The number of individuals belonging to the Teutonic family is pro bably larger than that of the Turks. They are Germans and Swedes, with whom a few Danes are mixed. Numerous families of Germans are dispersed through the provinces along the Baltic, south of the Gulf of Finland, among the Lettes and Esthonians, and in those parts they constitute the nobility of the country. Most of these families settled there when the Order of the Knights Swordbenrers was the acknow ledged sovereign of these countries (from ]300 to ]530). Great numbers of German families are settled in the two capitals and in the chief towns of the empire, in the southern provinces, and in the Crimea. The Swedes are numerous along the northern coast of the Golf of Finland, and the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia.
There aro few Jews in the central and northern provinces; but they are numerous in those parts which formerly belonged to Poland. They are smith., tailors, shoemakers, brewers, distillers, &c.
The Greeks are dispersed all over the southern provinces of the empire as merchants. In the Crimea a few villages are entirely inhabited by them. They occupy themselves with agriculture and gardening.
The Kalmueks show their Mongol origin by the form of their body, as well as by their language. The tribes of thin nation which still exist le the south-eastern steppes of Russia are the remnant of those which left Russia in 1770 and 1772, at the invitation of the Chinese government, and settled in the plains of Songaris. They are divided Cato five tribes. In a country which has hardly a few patches of cultivable land, the Kaimnucks by able management have succeeded in maintaining horses, cattle, camels, sheep, and goats to the number of three millions. They export to other parts of Russia wool, hair, tallow, lamb- and sheep-skins, hides, and fur to a large amount. The Kalmucks are Buddhists and have their own Great Lama. They have also their own political administration, of which the khan of the Derbet tribe is the head. lie le assisted by eight counsellors and judges, and a person sent from St. Petersburg.
After the emigration of the larger number of Kalmueks in 1771 and 1772, by which the whole steppe between the rivers Volga and Ural south of the Obstshei Sirt was at once deprived of its inhabitants, a numerous tribe of Kirghiz Cossaks, belonging to the Little Horde of that nation, was settled in the tract which the Kalmucks had abandoned. They are known under the name of the Bukei horde, from the name of their chief, called Bukei, who introduced them into Russia. In personal appearance, they greatly resemble the Kalmueks and other Mongol tribes, but their language is Turkish. Like the Kalmucks, they are nomadic herdsmen, but they have only a small number of camels. They also keep some cattle and goats. Their wealth mainly consists in horses nod sheep. Some rich proprietors are said to have 4000 or 5000 horses and 20,000 sheep. The sheep supply the principal articles of traffic, and numerous flocks aro annually sold to the Russians at Orenburg, Troizk, and Astrakhan. Their agriculture is limited to the raising of some barley, and a small quantity of wheat and millet. They hunt the fur-bearing animals, with which their country abounds, and in summer the sniga-antelope. The Kirghiz Cossaks are not very strict Mohammedans.
the variety and great abundance of the natural productions of the Russian empire, agriculture may be said to be even now (with the exceptions to be noticed presently) in its first stage, since there is certainly no province which yields even half of what it is capable of producing. Hence in the greater part of
the empire it is not so much the ground itself that has any value, as the labouring population, and accordingly it is not the number of acres in an estate that is cousidered, but that of the male serfs attached to it. The old three-field system of husbandry, by which one-third of the land is always in fallow, is generally adopted in Russia. This sys tem is unfavourable to cattle breeding and to the making of manure for supplying the exhaustion of the soil: it has also led to the extirpation of the forests in many parts; but it is too deeply rooted in the habits of the people to be easily changed. In the Baltic provinces however agriculture is in an advanced condition, and many improved methods have been introduced by the wealthy proprietors. The governments nearest to Moscow also, and the Polish governments, have a compara tively large proportion of cultivated land and a tolerably good system of cultivation ; yet even in these provinces there are extensive tracts in which not one-fifteenth part of the surface is cultivated. The thinness of the population, the want of roads and markets in the interior of the empire, and obstinate adherence to old routine, con tribute to prolong this state of things. On accouut of the compara tively small value of land, and the want of manure, the fields in Great and Little Russia are often suffered to be fallow for two or three years. The usual kinds of corn grown are rye, wheat, barley, and oats ; maize is grown chiefly in the countries about the Black Sea. Other products are pulse, especially peas ; millet, hemp, and flax in the west and north-western governments; and hops in Little Russia. The cultivation of grasses is neglected. According to Tengoborski, who in his `Productive Forces of Russia,' estimates the population of the empire at 63 millions, the total cereal produce annually amounts to 260 million tchetwerts, or 186,875,000 imperial quarters. Of this about 9 million quarters, chiefly wheat, are-exported, leaving 177,875,000 quarters to supply seed corn, and the grain used in breweries and distilleries, for feeding cattle, and for the support of the population ; which last, according to a careful estimate by Schubert some years ago, amounts to about 15 bushels per head. The average annual exportation of hemp and flax between 1347 and 1850 was not quite seven and a half million poods (36 lbs. each). Timber, hides, tallow, aud wool are the other chief exports. The export of wool, formerly very considerable, has fallen off as the supply from Australia has increased ; the carelessness of the flockmasters (who labour rather to increase the number of their flocks than to improve their breeds), in matters relating to the cleansing and sorting of the wool, has tended considerably to check export of this article. In some years tho harvests flail, and instead of exporting corn it is necessary to allow the importation of corn free of duty. The government makes great efforts to favour agriculture. It endeavours to extend useful knowledge on the subject to all parts of the empire; many agricultural societies have been formed, and schools established, in which everything bear ing on the subject is taught in the most simple manner. In European Russia less than 2-10ths of the surface is under corn-culture; in France the ratio is nearly 5-10ths.