Here, the author quotes an 1856 document describing the extensive holdings of the landlord Pavel Yagmin. The title material of the document:
Description of the Inventory of the Divin Estate
Description of the patrimonial estates of the landlord, Former leader of the nobility,
Honorary Superintendent of the Schools and Cavalier Pavel Kastonova Yagmin.
Grodny Province, Kobryn County
Composed 12 January 1856
In the stated estate of Divin and its townships Pavlinka, Yagminovo, as well as the village of Oso is in the proper and effective possession of Yagmin: there were recorded nine hundred and five people of the male sex, peasants of the last, 9th national census.
A land accounting:
{
27} Lands, belonging to this name, as well as the lands of the declared villages, belong to and are located in the sole ownership of landowner Paul Yagmin.
They are classified as follows:
• Farmstead land, 260
dessiatines [702 acres; 2.8 sq km]
• Arable land, 3,258
dessiatines [8295 acres; 35.6 sq km]
• Grasslands and marshlands, 2,737
dessiatines [7389 acres; 29.9 sq km]
•
Pasture, 1,600
dessiatines [4319 acres; 17.5 sq km]
• Woodlands, partly lumber forests, 2,400
dessiatines [6479 acres; 26.2 sq km]
• Small bushes, 3,800
dessiatines [10,259 acres; 41.5 sq km]
• Unsuitable land, 5,345
dessiatines [14,430 acres; 58.4 sq km]
Total land in ownership,
dessiatines – 19,400 [52,373 acres; 211.9 sq km]
During plowing, used in the field are 193 horses, in the vegetable gardens 16.
Annual crop consists of the following:
Winter Sowing: Yards – 322 quarters [1918 bushels; 67591 liters]
Winter Sowing: Peasant Farms – 772 quarters [4301 bushels; 15155 liters]
Spring Sowing: Yards – 442 quarters [2623 bushels; 92780 liters]
Spring Sowing: Peasants' Farms – 2,605 quarters and 4 fourths [15530 bushels; 596920 liters]
Total: 4,141 quarters and 4 fourths [24382 bushels; 858947 liters]
The author quotes a dictionary of Russian measurements to explain the archaic land mesures:
1) Quarter. This is an old Russian measure of bulk materials, each contains – 89 fourths (around 210 liters).
2) A fourth is equivalent to – 26239 liters. These were the measurements of bulk materials used in Russia until the introduction of the metric system of measurement.
(From the dictionary of Russian measurements)
More about the farm-produce:
The peasants of Divin produced, mainly, the products of their labor in the fields. This was different types of bread and agricultural products. All of this was partly sold right at the place, and partly shipped to the cities. For instance in Kobryn, located 28 kilometers from Divin, or Ratno – 26 kilometers away.
About the site of Yagmin's holdings:
The property of Divin is located at a distance of 14 kilometers from the Dnieper-Bug ship canal, as well as a distance of about 7 kilometers from the manmade Orekhovski canal. On the territory of the place there is a lake the size of 240 dessiatines.[648 acres; 2.6 sq km]
The Military-communications road runs through the town Divin.
About the facilities on the estate-farm and in nearby towns:
{
28} The Yard Buildings are as Follows
In the Divin estate there are
1) A solid wood residential house,
2) A wooden outbuilding with a kitchen and servants quarters,
3) A stone two-floor distillery, with six residential rooms. Nearly a hundred poods [a Russian weight equal to about 16 kg] (1,600 kg) of wine were produced there daily. A big barn for the storage of the wine was adjacent to this. Here there was also a horse-powered mill with a machine for supplying water to the distillery,
4) Ice block [house] with a wooden cellar,
5) A wooden hearth with a brick chimney,
6) A horse stable for keeping 40 horses, as well as a yard for keeping birds and small hornless livestock,
7) A shed to house 1,500 sheep,
8) A shed for the storage of winter grains,
9) A shed for the storage of summer grains,
10) A building, in which an English grind and other equipment were housed,
11) A barn for the storage of bread grain, 1
12) A wooden shed for holding 300 horned cattle,
13) A stone building for theproduction of malt. In the same place there is a wooden mill with necessary tools,
14) Two wooden windmills,
15) Two agricultural stores – as well, there was a fruit garden in which there were 100 different fruit trees.
In the town of Yagmin:
•
a wooden residential house,
• a shed for the storage of bread with a grinding machine,
• a shed for large horned cattle big enough for 200, and
• a wooden icebox. Also in the town of Yamgin there is a wooden tavern by the military-communications road.
In the town of Pavlinki:
• a wooden residential house,
• a shed for the storage of bread with a grinding machine,
• a shed for large horned cattle, big enough for 200.
In our town of Divin:
• two inns, which bring an annual income of 800 rubles in silver.
Grazing grasslands on the whole territory of the estate bring an income of 500 rubles in silver annually. From this estate, with the exception of local expenses, there is an annual net income of greater than eight thousand five hundred rubles.
This description is certified. Owner of the Divin estate, landowner and Cavalier Paul Yagmin.
Landowners adjacent to the Divin estate, cavalier Stanislav Blochkiy, Cavalier Yulyan Belsky
Vladislav Korilsky
The description is certified 18 January, 1856. Kobryn District Marshal of the Nobility. /_____________/ signature
{
29}
The above description of inventory is approved. City of Grodno, 26 January 1856. Grodno Provincial Marshal of the Nobility.
/_____________/ signature”.
With the people’s grief and distress, in this short sliver of time, with strenuous national labor, an enormous fortune was amassed by the monster, land owner Yagmin.
