108 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



P.VRT I. 



entrap by dogs and snares those animals whose skins are used as furs, and especially the 

 sable. Next to the latter animal, the grey squirrel is the most valuable ; but foxes, mar- 

 tins, fish, otters, bears, wolves, lynxes, gluttons, ferrets, polecats, and a variety of others, 

 are taken for their skins by the hunters, who pay a rent or tribute to government in sable 

 skins, or in other furs regulated by the value of those. 



680. The forests of Russia are least abundant in the southern districts ; but the cold 

 region may, like Poland, be described as one entire forest with extensive glades. Forests 

 of pine-leaved trees (^or needle-leaved trees, as the German expression is) ai-e chiefly 

 indigenous in the very cold and cold regions. These include the spruce fir, the wild, 

 and black pine, and the Siberian cedar or stone pine (Pinus Cembra). The larch grows 

 on most of the Siberian mountains. Among tlie leafy trees, the birch is the most com- 

 mon, next the trembling poplar, willow, lime, and ash. The oak is not indigenous in 

 Siberia ; the beech, elm, maple, and poplar, are found chiefly in the southern districts. 

 Timber for construction, fuel, charcoal, bark, potashes, barilla, rosin, tar, pitch, &c., are 

 obtained from these forests, which can hardly be said to have any sort of culture applied 

 to them. 



681 Tar is extracted from the roots of the wild pine These are cut into short pieces, then split, and 

 put into an iron boiler which is closely covered. Fire being applied below, the tar oozes out of the roots, 

 and collecting in the bottom of the boiler, runs off by a pipe into a cask, which when closed is fit for 

 exportation. When pitch is wanted, the tar is returned to the boiler, and boiled a second time. 



fi82. Ashes for the purposes of lixiviation are obtained by burning every sort of timber indiscriminately. 

 After being lixiviated they are barrelled up and sold for exportation. 



683. The implements and operations of Russian husbandry are the most simple and art- 

 less that can well be imagined. Pallas has given figures of ploughs and other articles ; 

 the former mei-e crooked sticks pointed, and drawn by horses attached by ropes of bark 

 or straw. Speaking of the operations, he says, " the cultivator sows his oats, his rye, or 

 his millet, in wastes which have never been dunged ; he throws dov/n the seed as if he 

 meant it for the birds to pick up ; he then takes a plough and scratches the earth, and 

 a second horse following with a harrow terminates the work ; the bounty of nature 

 supplies the want of skill, and an abundant crop is produced." This applies to the 

 greater part of ancient Russia and Siberia ; but in Livonia and other Baltic provinces, 

 and also in some parts of the Polish provinces of the Ukraine, the culture is performed 

 in a superior manner, with implements equal to the 78 



best of those used in Germany. The most improved 

 form of their carts {fig 78.), in use round Peters- 

 burg, is evidently copied from those of the Dutch, 

 and was, probably, introduced by Peter the Great, cs-^ , 

 In the Ukraine they thresh out their own corn 

 by dragging boards studded with flints over it. and 

 preserve it in pits in dry soil. In the northern provinces it is often dried on roofed 

 frames of different sorts {fig 79.), as in Sweden ; and about Riga and Mittau it is even 

 79 kiln-dried in the sheaf before it can be stacked or threshed. The 



.:'rT-''~r "" "" -"^ ' manner of performing the operation of kiln-drying in the sheaf, as 

 it may sometimes be applicable in North Britain or Ireland in 

 very late and wet seasons, we shall afterwards describe. ( Part 

 III. Book VL Ch. II.) 



684. In no part of Europe are the field operations performed with 

 such facility as in Russia, not only from the light nature of the 

 soil, but from the severity and long continuance of the winters, 

 which both pulverises the surface and destroys weeds. The same 

 reasons prevent grass lands, or lands neglected or left to rest, from 

 ever acquiring a close sward or tough rooty surface, so that even 

 these are broken up with a very rude plough and very little labour. 

 In short, there is no country in Europe where corn crops may be 

 raised at so little expense of labour as in Russia ; and as no more 

 than one corn crop can be got in the year in almost any country, so Russia may be 

 said to be, and actually is, even with her imperfect cultivation, better able to raise im- 

 mense quantities of corn than any part of the world, except, perhaps, similar parts of 

 North America. 



685. The improvement of Russian agricidture was commenced by Peter the Great, 

 and continued by Catherine, and the late and present emperor. The peasants, on many 

 of the government estates, were made free ; some of these estates were let or sold to 

 freemen, and foreign agriculturists encouraged to settle on them. Rewards and premiums 

 were given, and professorships of rural economy established in different parts of the 

 empire. Some of the principal nobles have also made great efforts for the improvement 

 of agriculture. Count Romansow, about the end of the last century, procured a British 

 fanner (Rogers), and established him on his estate near Moscow, where he has intro- 



