The Fifth Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Soviet Union attached great importance to the establishment of highly productive hayfields and pasturelands in the desert and semi-desert regions of our country. The integrated development of these regions and the rational organization of seasonal nomadic livestock husbandry would make it possible to further increase their contribution to the development of socialist animal husbandry and to create additional reserves of agricultural products. Therefore, the achievements of scientific research in the exploration of desert regions and the generalization of experience in their integrated agricultural development are of considerable importance. The first volume, The Deserts of the Soviet Union and Their Development, published in 1950, dealt primarily with general methodological issues concerning the organization of studies in arid and desert regions. The second volume presents materials relating to the development of the arid regions of the Soviet Union. These materials are of great practical significance for addressing the national task of increasing the total output of agricultural products. In addition to articles devoted to crop production and to the rational use and improvement of forage resources in various arid regions, the present volume outlines specific approaches for the progressive development of agriculture and for expanding the cultivated areas of cotton, alfalfa, rice, and other industrial and food crops. It also contains information on the investigation of natural raw-material resources and on possible means of utilizing these resources in accordance with the nationwide objective, formulated by the September Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, of securing raw materials for the light and food-processing industries. Further sections address the utilization of water and land resources, the use of wind energy, measures for controlling crop and livestock pests and diseases, soil improvement, and other issues related to the rational development of desert regions, as well as materials concerning the history of desert flora and vegetation.