north of the Caspian Sea and at the gateway leading into Asia, are the
_Barren Steppes_, unsuited to agriculture or to civilized living; fit
only for the raising of cattle and the existence of Asiatic nomads, who
to this day make it their home.

Between these two extremes lie two other zones of extraordinary
character, the _Black Lands_ and the _Arable Steppes_, or prairies.
The former zone, which is of immense extent, is covered with a deep bed
of black mold of inexhaustible fertility, which without manure produces
the richest harvests, and has done so since the time of Herodotus, at
which period it was the granary of Athens and of Eastern Europe.

The companion zone, running parallel with this, known as the Arable
Steppes, which nearly resembles the American prairies, is almost as
remarkable as the Black Lands. Its soil, although fertile, has to be
renewed. But an amazing vegetation covers this great area in summer
with an ocean of verdure six or eight feet high, in which men and
cattle may hide as in a forest. It is these two zones in the heart of
Russia that have fed millions of people for centuries, which make her
now one of the greatest competitors in the markets of the world.

It is easy to see the interdependence created by this specialization in
production, and the economic necessity it has imposed for an undivided
empire. The forest zone could not exist without the corn of the Black
Lands and the Prairies, nor without the cattle of the Steppes. Nor
could those treeless regions exist without the wood of the forests. So
it is obvious that when Nature girdled this eastern half of Europe, she
marked it for one vast empire; and when she covered those monotonous
plateaus with a black mantle of extraordinary fertility, she decreed
that the Russians should be an agricultural people. And when she