THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

pon the emperor said to my wife: ‘Yes, dear child, it shall be done.’ Upon leaving, the emperor presented my wife with a diamond ring as a souvenir of this for us so important day.” (Thus far the Family Almanac.) b) Perhaps the immigrations of Rudnerweide and Alexanderwohl in 1819/1820 and others thereafter were the fruit of this most humble request and the most gracious response to it. The colony was blessed by a second visit of this monarch on October 25, 1825, shortly before his totally unexpected and deeply lamented death; this time his longest stop took place in Steinbach. (Compare #69a.) C. Agricultural and Ethical Matters from the First Decades of the South Russian Mennonite Settlements (Supplement to H31-37) A. Yesterday and Today 85 1. Today, the Mennonites of Chortitza, Molotschna and their daughter colonies, believe that every farmer must own a large number of good horses: 86 five for the plow, two for the harrow and another one or two for driving back and forth. He must also have an open wagon, or oboianka, with steel springs, which, in case of necessity, can carry six not too "heavy” people while springing properly and running as easily as possible on its axles, and a covered buggy on springs with glass doors "in case of rain,” or for more distant trips to visit in the more remote colonies or landed estates, which one cannot yet reach by rail. Naturally, there must be several “ Brit schkas ” — heavy wagons— which one has “shortened” to spread manure, transport grain to the railway, the city or the Pristani (river port), or has “extended” into huge hayracks according to the old West Prussian models and improved by the Americans. The land is tilled with iron plows, having one or more bottoms, of Russian, German, English and American, though most often of indigenous Mennonite 87 origin. Grass and grain are mowed with machines. The 176 IN RUSSIA 1789-1860 scythe is only used occasionally and that incidentally in order to cut the grass in a comer or mow weeds. Horse-drawn rakes and seeders are used. One can hardly imagine a farmer any longer without a horse-powered threshing machine, not to speak of the large land owners and renters where one or more steam threshers are deemed indispensable. The “threshing stone” {Uutfahr steen), a stone cylinder with deep ridges turning on a metal axle and drawn by a pair of horses, often on a round threshing floor in a shed or more often out in the open, sometimes in small and sometimes in larger circles, which threshes the grain spread out on the floor, was once considered an innovation in the steppes but is now used only by the very small landowners. The heavy handwork that remains to be done is performed largely by servants and maids from the Poltava region and the other central provinces or also “Mordwines.” 2. “Once upon a time,” during the first decades, things were different. If the landowner could come up with four horses which could be