, each of which is
again subdivided into strips. The first field is reserved for one of the
most important grains, i.e., rye, which in the form of black bread, is
the principal food of the population. In the second are raised oats for
the horses and here and there some buckwheat which is also used for
food. The third field lies fallow and is used in the summer for
pasturing the cattle.

This method of dividing the land is so devised in order to suit the
triennial rotation of crops, a very simple system, but quite practical
nevertheless. The field which is used this year for raising winter
grain, will be used next summer for raising summer grain and in the
following year will lie fallow. Every family possesses in each of the
two fields under cultivation one or more of the subdivided strips, which
he is accountable for and which he must cultivate and attend to.

The arable lands are of course carefully manured because the soil at its
best is none too good and would soon exhaust it. In addition to manuring
the soil the peasant has another method of enriching the soil. Though
knowing nothing of modern agronomical chemistry, he, as well as his
forefathers, have learned that if wood be burnt on a field and the ashes
be mixed with the soil, a good harvest may be expected. This simple
method accounts for the many patches of burned forest area, which we at
first believed to be the result of forest fires. When spring comes round
and the leaves begin to appear, a band of peasants, armed with their
short hand axes, with which they are most dextrous, proceed to some spot
previously decided upon and fell all trees, great and small within the
area. If it is decided to use the soil in that immediate vicinity, the
fallen trees are allowed to remain until fall, when the logs for
building or firewood are dragged away as soon as the first snow falls.
The rest of the piles, branches, etc., are allowed to remain until the
following spring, at which time fires may be seen spreading in all
directions. If the fire does its work properly, the whole of the space
is covered with a layer of ashes, and when they have been mixed with the
soil the seed is sown, and the harvest, nearly always good, sometimes
borders on the miraculous. Barley or rye may be expected to produce
about six fold in ordinary years and they may produce as much as thirty
fold under exceptional circumstances!

In most countries this method of treating the soil would be an absu