inisl Russia 165 



ourselves, and to prove that, instead of a bottomless pit, 

 Russia at least (leavint,' Latin- America for others to take 

 care of) is more like a gold mine or, better still, like a cornu- 

 copia, for, hidden far away in her recesses, are vast and 

 as yet undeveloped stores of health-giving and valuable 

 foodstuffs to be had — -of Dame Nature- — for the askmg. 

 Applicants, must, however, learn to ask properly, and that 

 is what the Editor of this Review has undertaken to teach 

 them. I am quite sure that he will prove a capable master 

 and will hud among his readers many apt pupils. 



In Russia, at present, there are only seeds growing ; 

 here and there, perhaps, a sapling or even a j'oung tree 

 may be found, but none are yet fully developed and all of 

 them need appreciative care and skilled attention if they 

 are to expand and grow vigorously so as to be able to yield 

 the bumper crops which each of the various trees of 

 industry could do if given a chance ; these bumper crops 

 would mean great gain to England, to our Allies the 

 French who have invested so many millions in Russia 

 and, especially to our American cousins, as well as to 

 Canada. I say this because Russia lias huge tracts of 

 cultivatable lands. She has thousands of square miles 

 which, like the everglades o[ Florida, only need to be 

 dyked and drained to become a sea of wheat, Hax, sugar 

 and other crops. Such a huge area cannot be ploughed 

 like our English fields. At first, therefore, we shall have 

 to look to Canada and America for those magnificent 

 labour-saving appliances that can pull twelve plough- 

 shares at once with harrows and clod-breakers in the rear 

 of them. These modern machines which have been used 

 to break up the old hunting-grounds of the Redskins and 

 on the great farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan will 

 again do good work in the lesser known Canadian prairie 

 region of Assiniboia, Yukon, Athabasca and Ungarac, 

 and in Russia. In the Russian steppes these monster 

 machines will be required to " break" the land and render 

 it fit for peasant cultivation; when this first " break-up " 

 has been done, then the peasants can use the ordinary 

 plough drawn by horse or ox — (or perhaps, by the handy 

 gasoline or other tractor) — which will mean a great 

 demand for English ploughs and tractors; in fact they will 

 be needed by the shipload. 



As the date (1915) in the second line of this Chapter 

 shows, these remarks were published three years before 

 Count Ilya Tolstoy said the same thing in America as can 

 be seen further on (p. 180). 



