30 AGRICULTURE. 



In the best soil, their succession of crops is of eight 

 years ; two in barley, two in oats, two in winter rye, 

 and two in spring rye. Lands of less fertility are 

 sown two years out of three, and mountainous tracts 

 one year in three, when they are abandoned to 

 weeds until rest shall have reinstated them. " To 

 manure them would, in the opinion of a Russian 

 peasant, make them poorer ;* and therefore he suf- 

 fers his dunghill to accumulate into a nuisance, 

 while he goes on to clear and exhaust new fields." 

 " The grains raised are rye, spelts, barley, millet, and 

 oats, which, from want of sufficient roads and mar- 

 kets, are often low priced, as are also horned cattle 

 and horses : an ox selling for a rouble and a half, a 

 cow for one rouble, and a horse for three roubles."! 

 To this wretchedness we must add (what, perhaps, 

 occasions much of it), that, throughout the civilized 

 part of Russia, the labours of agriculture are per- 

 formed by slaves confounded with the soil, and 

 bought and sold with it. In a great portion of the 

 northern section of this vast empire, agriculture is 

 unknown, and the chase, the fisheries, cattle, and 

 reindeer, furnish the only means of subsistence. 



XII. The climate and soil of the United King- 

 doms of Great Britain and Ireland are particularly 

 favourable to husbandry ; nor is her geographical 

 position less auspicious ; placed, as she is, on the 

 longest, liife, and amid the most important markets 

 of the Continent of Europe. If to these advantages 

 be added the laborious, enlightened, and enterpri- 

 sing character of the nation, we cannot but expect 

 results the most favourable to agriculture: yet is 

 the fact notoriously otherwise. To show that this 

 opinion is neither hasty nor unfounded, we must en- 

 ter into details which may not be unprofitable. 



* Pallas, vol. v., p. 60. 



t A silver roubie is equal to five livres French, or nearly one 

 dollar Spanish, and this is the rouble here meant. The paper 

 rouble is one fifth the value of the silver. 



