The age-herald., 1898-09-08
RURAL RUSSIA
 AND ITS INDUSTRIES
From the London Times.

From the London Times.
 It is certainly somewhat startling fact that there exists, within the confines of Europe, a people numbering over sixty mil- lions among whom no British products of any kind are known. It becomes even more striking when we find that Great Britain, on the other hand, is one of their best GUS toners, consuming produce of theirs to the value of many millions sterling per annum. The strangeness of the fact is by no means diminished when we discover on further ir- vestigation that the greater part of the pros ducts we receive from these sixty millions of people have been paid for by articles that could easily have supplied them wiH ourselves, but which they now import from our principal industrial competitors on the continent.
 A careful examination of our trade with Russia reveals, nevertheless. the existence of this abnormal condition of affairs. Large as our exports to Russia are, nearly all, with the exception of agricultural machine ", are destined for the urban districts alone or their vicinity. On the other hand, our imports from Russia, consisting mainly of raw materials and food products, are derived almost exclusively from rural disi tAASNo' 1ho OViiultloiiS Ol SAlSlSuCe III lIo urban districts of Russia differ so widely from those of the rural, and the commerl cial and financial relations between them are often so slight. that this circumstance possesses a far greater importance than it would have in any other country in Eua rope. Indeed, in our trade with Russia, so far from our purchases assisting in extend- ing the sale of our own products, our posi- tion is nearly the same as though we were buying exclusively from one country while selling to another without purchasing any, thing in exchange.
 But there is another fact that we must bear in mind. The urban population of European Russia amounts to less than 135 per cent, and, even if we add to them the inhabitants of those districts within which alone, as will be explained presently, our British agricultural machinery as now ex- ported can possibly be employed, our Rus- sian customers can only be found among at most 30 per cent. of the entire nation, leaving 70 per cent.-zfuly sixty millions whose produce we purchase largely, it is true, but who receive British products from us in exchange,
 Our train draws up at small station on the main line, and, leaving our compart- ment. we enter a sumptuous waiting room provided with buffet that we should find 1t hard to equal for comfort in any railway station in England except in our largest towns It needs but a step from that sta- ton to our carriage, but that step has taken from western civilization into-but we shall see A long drive of over sixty miles lies before us and we shall not have passed over two-thirds of that distance ere my im- aginary companion will fully understand why British agricultural machinery, highly appreciated though 1t is, can rarely pene- trate more than forty miles from the near est station. We follow & 'road' in which our carriage sinks to the axes in sand or mud, and cross bridges over innumerable slow-1owing rivers. formed of untrtmmed pine-poles without parapet, and which would assurediy break down beneath any weight exceeding half ton. Onward we go along our toilsome way. now through miles of almost virgin forests, then between immense fields of corn, potatoes, flax or eabbages, the estate of some large proprie- tor-almost certainly an absentee and whose lands are probably morteaged to the utmost kopeck of their value Again and again we quit the road and drive over the adjoining meadow or moor land in the vaia
 hope of finding a more solid foothold for our horses.
 We pass through many villages upon our
 way, and at one of these we will pause for @ moment, as a glance around WILL tedcn
 us several lessons of no little. value to our Investigations. The cottages, all built of wood and straw matched, are crowded close together, but at the end of the village Is ono Of much larger dimensions and evidently not a dwelling house. This Is the svietelka, but first let us glance at the peasant lands adjoining. We are struck by the small
 patches of cultivation into which they are divided. At the emancipation each peasant family received amount of land that was then amply sufficient for its support. but the population increases rapidly, and through subsequent subdivisions but few of these ittle holdings would new suffice for the maintenance of their present owners. Over the greater part of Russia this land Is held upon the Communal" system; in White Russia, on the contrary, that of in. dividual ownership was adopted. During the thr'ty-seven years that have elapsed since the emancipation the peasants have been gradually paying off their debt upon this land by annual instalments. But, as even when their purchase is complete, they will still be unable to sell theier property. | they arc na aturally reluctant to abandon the | land for which they have aready pAd so much. Overcrowding, therefore. continues, and the large izba have mentioned repre- sents the only remedy available If the peasants can no longer support themselves upon their land, they must perforee seek their livelihood in industrial labor; and, as the majority of them cannot quit their land to seek that labor in the factories in the towns the factories must come to them. To this Is due the remarkable development of village industries fthe Kustar trades) of which but little Is known in England. but which are destined to effect complete transforma tion in the economic condition of Russia in the near future. The develop ment Of "Ixustari' industries furnishes alf most the only means of avoiding thf evil that Russian statesmen most dread-the
 Russian pessaptry into starving and rev.
 olutiopary pfoletariat. But it does far more.
 The kussians firmly believe that they arc destined to occupy the first place among tho misunderstanding nations of Europe, and these Kustsri villages serve as excellent nurseries for the vast horde of workers for whose products in the future Russia is so actively securing new markets in the eastern world. dxr of theqa Kllatari yi-