RUSSIAN FARMING. 43 



and a poor brute, who has been driven as all 

 horses are here, since he was two years old, 

 and fed on nothing but hay, for the most 

 j)art, will do a better days work than an ordi- 

 nary corn-fed Enghsh trapper. 



Forty-five roubles (two pounds ten shil- 

 lings) was about the average price of the 

 horses at Troitsky, when we were there, but 

 then horses were selling at lower prices than 

 usual, owing to the scarcity of fodder. For 

 the same reason a cow with her calf by her 

 side could be bought for the same j^rice. 

 Altogether, though he told me he could clear 

 as a rule about 300 roubles a year on his 

 eight desiatine (2*86 acres) of land, my patri- 

 archal friend did not seem much more con- 

 tented with farming prospects than his brother 

 agriculturists m England, 



