ars are passed in the preliminary division,
the next 12 in active service, and the last 5 years in the reserve.
Every Cossack is bound to procure his own uniform, equipment and horse
(if mounted)--the government supplying only the arms. Those on active
service are divided into three equal parts according to age, and the
first third only is in real service, while the two others stay at home,
but are bound to march out as soon as an order is given. The officers
are supplied in the usual way by the military schools, in which all
Cossack _voiskos_ have their own vacancies, or are non-commissioned
Cossack officers, with officers' grades. In return for this service the
Cossacks have received from the state considerable grants of land for
each _voisko_ separately.

The total Cossack population in 1893 was 2,648,049 (1,331,470 women),
and they owned nearly 146,500,000 acres of land, of which 105,000,000
acres were arable and 9,400,000 under forests. This land was divided
between the _stanitsas_, at the rate of 81 acres per each soul, with
special grants to officers (personal to some of them, _in lieu_ of
pensions), and leaving about one-third of the land as a reserve for the
future. The income which the Cossack _voiskos_ receive from the lands
which they rent to different persons, also from various sources (trade
patents, rents of shops, fisheries, permits of gold-digging, &c.), as
also from the subsidies they receive from the government (about
L712,500 in 1893), is used to cover all the expenses of state and local
administration. They have besides a special reserve capital of about
L2,600,000. The expenditure of the village administration is covered by
village taxes. The general administration is kept separately for each
_voisko_, and differs with the different _voiskos_. The central
administration, at the Ministry of War, is composed of representatives
of each _voisko_, who discuss the proposals of all new laws affecting
the Cossacks. In time of war the ten Cossack _voiskos_ are bound to
supply 890 mounted _sotnias_ or squadrons (of 125 men each), 108
infantry _sotnias_ or companies (same number), and 236 guns,
representing 4267 officers and 177,100 men, with 170,695 horses. In time
of peace they keep 314 squadrons, 54 infantry _sotnias_, and 20
batteries containing 108 guns (2574 officers, 60,532 men, 50,054
horses). Altogether, the Cossacks have 328,705 men ready to take arms in
case of need. As a rule, popular education am