Along these two lines, the collectives and the state
farms, there will be developed the complete collectivization
 of the Soviet village.
One of the most important developments in the collectivization
 movement was the creation of machinetractor
 stations which had their first trial on one of the
state farms, Shevchenko, in the Ukraine. This experiment,
 whose initiator was A. M. Markevich, an agronomist,
 spread widely and received the support of the
Soviet Government. A machine-tractor station, according
 to the definition of Markevich, is a center for
all the mechanical power and the technical equipment
 necessary for supplying to the fullest extent the
production needs of agricultural enterprises. This
makes possible an immense economy in technical means
of production, their maximum utilization through
machine-tractor stations within the limits of a radius
of more than 15 to 20 kilometers.
Collective farms, which have been organized on territory
 served by a machine-tractor station, enter into
agreements with the latter as to conditions for the
cultivation of the fields of the collective farms by the
machine-tractor station. The agronomic aid rendered
by the machine-tractor stations and the enlisting of
members of the collective farms into the working staffs
of these stations decidedly transform the aspect of the
countryside served by these stations. Machine-tractor
stations first of all lead to the growth of the sown area
and to the bettering of production. Thus, in the
Berezov district on farms served by machine-tractor
stations and organized in 1928, the planted area increased
 as much as 28.4 per cent, while in villages not
served by stations the planted area either remained
unchanged, or increased on the average about 4.5 per
cent.

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