+--------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+ | | | October, | Increase or | | | 1887. | 1891. | Decrease. | | Households (total: 745). +-----------|-----------+----------------+ | | Per cent. | Per cent. | Per cent. | +--------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+ | “Horseless” | 5 } | 29 } | +480 } | | With 1 horse | 14 } 19 | 29 } 58 | +107 } +205 | | | | | | | ” from 2 to 3 horses | 32 } | 28 } | -12 } | | ” 4 horses | 14 } 81 | 7 } 42 | -50 } -48 | | ” 5 or more horses | 35 } | 7 } | -80 } | | +-----------+-----------+----------------+ | Total | 100 | 100 | | +--------------------------+-----------+-----------+----------------+ Such was the condition of the peasantry as early as in October, when the famine was still at its very beginning. Concentration of communal land in the hands of a few wealthy lessees is reported by the Bureau as an immediate result of the famine, but the respective figures are not cited in Mr. Vodovozoff’s paper. [190] We read in a communication from the district of Voronezh that “there is hardly one-fourth of the live stock left.… Thanks to the enfeebled condition, as well as to the complete loss of the peasants’ horses, many among the landlords, and larger tenants, have secured live stock of their own.” _The Agriculturist_ (St. Petersburg), No. 26, April 24 (May 6), 1892. Says another correspondent, also a landlord: “This year the greatest part of the farm work was to be done with the landlord’s live stock, it being impossible to get peasants for the purpose, as they had suffered a heavy loss of horses.” (_Ib._, No. 33, June 12 (24), 1892.) [191] Fertilizing and irrigation have become a necessity in Russian agriculture. Let us figure the expenses entailed by these improvements.