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Photograph by C. S. Alden 



SAFETY RAZORS HAVE NEVER BEEN POPULAR IN RUSSIA, AS BEARDS ARE THE FASHION 



Only about one-half the land of the province of central Russia known as Nizhni-Nov- 

 gorod is suitable for agricultural pursuits, and of -this three-fifths is owned by noblemen and 

 only about one-sixth by the hard}- peasantry. Although much of the land is the fertile "valley 

 black earth," the yield of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes is frequently insufficient for 

 the population, so that nearly every year more than ioo,oco persons leave their villages in 

 quest of temporary work in neighboring provinces, or "governments," as the more than one 

 hundred subdivisions of the empire are called. Owing to the efforts of the Nizhni-Novgorod 

 zemstvo, there has been more progress in education in this district than in many of the other 

 governments. 



2361 



