88 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



tive of the journey was to study the country and 

 people. It was in order to do this to the best advan- 

 tage that I took Sascha Kritsch, the young Moscow 

 student, to interpret and explain as we rode along 

 from day to day. In the writer's opinion there is no 

 better way to study a country than to make a tour on 

 horseback or bicycle, with an educated and communi- 

 cative youth, from among its inhabitants, for a com- 

 panion. 



Thus far our ride had been chiefly, like the famous 

 maneuvers of the Duke of York, up hill and down. 

 Had that old martinet been in this part of Russia with 

 his 10,000 men, he might have " marched them up the 

 hill, then down again," all day long, by simply follow- 

 ing the military road between Moscow and Tula. The 

 country resembles the rolling prairies of southwestern 

 Iowa, but the land is poor. Fields of rye, oats, and 

 potatoes alternate with primeval or artificial forests. 

 We saw not a field of wheat between Moscow and 

 Tula; the soil is not rich enough to produce it to ad- 

 vantage. The system of agriculture followed is known 

 as the " three-field system," by which every field gets 

 three years' rest after six of cultivation. 



We talked of the celebrated black earth country, 

 where there would be wheat, wheat, wheat — nothing 

 but wheat. The change would not be agreeable, I 

 imagined, except for the interesting characteristics of 

 the Little Russians, its inhabitants. An ocean of wav- 

 ing wheat fields is an interesting sight to gaze upon, 

 but soon grows monotonous. Here the monotonous 

 character of the country was relieved by the alternate 

 lights and shadows of field and forest. Imagine a 



