(Former State peasants holding their land on the right of quarterly possession, are here noted separately in order to show that they enjoy about the same facilities for stock-breeding as do the rest of the peasantry). [30] This is shown in the table below: +--------------------+------------------------+------------------------+ | | Ranenburg. | Dankoff. | | +-----------+------------+-----------+------------+ | Communities. | Former | Former | Former | Former | | | serfs. | State | serfs. | State | | | | peasants. | | peasants. | +--------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+------------+ | Total | 276 | 52 | 260 | 39 | | Forest allotted to | 3 | 26 | 19 | 27 | +--------------------+-----------+------------+-----------+------------+ (_Cf. Statistical Reports_, Vol. II, pp. I-II., Appendices.) [31] We read in the Appendix to the _Statistical Reports for the Ranenburg District_, p. 321: “_Village Novoselki, former serfs of Barkoff._ About 1877, pressed by the extreme need of daily bread, the peasants began sowing all the fields, without giving them rest for a single year (in Russia every field rests once in three years); the yield is now constantly going from bad to worse, and there is nothing to manure the soil with.” [32] _Statistical Reports for the District of Dankoff_, p. 240. [33] Moreover, a crying injustice was thereby created--an injustice peculiar to Russia alone. Enclosure is commonly considered the sign of private property. To this rule Russia is the sole exception. There the landlords do not care to enclose their estates, while the peasants lack the necessary means to do so, having no woods in their possession. Whenever the landlord’s estate adjoins the village, the peasants’ cattle, being innocent of the knowledge of geodesical distinctions, invariably cross the fatal line. Then, if caught, (which is the rule,) they are duly arrested and delivered to their owners only after compensation has been paid for the damages suffered by the landlord. The courts are overwhelmed with processes of this kind just when the farmer is most busy. The number of villages laboring under these unfavorable conditions is given in the following table: _Communes of former serfs._ _Total._ _Injured by site._ Ranenburg 288 22 Dankoff 274 17 (_Cf. Statistical Reports_, Vol. II., Appendices.) [34] _Cf. Statistical Reports for the Gubernia of Voronezh_, Vol. II., part II., pp. 166, 172; Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1890 (Washington, 1891), p. 335; Reports of the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture, 1891, by J. R. Dodge, Statistician, pp. 277-280, 654-655.