The number of Jews engaged in agriculture in the territory comprising the Russian Soviet Republic has increased, according to the latest figures compiled by the O.R.T., from 50,000 in 1913 to 76,000 in 1923. There are about 140,000 desyatin of land in the possession of Jewish land workers. In the province of Odessa alone there are 22 Jewish colonies owning 57,084 desyatin of land with a population of 21,543,128 collective farming groups owning 11,083 desyatin of land with a population of 5,272; and 935 single farms owning 6,336 desyatin of land with a population of 4,090–a total of 74,503 desyatin with a total population of 30,905.
In the western district (provinces of Witebsk, Homel, Smolensk and White Russia) the part of the Jews in Agricultural work since the Revolution has grown to more than twice the former proportions. On the right side of the Ukraine the number of Jewish agriculturists has grown more than six times since the Revolution and is still growing rapidly. Thus in March of the present year, there were in that section of the country 54 collective farming groups comprising 14,408 persons; in October there were 100 such groups comprising 30,000 persons.
In the province of Odessa the number of Jews engaged in agriculture has increased by several thousand in the last two or three months, owing to the influx of Jewish agricultural workers from other parts of the country, for whose settlement the State has set aside an area of 60,000 desyatin. Altogether, since the Revolution there are about 300 fresh Jewish collective settlements in the various provinces, with a total area of 25,000 desyatin.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
