos in the agricultural field were so far 
reaching and presented so many different aspects that it is impos- 
sible for us to enumerate them all in this chapter. We must confine 
ourselves to emphasizing here the part played by the zemstvos in the 
promotion of agricultural knowledge. They opened agricultural 
schools, both elementary and secondary, and some of these (for in- 
stance, the school maintained by the Alexandrovsk district zemstvo 
in the province of Ekaterinoslav) were known throughout Russia as 
model institutions. It may be said without fear of exaggeration that 
entire new branches of agriculture grew up, if not on the direct 
initiative of the zemstvos, at least in a considerable measure thanks 
to the work done by them. The grass cultivation in the provinces of 
Moscow and Tver, the butter-making industry in the province of 
Vologda, and other such innovations, are instances of this. 
The zemstvo stores of agricultural machinery, implements, and