which reached me from
various parts of the country became blacker and blacker, and were partly
confirmed by short tours which I made in 1889-1896. At last, in the
summer of 1903, I determined to return to some of my old haunts and
look at things with my own eyes. At that moment some hospitable friends
invited me to pay them a visit at their country-house in the province of
Smolensk, and I gladly accepted the invitation, because Smolensk, when
I knew it formerly, was one of the poorest provinces, and I thought it
well to begin my new studies by examining the impoverishment, of which I
had heard so much, at its maximum.

From the railway station at Viazma, where I arrived one morning at
sunrise, I had some twenty miles to drive, and as soon as I got clear of
the little town I began my observations. What I saw around me seemed
to contradict the sombre accounts I had received. The villages through
which I passed had not at all the look of dilapidation and misery
which I expected. On the contrary, the houses were larger and better
constructed than they used to be, and each of them had a chimney! That
latter fact was important because formerly a large proportion of the
peasants of this region had no such luxury, and allowed the smoke to
find its exit by the open door. In vain I looked for a hut of the old
type, and my yamstchik assured me I should have to go a long way to find
one. Then I noticed a good many iron ploughs of the European model, and
my yamstchik informed me that their predecessor, the sokha with which I
had been so familiar, had entirely disappeared from the district. Next
I noticed that in the neighbourhood of the villages flax was grown
in large quantities. That was certainly not an indication of poverty,
because flax is a valuable product which requires to be well manured,
and plentiful manure implies a considerable quantity of live stock.
Lastly, before arriving at my destination, I noticed clover being grown
in the fields. This made me open my eyes with astonishment, because
the introduction of artificial grasses into the traditional rotation of
crops indicates the transition to a higher and more intensive system of
agriculture. As I had never seen clover in Russia except on the estates
of very advanced proprietors, I said to my yamstchik:

"Listen, little brother! That field belongs to the landlord?"

"Not at all, Master; it is muzhik-land."

On arriving at the country-house I told my friends what I h