The Bread-Basket

IN the north of Russia the ground is white with snow.

In the south of Russia the ground is black—almost as black as coal—because the soil is so rich, probably the richest in the World. So this part of Russia is called the Black Earth Land. In parts of our country the rich soil usually goes down only a few inches before there is rock or clay, on which nothing will grow, but in Russia the rich soil is so deep that you could dig down in some places three or four times your height before striking rock or clay in which nothing grows. In America many farms wear out, because there is such a thin layer of the rich soil that it is soon used up. This is the case on many farms in New England that were in use two hundred years ago but are now used up, and so little will grow on them that the farmers move away and leave their farms, for they are no longer any good. In Russia, however, the rich soil never seems to wear out. Their farms are thousands of years old and still there is enough of this soil to grow food.

In the Black Earth Land they raise great quantities of wheat and, as bread is made from wheat, this part of Russia is often called the Bread-Basket. There is one thing the farmers raise that may seem strange—that is, sunflowers—acres and acres of them. But they do not raise them for their flowers; they raise them for their seeds. They eat sunflower seeds as we eat peanuts; but the chief thing they do with them is to press the oil out of the seeds, for this oil is good for salad, for making soap and other things.

The largest lake in the World is in the corner of Russia next to the Black Sea. Rivers run into it but none run out of it, and so the lake is salt. It is called the Caspian Sea, for it is like a little ocean.

As the March Hare in “Alice in Wonderland” said, “You can draw water out of a water-well, so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well,” and in the same way you get oil from an oil-well.