existed, where there was pedigree stock, and where up-to-date agricultural machinery was used. Some of these farms, which the soviets took under their care promptly, were saved from destruction, and they have become known as soviet farms. In addition, there passed into the system of soviet agriculture certain estates which could not be wholly distributed among the peasants because these already had as much land as they could work.
The soviet farms are the only ones in which large-scale socialist model farming, with all its advantages, can be carried on. Only by means of the soviet farms can we demonstrate to the peasants the advantages of large-scale collective agriculture.
On the soviet farms we can introduce a proper rotation of crops, and can give practical proof of all the drawbacks of the three-field system.
Here, too, we can use all kinds of agricultural machinery, including the most complicated.
The soviet farms are the only places where pedigree stock can be preserved from destruction and can be bred. Only by the use of the soviet stud-farms shall we be able by degrees to improve the farm stock of the surrounding peasantry.
At the soviet farm it will be easy to have demonstration fields for the peasants, and also to improve the seed by selective methods. Already on these farms we have sorting machines for the selection of the best seeds, and the neighbouring peasant farmers have the use of the machines.
The soviet farms organise agricultural schools, arrange for lectures on agriculture, inaugurate agricultural exhibitions, etc.
They institute workshops for the repair of agricultural implements, primarily for their own immediate use, but secondarily for the assistance of the peasant farmers of the district.