soviet farms, the cultivable area of land upon these (without counting forest land) being 2,170,000 desyatinas.
107. Urban and suburban Agriculture (Market Gardening). 2
In view of the terrible food crisis which has been the inevitable outcome of the war and the revolution, a sound system of market gardening has become of extreme importance to the safety of the urban proletariat. This form of agriculture is beginning to flourish, and it will have a great future. The immediate task of municipal agriculture is to secure that every town shall have a sufficient area of cultivable land for the proper development of market gardening upon a large scale. Prior to the revolution, our towns owned about 2,000,000 desyatinas. The greater part of this area, occupied by buildings, pastures, parks, and vegetable gardens, still belongs to the towns. Part of the arable was assigned to the peasants, and has therefore been lost to the towns. But possession of such areas should be resumed by the towns. Further than this, all the environs of the towns should be expropriated, in so far as such a measure is requisite for a sound and generalised system of market gardening.