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In the middle of July the elder of the village on Levin's

sister's estate, about fifteen miles from Pokrovskoe, came to

Levin to report on how things were going there and on the hay.

The chief source of income on his sister's estate was from the

riverside meadows. In former years the hay had been bought by the

peasants for twenty roubles the three acres. When Levin took over

the management of the estate, he thought on examining the

grasslands that they were worth more, and he fixed the price at

twenty-five roubles the three acres. The peasants would not give

that price, and, as Levin suspected, kept off other purchasers.

Then Levin had driven over himself, and arranged to have the

grass cut, partly by hired labor, partly at a payment of a

certain proportion of the crop. His own peasants put every

hindrance they could in the way of this new arrangement, but it

was carried out, and the first year the meadows had yielded a

profit almost double.