pper class is quite content to
have this state of affairs continue.

THE "ARTELS" OF THE RUSSIAN PEASANTS

There is, however, some hope for the lower classes of Russia. This is
because of the prevalence among them, especially in villages, towns,
and cities, of a communal custom in which self-restraint and
self-government are necessary conditions of existence. In every branch
of common industry "artels" are found; that is, communistic
organisations, where all labour for a common purse in accordance with
rules and regulations determined by the members of the organisations.
These "artels" have done much toward increasing the industry, the
honesty, the truthfulness, the thrift, and also the sobriety of their
members. They exist throughout all Russia, but in some parts more
prevalently than in others. As yet, however, they scarcely affect the
character and condition of the rural peasantry, and it is these who
are most in need of elevation. It should be said, too, that the
government is doing something to lessen the evil of drunkenness.

RUSSIA PRINCIPALLY AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY

Russia's principal business is AGRICULTURE. More than one half her
whole internal trade is agricultural. Her agricultural products are
one and one half times greater than the products of her manufactures
and ten times greater than her mining products or her imports. And
though her production of grain per acre is the lowest in all Europe
except Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and her total production of all
food products per acre by far the lowest in Europe (not more than one
third that of Spain, which is next lowest), yet she manages to export
a larger quantity of GRAIN than any other country in Europe, France
only sometimes excepted. Russia's export of grain for some years past
has averaged 266,000,000 bushels a year. Her export of WHEAT alone has
averaged 94,000,000 bushels a year, or considerably more than a fifth
of the total wheat export of the world. The explanation of this
enormous export of wheat from so poor a country is that three fourths
of the people live on rye. Among the peasants wheat bread is
practically unknown, and nothing could be more pathetic than the hard
rye lumps which passed as bread during the last famine. Other
agricultural exports (besides grain) are flax, hemp, oil-seed cake,
linseed and grass seed, butter, eggs, wool, hides, and hogs' bristles.
Wood, lumber, and timber are also extensively exported. England is
Russia's