Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/101

Rh INDUSTRIES.] RUSSIA 85 1,800,000 cwts. of fibre and 1,800,000 quarters of seed. The export of both (which along with other oil-bearing plants reachec the value of 136,816,000 roubles in 1882) holds the second place in the foreign trade of Russia. The culture of the beet is increasing, and in 1884 785,700 acres were under this root, chiefly in Little Russia and the neighbouring governments ; 68,900,000 cwts. cf beetroot were worked up, yield- ing 5,119,000 cwts. of sugar, while fifty-five refineries (twenty-six of them in Poland) showed a production valued at 118,888,530 roubles in 18S2. Tobacco is cultivated everywhere, but good qua- lities are obtained only in the south. In 1876-80 an average area of 101,600 acres was under this steadily increasing culture, a'nd the crop of 1884 yielded 86,400,000 cwts. The vine, which might be grown much farther north than at present, is cultivated only on Mount Caucasus, in Bessarabia, in the Crimea, and on the lower Don for wine, and in Ekateriuoslaff, Podolia, and Astrakhan for raisins. The yearly produce is 10'8 million gallons in Russia, 10 '0 in the Caucasus, and 24 in Transcaucasia. Market gardening is extensively carried on in Yaroslavl for a variety of vegetables for exportation, in Moscow and Ryazaii for hops, and in the south for sunflowers, poppies, melons, &c. Gardening is also widely spread in Little Russia and in the more fertile central governments. Madder and indigo are cultivated on Caucasus, and the silk-worm in Taurida, Kherson, and Caucasia. Bee-keeping is widely spread. The breeding of live stock is largely carried on in the east and south, but the breeds are usually inferior. Good breeds of cattle are met with only in the Baltic provinces, and excellent breeds of horses on the Don, in Tamboff, and in Voronezh. Since the emancipation, the peasants have been compelled to reduce the number of their cattle, so that the increase in this department does not correspond to the increase of population, as is shown by the fjllowin"- figures: 1851. 1882. Cattle 20,962,000 37,527,000 8,886,000 23,845,100 47,508,970 9,207,670 Sheep Swine A more thorough registration of horses for military purposes gives a return of 21,203,900 horses in Russia and Poland, that is, 255 horses per 1000 inhabitants a proportion which is elsewhere approached only in the United States. They are kept in largest numbers in the three Steppe governments and on the Urals (550 and 384 per 1000 inhabitants), while the smallest proportion occurs in the manufacturing region (155 per 1000 inhabitants). 90 per cent, of the total number of horses belong to peasants ; these are mostly of a very poor description. Infectious diseases make great ravages every year. In 1882 no less than 121,500 cattle and 14,110 horses perished from that cause. 1 Fishing is a most important source of income for whole com- munities in Russia. No less than 2000 to 3000 inhabitants of Archangel are engaged in fishing on the Norwegian coast and in the White Sea, the aggregate yield of this industry being estimated at 200,000 cwts., including 150 million herrings. These fisheries are, however, declining. Fishing in the Baltic is not of much importance. In the estuaries of the Dnieper, Dniester, and Bu<* it gives occupation to about 4000 men, and may be valued at less than 1,000,000 roubles. The fisheries in the Sea of Azoff, which occupy about 15,000 men, are much more important, as are also those of the lower Don, which last alone are valued at over 1,000,000 roubles a year. The chief fisheries of Russia are, how- ever, on the Caspian and in its feeders : those of the Volga cover no less than 6000 square miles, and those of the Ural extend for over 100 miles on the sea-coast and 400 miles up the river. The lowest estimates give no less than 4 million cwts., valued at 15 million roubles, of fish taken every year in the Caspian and its affluents. The fisheries on the lakes" of the lake region are also worthy of notice. . Hunting is an important source of income in north and north- east Russia, no less than 400,000 squirrels and 800,000 grouse, to mention no other game, being killed in different governments, while sea-hunting is still' productive on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. 