iSoo. Bhort View of Agnculture in Riijjict. 20p 



fometimes ufed in cutting up the weeds in the intervals of 

 drilled crops. The harrow is flill more fuTsple than the 

 plough, being compofed entirely without iron, and in many- 

 places without even M^ooden pins ; it being the practice, in 

 fome provinces, to conflru£l: it with branches of trees rudely 

 interv/oven together. The rollsi- is hardly known at all. The 

 Finns never ufe any other but the branch-harrow, and fre- 

 quently the rake inftead of a plough. 



One fhould imagine, from this fuperficial mode of tillage, 

 that the crops Vv'ould turn out very defective. This, however, 

 is by no means tlie cafe ; for, fo rich is the foil by nature, 

 that an ordinary crop of rye is from eight to ten fold, barley 

 tvv'elve, oats twenty, and wheat almoft never below fix. 



la Finnland, the bej} mode of carriage is a two-wheeled 

 fmall cart ; the wheels unfliod with iron ; but more common- 

 ly two poles fallened at one end to the fides of the faddle, 

 and the other ends trailing on the ground. The Rufs, how- 

 ever, have their wheels Ihod with iron, and many examples of 

 four-wheeled carts. 



The reaping initrumcnts arc various. The fickle, the com- 

 mon fcythe, and the great German fcythe. The Lette cuts 

 his crop witli a little I'cythe, fixed to a fliort handle, which 

 he holds in his right hand, having in his left a fmall hook, 

 with which he colletls as much of the corn as he intends to 

 cut at once. The Tartars ufe fliort, but very arched fcythes, 

 on a (liort handle ; and, flanding upright, they cut both to 

 right and left. The corn, after it is bound up, is fet on end 

 in circles of ten fheaves, leaning againft each other, and co- 

 vered with one inverted at top. 



Wheat and rye are fown from the id of Auguft to the 

 end of September ; and as the Spring is late of commencing, 

 the Spring crops are not fown till about the beginning of 

 May. Harvefl is in July and Auguft. From this, it may be 

 conceived how rapidly vegetation comes on. In fact, the 

 Spring feafon in Ruflia can hardly be faid to exifl ; as, from 

 the flern rigour of Winter cold, the weather burils forth, at 

 once, into all the fervency of the heat of Summer. 



Potatoes, fo general in the North of Europe, are not culti- 

 vated by the native Rufs at all, except only in the government 

 of Archangel, in 6^ degrees of latitude, where no kind of 

 corn comes to maturity ; yet here potatoes thrive wonderfully, 

 producing from thirty to fifty fold. 



In the northerly provinces, the corn is kiln-dried in the 

 ftraw (by the author improperly called malting) j the thrafliing 



of 



