ious matters in
an evangelical tone, you may easily overcome their stiffness and
exclusiveness. Altogether such a village cannot be recommended for a
lengthened sojourn, for the severe order and symmetry which everywhere
prevail would soon prove irksome to any one having no Dutch blood in
his veins;* but as a temporary resting-place during a pilgrimage on
the Steppe, when the pilgrim is longing for a little cleanliness and
comfort, it is very agreeable.

* The Mennonites were originally Dutchmen. Persecuted for
their religious views in the sixteenth century, a large
number of them accepted an invitation to settle in West
Prussia, where they helped to drain the great marshes
between Danzig, Elbing, and Marienburg. Here in the course
of time they forgot their native language. Their emigration
to Russia began in 1789.

The fact that these Mennonites and some other German colonies have
succeeded in rearing a few sickly trees has suggested to some fertile
minds the idea that the prevailing dryness of the climate, which is
the chief difficulty with which the agriculturist of that region has
to contend, might be to some extent counteracted by arboriculture on a
large scale. This scheme, though it has been seriously entertained by
one of his Majesty's ministers, must seem hardly practicable to any
one who knows how much labour and money the colonists have expended in
creating that agreeable shade which they love to enjoy in their leisure
hours. If climate is affected at all by the existence or non-existence
of forests--a point on which scientific men do not seem to be entirely
agreed--any palpable increase of the rainfall can be produced only by
forests of enormous extent, and it is hardly conceivable that these
could be artificially produced in Southern Russia. It is quite possible,
however, that local ameliorations may be effected. During a visit to
the province of Voronezh in 1903 I found that comparatively small
plantations diminished the effects of drought in their immediate
vicinity by retaining the moisture for a time in the soil and the
surrounding atmosphere.

After the Mennonites and other Germans, the Bulgarian colonists deserve
a passing notice. They settled in this region much more recently, on the
land that was left vacant by the exodus of the Nogai Tartars after the
Crimean War. If I may judge of their condition by a mere flying visit,
I should say that in agriculture and d