Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-11-26
Russia importing Grain.

Russian journalists appear, says the
London TelegrdM, to be Just now pain.
fully exercised by the announcement
that two American steamers laden with
grain have entered the port of R4vei
tor the purpose of discharging their
cargoes, circumstance hitherto with
out preceda in the annals OF Russian
commerce. That Russia would never
need to import cereals from foreign
countries has heretofore been firmly
established article Of popular faith
throughout the CZlr's dominions. 50
rapid, however, has been the falling oil
in productiveness exhibited in the ag-
riculturai districts of the empire, that
the seemingly impossible has at length
come to pass, and Northern Russia is
importing wheat from the United
States. 1t is but Justice to the Russian
press to acknowledge that it has been
profuse of warnings with respect to
the probable consequences of slovenly
and unintelligent farming, persistence
in old-fashioned and exploded system
of cultivation, reluctance TO invest cap
ital in modern agricultural improve
ments, absenteeism and other laches,
which have practically disqualified Rus
sian grain growers from competing for
foreign custom with their transatlantic
rivals. But Russian buyers and peas
ant farmers alike were so immoderately
possessed by the conviction that Rus
STA was the predestined granary of Eu-
rope that they calmly ignored these
salutary monitions.
They are now stricken with conster-
nation and amazement by proof posi-
tive, such as is afforded by the impor-
tation of American grain into Revel,
that the cereal yields of Northern and
Central Russia no longer sntlics to meet
the consumptive requirements of the
native population.
Germany, too, is giving to America
the preference over Russia for what
grain she finds it necessary to import
from abroad, on the reasonable grounds
that the American wheat is at once
cheaper and better quality than the
Russian. On the whole, Russian ag-
riculture is just now at an extremely
low ebb, and its future promises to
prove even gloomier than at present.
HOME EDUcATIoN.-One of the most
important duties of the matron or moth
er of family, and for which she should
always arrange to have time, is the
home education of children. BY this
we do not mean routine OF lessons
from books, but that beneficial oral in
struction, those practical lessons on the
duties of life which should pervade en-.
tirely her intercourse with children. 1t
is thus that lessons of love, forbearance,
truth, kindness, selt-denial and gener-
osity may be deeply impressed on the
ductile mind, and the seeds of true piety
and upright behavior scattered carefully
over the prepared soil. Tho first care
should be to distinguish between the
different dispositions which nature has
given to children-to strengthen the
weak and vacillating, soften the obdu-
rate, encourage the timid and repress
the forward-to eradicate weeds and
SOW the good seed.
The steamers still continue to have
interview with icebergs. The steamer
Harworth, loaded with steel rails, tried
to run down an iceberg in the straits
of Bell Isle the other night. The size
of the berg may be imagined when the
mon took it for part of the over hang
ing clouds. Tons of ice came tumb-
ling down on the deck and nearly sank
the vessel. The steamers stem was
broken to atoms and hole twenty feet
wide stove in the side. This gives ad-
ditional force to Halstead's warning,
Beware of Ice."
To TAKE Rust Our OF STEEL
Cover the steel with sweet oil, we'll
rubbed in. In folty-eight hours, rub
with finely powdered, unslacked lime
until the rust disappears.