Throughout the time, let’s say, the meaningful existence of mankind, statistics have been present to one degree or another in people's lives. Given the fact that agriculture for the vast majority of peoples was a fundamental type of activity, statistical calculations began to appear in the bottom industry earlier and more intensively. If we consider such a factor as agricultural statistics on the vast expanses of modern Russia, it is worth noting the fact that this aspect was formed within relatively acceptable boundaries exclusively in the 18th century. Moreover, throughout almost the entire 19th century, the province books kept records of exclusively sown grain and harvested, sown areas were not taken into account in any way, which, of course, made it impossible to determine the yield. And only in 1882-1883, information was collected on the provinces of the sown areas.
Central Statistical Committee received relative yields
Agricultural statistics at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries were quite superficial. This is due to the fact that the vast majority of information was collected by voluntary correspondents according to the words of land owners. It should be noted that almost until 1903, the sown area was divided into only two categories - ownership and allotment. And only with changes in the work of the Central Statistical Committee in 1904, land gradation increased in some way, privately owned, bought, rented and allotted land appeared.
An interesting fact is that in addition to the Central Statistical Committee itself, crop statistics were also of interest to the Department of Agriculture, as well as the rural industry, which belongs to the Ministry of State Property and Agriculture. At the same time, the sown area, of course, was also not taken into account. An interesting fact can be considered that during this period the statistics of crop production, more precisely, the yield of cereals and other crops was carried out in the so-called themselves. This is a relative unit of measure characterizing the ratio of the seeded feedstock to the harvested crop. For example, the indicator “itself two” meant that initially it was sown half as much, say, grain than later it was harvested.
Livestock statistics
It is clear that even in the relatively early stages of its formation, agricultural statistics could not be limited even to the banal account of grown grain and other crops. Naturally, to a certain extent, the number of livestock was kept. The amount of livestock available was included in the same provincial books, which at that time were the main source of information. It is worth noting that livestock statistics at the end of the 18th century were kept by the veterinary department of the Ministry of the Interior (since 1863), however, the most reliable information on this issue was brought by the so-called military horse censuses, which originate in 1882, conducted still there by the Central Statistical Committee in 58 provinces. It is clear that this census was conducted on horses, their age, owners and so on. But it was the presence of a horse or several that characterized, in principle, at that time the possibilities of economy.
It is interesting that, despite the fact that agricultural statistics were developing and, most importantly, there was a place to be, a full-scale agricultural census throughout Russia was carried out only in 1916. This was due to the war and the need to take into account all the food resources of the country.