The article analyzes the agricultural activity of burghers in the cities of the Tomsk province of the Russian Empire in the pre-reform period. Consistent review is given to its diversity. The author gives a description of the role of agricultural activities of the burghers, not only in South-West Siberia but in Russia as a whole. The article deals with the importance of agriculture for burghers in the cities of the South-West Siberia, their distribution in the city of the Tomsk province in the prereform period. The focus is made on issues such as agriculture and horticulture. The detailed description is given to what the burghers grew and to their methods of growing. The paper also addresses the problem of the right to use urban land in Western Siberia in the pre-reform period. The authors state that the land order within urban communities varied in different areas depending on the natural and economic conditions of the region. The research is made of the features of the cattle breeding development in different cities of the Tomsk province, as well as the problems that lay in wait for burghers in this field. It is shown that there was uneven development of the activity of the provincial areas and the effectiveness of the activities depended on climatic, geographic and socio-economic conditions of the accommodation.