354 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



laws Avas effected in England it was from Russia tliat tlie " ava- 

 lanche " of corn was to come to destroy tlie English farmer and 

 ruin the English landlord. The critical time, however, passed with- 

 out any disturbing increase of imports from that direction, and 

 Russia quietly enjoyed an increasing demand for its wheat from 

 many quarters. The crucial test of its ability to meet the require- 

 ments of its neighbors came in the period of general failure of crops 

 elsewhere, when a higher price for grain tempted the w^orld to send 

 the products to Europe, and on an equal plane of competition. The 

 Russian crops of wheat were very large in 1870, 1874, 1877, and 

 1881, but in only two of these cases did the export movement expand 

 in projDortion. It must be borne in mind that the ability to export 

 is controlled by the food supply of the whole empire. "Wliile some 

 thirty-five governments of Russia produce a constant and at times 

 excessive surplus, there are eight governments which vary between 

 a sufficiency and a short supply, and some seventeen districts which 

 never produce enough for their own consumption. The popula- 

 tion of the grain districts is one half greater than the population of 

 the other in insufficiently supplied regions, thus giving a home 

 market of no mean size for the rye which forms the staple food of 

 the people, and for some of the wheat. Whatever is not required to 

 meet the home demand is available for export; but it by no means 

 follows that the grain is exported. At this stage intervenes the 

 imperfect economy of the emj)ire — the want or deficiency in rail- 

 road transportation, the need of capital with which to move the 

 crops, and the oppressive measures taken by the money lenders, who 

 slowly ruin the peasant to secure a present advantage. The nearness 

 to markets in part compensates for these obstacles, and the want of a 

 large and steady market at home is more than sufficient to overcome 

 the adverse influences which, standing by themselves, would almost 

 prohibit competing in other markets except in famine years. Hence 

 grain goes out in quantities, and is one of the controlling features 

 in the foreign commerce of the empire, at once the result and a 

 constant stimulus to developing this resource. 



As late as 1888 the Minister of Finance deplored the want of 

 proper intelligence and machinery among the farmers to get the 

 benefits of the market open to them. In reciting the disadvantages 

 incident to these conditions he wrote : " Being always well informed 

 and not having mortgage charges to support, the American farmer 

 is in a condition to resist more or less the maneuvers of speculation, 

 and can form an idea as to the kind of grain of which the culture 

 can be increased or diminished. With us the situation is very dif- 

 ferent; not only are the rates of transportation on our railways much 

 higher than those of America (averaging fifty per cent more), but 



