ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the immutable natural characteristics of European Russia, as far as they affect the agricultural industry, shows how different are conditions with which the farmer is faced in various parts of country. The agricultural geography of a country is the product of combined influence of natural conditions, historical development and economic factors. European Russia is a vast plain, intersected only by slight undulations of the ground. The natural environment to which farming has to adapt itself depends mainly on two elementary geographical factors, namely latitude and longitude, which determine climatic conditions and, through latter, to a considerable extent, also the properties of the soil. In Russia, the natural zones stretch over thousands of square miles without interruption, going over into each other along their borders by imperceptible stages. The Arctic zone, which occupies the extreme North of Russia, lies mostly beyond the limit of cereal cultivation.
