630 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Yes, he is very merciful, but bow are affairs otherwise ? " 



" We are contented." 



" How are the wife and daughters ? " 



" They are contented." 



" And the other children ? " 



" They are all contented." 



This peasant answered my first three questions with the words 

 " We are contented." I was born among farmers, and believe that I 

 know them well, as I have had much to do with them, but no German 

 farmer ever told me he was contented. 



I next turned from the family to the live-stock, and asked, " How 

 many horses have you ? 



" Thirty or thirty-five." 



" Don't you know exactly ? " 



"No, there may be some new colts, and some may have been stolen 

 or eaten by wolves. I sometimes use six, sometimes eight, and some- 

 times fourteen." 



" Then you have twenty more than you use. You will sell them ? " 



" That may be." 



" But what will you do with so many extra beasts ? " 



" That's nothing to you." 



I would remark that the last answer is a polite form of expression 

 among Siberian farmers. I continued : 



" And how many head of cattle have you ? " 



" That is my wife's affair." 



" And how many hogs ? " 



" Nobody knows." 



" How large crops do your fields return ? " 



" I am satisfied if I get ten times as much as I sow." 



" Are your taxes heavy ? " 



" We are satisfied with them." 



" Have you farmers nothing to complain of ? " 



" Oh, yes, we are getting crowded here ; there are beginning to be 

 too many people in the country. If I were not so old, I should move 

 farther east." 



" But," I replied, in surprise, " where are the villages ? I don't see 

 any." 



My village-chief was silent, and shook his head doubtfully. The 

 fact was, the nearest village was ten miles away. The man was sat- 

 isfied with himself and his family, satisfied with his live-stock and his 

 crops, and satisfied with his taxes, and over-population was apparently 

 the only thing which he and his peers conceived needed to be set right. 

 On this point we should remember that not nearly all the land is yet 

 taken up, and that many of the farms are as large as, and sometimes 

 larger than, the most extensive German manors. Even a spoiled 

 American farmer would be satisfied with such an area. In the midst 



