Page 713 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

his potatoes, as Levin had seen driving past, were already
past flowering and beginning to die down, while Levin’s
were only just coming into flower. He earthed up his
potatoes with a modern plough borrowed from a

neighboring landowner. He sowed wheat. The trifling fact
that, thinning out his rye, the old man used the rye he
thinned out for his horses, specially struck Levin. How
many times had Levin seen this splendid fodder wasted,
and tried to get it saved; but always it had turned out to be
impossible. The peasant got this done, and he could not
say enough in praise of it as food for the beasts.
‘What have the wenches to do? They carry it out in
bundles to the roadside, and the cart brings it away.’
‘Well, we landowners can’t manage well with our
laborers,’ said Levin, handing him a glass of tea.
‘Thank you,’ said the old man, and he took the glass,
but refused sugar, pointing to a lump he had left. ‘They’re
simple destruction,’ said he. ‘Look at Sviazhsky’s, for
instance. We know what the land’s like—first-rate, yet
there’s not much of a crop to boast of. It’s not looked after
enough—that’s all it is!’
‘But you work your land with hired laborers?’

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