Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-11-04
Misfortuues which Affilct Russia.
New y ok Tibunel


pressure OF actual want is upon every part
of the great empire, and native critics are
frankly coniessing that only the most
strenuous efforts can avert formida ole
crisis. OF Russia's four great exports
hemp, tallow, corn, timber, the last three
are the mere shadow OF what they were.
The home consumption OF tallow is tasl
devouring Its expectation. The supply OF
timber, two.thilds OF which lie IN Fin
land and the seven remote northern prov
inces, is wasting so rapidly that the pres
ent rate of exhaustion will clear Euro
pean Russia OF every tree that grows
there within ihirty-four and half years,
The Moscow ST. Petersburg railway aloce,
with boundless store of fine coal within
reach, consumes twenty-six acres OF valu
able timber daily. Mere ominous still L.
the present decline of the grain trade.
Possessing a tirst.raie corn soil as large
as the whole area of France aud AuslriS
combined Russia is checking her tx
portation to save her own people from
famine, and purchasing grain largely from
her former pensioner, Persia, and her
former rival, America.
This calamity is due to various causes
Millions OF quarters are annually con.
sumeo in the making of corn whisky, en-
OF revenue to itself. Millions more are
destroyed by grasshoppers or untuwsrt
weather. Much mischief is also done by
the proverbial carelessness and sluggish
ness OF men taught by centuries OF bond.
age TO look for the supply OF their wants
to their masters bounty rather than their
own energy. But the two chief agents OF
evil are obstinate ignorance and rapacious
knavery. The usurer is q greater pest to
Russia than drouth or locust. Left to
himself, the PEASANTS amazing power OF
endurance might perhaps, enable him to
sustain life, even upon the meagre wages
of Russian field labor, varying from
twelve to twenty. five cents tor Days
work Of fourteen or fifteen hours. But
even this chance is not allowed him.
Once In debt to some local Shylock, he
can never extricate himself again. Many
of the freedmen who rashly purchs sed
land IN 1851 are still paying heavy inter.
est upon the money borrowed tor that pur
pose, in addition to poll-lax of $40 or
Sl2 for every male in their household.
And what is true OF the fertile south is
douo oily so of the barren north. To take
the province OF Kostroma as one case out
of many, the Thin, stony soil, worth bare
ly thirty five cents an acre, has been sold
to the peasants for nearly thrice that sum,
exclusive of interest Thus loaded with
debt, while hardly deriving a bare subsist
ence from their dear. bought land, they
become more hopelessly entsngled every
year. Not long ago, poor fellow who
found it impossible to provide food for
his family, even by mortgaglng his whole
summers labor Ia advance, having vainly
implored mercy OF his heartless creditor,
sat down at the lstter's door and cut his
own throat. Nss'sfc
For this deplorable state of things
there is is but one remedy, uhappily i'm
possible at present, VIZ, a complete re
form of native agriculture, In an age OF
almost daily inventions and improve.
ments Russian farming is still as mon.
strously defective as in the days of Peter
the Great. Drainage, whether subsoil or
surface is almost unknown. The traveller
who sees on the great plain of the Don
the same clumsy wooden plows and hsr
rows, scantly tipped with iron, which he
has left behind in Central Asia and
Afghanistan, asks in smazement why bet.
ter implements are not procured. The
great iron masters OF lula, Moscow or
lvsnove tell him with a shrug that car
goes upon cargoes OF the best modern i'm.
plements have been imported again and
object to use them at all, or else having
used them 80 awkwardly as to spoil them
at the very outset, fling them aside as
"toreign trash" and are doubly obstnste
tor their old methods. Hence the famous
"black soil" is merely scratched, not
plowed and while the surface is being
rapidly exhausted the rich earth below
lies absolutely useless.
Such facts sufficiently explain why the
grain trade of Odessa has lost fully ten
million quarters during the past three
years, sno why the people of the Lower
Don are now petitioning for a complete
stoppsge OF corn expectation as their only
security against famine. A political
economist would suggest foreign immi-
gration, but this is easier said than done.
For years past the Russian government
has been making the most tempting offers
OF freehold land and stock, and hos made
them in vain. Nor is this surprising. At
any moment during the April thaw the
farmer may find all his labors placed at
the mercy of sudden freshet, while in
many Of the low lying districts one days
rain srtfices to make the roads impossible
and to mire a whole team on the highway
itself Such conditions, supplemented by
the almost irresp onsible tyranny of the
local officials, are not likely to attract the
clear headed Germans. The tide of Euro.
pean immigration still flows westward, in.
stead OF eastward, while the Russian peas.
ants, unhelped and uuhelpful, mber the
ground, stolidly awaiting the coming OF
their two great relieving officers, famine
snd cholera, TO remove them from world
for which they have done nothing.
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