478. The head operative gardeners of Russia are almost all foreigners, or sons of foreigners. Sometimes a nobleman sends a slave as an apprentice to a gardener, for his own future use; but generally the assistant labourers are mere Russian boors, slaves of the lord; or other slaves who have obtained permission to travel and work on their own account for a few years. These boors make very tractable labourers; for the Russian is imitative and docile, to a high degree. They require, however, to be excited by interest or fear. The freed slaves on the government estates in the Ukraine, Mary Holderness informs us (Notes on the Crimea, &c., 1821), dig sitting and smoking.
