A Sketch of the Agriculture and Peasantry of Eastern Russia.
By Henry Luig Roth. (Balliere, Tindall, and Cox.)—Mr. Roth spent two years, chiefly in practical farming, in the province of Samara, which lies on the eastern side of the Volga. He gives us in this little volume the results of the experience thus gained, and of the observations made during a few months of travel through neighbouring districts. He has, OD the whole, a favourable opinion of the Russian peasant. Perhapi we should rather say comparatively favourable. Of the fact that he is making some progress in the right direction he speaks with some assurance. Some of his facts will certainly surprise the average English reader. The Russian peasant, for instance, is cleaner than the English. "No peasant would dare to go to mass without having previously bathed." No village is without a public bath. It would hardly be too much to say that in England no village has one. Some interesting details of the average production of Russian corn lands are given, which would be more available if they had been translated into English mea- sures. Elsewhere we find that an estate of 9,000 acres, producing an
estimated income of £350, paid taxes to the amount of 6s. 6d. This seems to include local as well as imperial taxation, and contrasts not unfavourably with the state of things here.
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