House gardening on a limited scale is the principal agriculture of Kamchatka.  Fifty years ago, Admiral Ricord introduced the cultivation of rye, wheat, and barley with considerable success, but the inhabitants do not take kindly to it.  The government brings rye flour from the Amoor river and sells it to the people at cost, and in case of distress it issues rations from its magazines.

When I asked why there was no culture of grain in Kamchatka, they replied:  “What is the necessity of it?  We can buy it at cost of the government, and need not trouble ourselves about making our own flour.”

There is not a sawmill on the peninsula.  Boards and plank are cut by hand or brought from California.  I slept two nights in a room ceiled with red-wood and pine from San Francisco.

On my second evening in Asia I passed several hours at the governor’s house.  The party talked, smoked, and drank tea until midnight, and then closed the entertainment with a substantial supper.  An interesting and novel feature of the affair was the Russian manner of making tea.  The infusion had a better flavor than any I had previously drank.  This is due partly to the superior quality of the leaf, and partly to the manner of its preparation.

The “samovar” or tea-urn is an indispensable article in a Russian household, and is found in nearly every dwelling from the Baltic to Bering’s Sea.  “Samovar” comes from two Greek words, meaning ’to boil itself.’  The article is nothing but a portable furnace; a brazen urn with a cylinder two or three inches in diameter passing through it from top to bottom.  The cylinder being filled with coals, the water in the urn is quickly heated, and remains boiling hot as long as the fire continues.  An imperial order abolishing samovars throughout all the Russias, would produce more sorrow and indignation than the expulsion of roast beef from the English bill of fare.  The number of cups it will contain is the measure of a samovar.

Tea pots are of porcelain or earthenware.  The tea pot is rinsed and warmed with hot water before receiving the dry leaf.  Boiling water is poured upon the tea, and when the pot is full it is placed on the top of the samovar.  There it is kept hot but not boiled, and in five or six minutes the tea is ready.  Cups and saucers are not employed by the Russians, but tumblers are generally used for tea drinking, and in the best houses, where it can be afforded, they are held in silver sockets like those in soda shops.  Only loaf sugar is used in sweetening tea.  When lemons can be had they are employed to give flavor, a thin slice, neither rolled nor pressed, being floated on the surface of the tea.

[Illustration:  Russian tea service.]

The Russians take tea in the morning, after dinner, after lunch, before bed-time, in the evening, at odd intervals in the day or night, and they drink a great deal of it between drinks.