although, as you must know, India is almost never free from famine.
In Russia, the situation is but little better, for famine follows if
the yield of wheat falls two bushels below the average. Special
agents of the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Department
of Agriculture report that at least one famine year occurs in each
five year period, and sometimes even two; that the famine years are
so frequent they are recognized as a permanent feature of Russian
agriculture."

"But couldn't those poor starving people do some other kind of work
and thus earn a better living?" asked Adelaide.

"No. Agriculture is the only hope," said Percy. "The soil is the
breast of Mother Earth, from which her children must always draw
their nourishment, or perish. It is the 'last thing,' as you truly
said. Aside from hunting and fishing, there is no source of food
except the soil, and, when this is insufficient for the people who
produce it in the country, God pity the poor people who live in the
cities. But let us not talk of this more. I ought not to have taken
up the time of our ride through this beautiful scenery with a
subject which tends always toward the serious. The leaves are all
gone in New England, but here they have only taken on their most
beautiful colors. 'What is so rare as a day in June?' could now well
be answered, 'a day in November in Piedmont, Virginia.'"

"Do you know if your father received a letter for me from the
chemist to whom I sent the soil samples?"

"Yes, it came in Wednesday's mail, and there is a letter from the
University of Illinois and two others that Grandma says must be from