Natural and Climate Conditions as the Factor of Influence on Agriculture in the Last Quarter of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th centuries: on the Example of Uman County of Kyiv Province

Abstract

The article contains systematized data about natural and climate conditions on the territory of Uman county, which had been published in the columns of Kyiv provincial newspapers «The Kievljanin» («The Kyiv Citizen»)‚ «The Trud» («The Work»)‚ «The Zarja» («The Dawn»)‚ «The Kievskoe Slovo» («The Kyiv Word») during 1881-1912. It has been found out that only three years out of thirty were favorable for agriculture. It has been shown that weather conditions significantly influenced the efficiency of agricultural labor. It is observed that under the same natural and climate conditions agricultural production was more effective in economies in comparison with peasant farms. A close connection between the links of such a chain: weather conditions, harvest / crop failure, livestock keeping, the welfare of landowners and land users has been shown.

According to the data, given in the article, farmers’ harvest expectations were futile in 1881, 1911, 1912 due to excessively rainy weather. In 1884, 1889, 1903, 1904 cereal crops were almost destroyed by snowless and windy winters. Dry springs in 1884, 1889, 1890, 1897, 1899 and 1900, autumn droughts in 1887, 1907 also disappointed farmers and landowners. A severe winter and dry summer in 1896, a very cold autumn with night frosts in October 1909, natural disasters in 1885, an early spring followed by frosts in 1888, a frosty and windy spring in 1908 highlighted the understanding of the importance of soil moisture. Landowners were the first who understood it and started sowing winter crops earlier. Winter grains were sown in the peasant lands later and before the onset of cold weather they did not have time to take root well that made the crops vulnerable to snowless and windy winters. Therefore, the aim of annual publications of provincial newspapers about natural and climate conditions, natural disasters was probably to accumulate the experience in the regulation of winter and spring sowing time periods, find out the patterns of temperature swings and the repeatability of weather conditions.