AGRICULTURE, A NATIONAL INDUSTRY. 21 



of scarcity, or in the event of any disaster, the lord is bound 

 to provide for them, and, indeed, deeply interested in doing so, 

 in order, at least, to maintain the population, and, if possible, 

 to obtain a surplus for sale, or for letting out to the town. As 

 in Poland, the lands arc everywhere uninclosed. 



The farm buildings are ahuo^t everywhere constructed of 

 timber — the stove and its chimney being the only part built of 

 brick, or of mud and stones. The noblemen generally reside 

 on their estates, and their houses are surrounded by the village 

 which contains their peasants. These villages are in general 

 dull and miserable assemblages of log-houses, all of one size 

 and sha])e, with but few of the conveniences of civilization. 



The agricultural implements are ihe most simple that can be 

 imagined ; and their cultivation of the earth is remarkable 

 chiefly for its aboriginal rudeness. 



While the Russian peasant turns his hand to almost any 

 thing — ploughing, weaving, building, &c. — the serfdom of the 

 population is wholly incompatible with industrial and commer- 

 cial enterprise. Her internal trade is immense ; but her 

 foreign commerce is maintained chiefly by the export of tallow, 

 wheat, wax, hemp and flax, potash, tar and cordage — of all, 

 hemp most extensively — and all, the productions of her soil. 



To Russia, the commercial and manufacturing nations of the 

 earth owe their supply of a large portion of the materials 

 referred to. With all her social wretchedness, and all the 

 rudeness of her operations, she extends her hand, filled with 

 all that is most needed by a higher civilization in its active 

 enterprises. Through her agricultui'c, poor as it is, she main- 

 tains her position, and becomes the ally of nations having less 

 land and larger accumulations of wealth. 



So, too, of India. Here, agriculture is carried on with but 

 little industry and with no science. The condition of the 

 people is as poor as possible. The landed property in Hindostan 

 is held, as it is in all the countries of Asia, to be the absolute 

 right of the king. The Hindoo laws declare the king to be the 

 lord and proprietor of the soil. All proprietors, therefore, pay 

 a quit rent, or military services to the king, or rajah, excepting 

 some few, to whom, it would appear, absolute grants were 

 made. In general, the tenure was military ; but some lands 

 were appropriated to the church and to charitable purposes, 