2 Notwithstanding the wealth of the country in minerals and metals of all kinds, and the endeavours made by Government to encourage mining, including the imposition of protective tariffs even against Finland (in 1885), this and the related industries are still at a low stage of development. The remoteness of the mining from the industrial centres, the want of technical instruc- tion and also of capital, and the existence of a variety of vexatious regulations may be given as the chief reasons for this state of matters. The imports of foreign metals in the rough and of coal are steadily increasing, while the exports, never otherwise than insignificant, show no advance. The chief mining districts of Russia are the Ural Mountains and Olonetz for all kinds of metals ; the Moscow and Donetz basins for coal and iron ; Poland and Finland ; Caucasus j and the Altai, the Nertchinsk, and the Amur mountains. Gold is obtained from gold- washings in Siberia (63,194 ft* in. 1882), the Urals (16,850 tb), Central Asia (325 lb in 1881), and Finland (42 lb) ; silver in Siberia (16,128 lb), and partly on Cau- casus (1232 lb), the quantity steadily decreasing : platinum in the Urals (3600 to 4600 lb every year). Lead is extracted along with silver (19,416 cwts. in 1881 ; 357,260 cwts. imported) ; zinc only in Poland (89,650 cwts. ; half as much is imported) ; tin in Finland (194 cwts. ; 40,000 cwts. imported). Copper is worked in several <* vern- ments of the Ural region, in Kazan, Vyatka, Caucasus, Siberia, and Finland, but the industry is a languishing one, and the crown mines show a deficit (65,000 cwts. ; double this amount is imported). Iron-ores- are found at many places. Excellent mines are worked on the Urals ; and iron mines occur also in large numbers throughout the Moscow and Donetz basins, as also in the western provinces, not to speak of those of the Asiatic dominions, of Poland, and of Fin- land (bog-iron). In 1881 the annual production of pig-iron (which covered only two-thirds of the consumption) was stated as follows, (in thousands of cwts.) .-Urals, 6153; central Russia, 1092*; Olonetz, 42 ; south and south-west Russia, 501 ; Poland, 951 ; Finland, 413 ; Siberia, 85. The iron and steel throughout the empire amounted to 10,720,000 cwts. in 1882. European Russia alone produced in 1882 31,520 cwts. of copper, 7,703,000 cwts. of pig-.ron, 4,981,300 cwts. of iron, and 3,799,600 cwts. of steel. : The production of coal is rapidly increasing and in 18S2 reached 46,270,000 cwts., three-fourths being produced by the Donetz basin, and one-fifth by that of Moscow. Poland, moreover, yielded 27,950,000 cwts. of coal in 1882, and the Asiatic dominions about 100,000 cwts. Nearly 34,000,000 cwts. are imported annually. The extraction of naphtha on the Apsheron peninsula of the Caspian has been greatly stimulated of late, reaching about 20,000,000 cwts in 1883 (4,600,000 cwts. of kerosene, 1,000,000 cwts. of lubricathi" oils, and 300,000 cwts. of asphalt). Russia and Siberia are very rich in rock-salt, salt springs, and salt lakes (16,360,000 cwts. extracted ; 3, 746,000 imported). Excel- lent graphite is found in the deserts of the Sayan Mountains and Turukhansk. Sulphur is obtained in Caucasia, Kazan, and Poland (2000 to 5000 cwts. extracted ; 70,000 tc 170,000 cwts. imported). The mining and related industries occupy altogether about an aggregate motive force (steam and water) of 73,500 horse-power and 305,000 hands. 3 Since the time of Peter I. the Russian Government has been Manufac- unceasing in its efforts for the creation and development of home tures manufactures. Important monopolies in last century, and heavy and petty protective, or rather prohibitive, import duties, as well as large industries, money bounties, in the present, have contributed towards the accumulation of immense private fortunes, but manufactures have developed but slowly. A great upward movement has, however, been observable since 1863. About that time a thorough reform of the machinery in use was effected, whereby the number of hands employed was reduced, but the yearly production doubled or trebled. In some branches the production suddenly rose at a yet higher rate (cottons from 12 million roubles in 1865 to 209 million m 1882). The following figures for European Russia, without Poland and Finland, will give some idea of this progress : Number of Establishments. Workmen Employed. Yearly Production in Roubles. Production per "Workman. 1851 9,256 456,596 157,372,000 317 1861 14,060 559,533 295,560,000 528 1870 18,892 463,093 452,660,000 977 1882 56,905 954,971 1,126,033,000 1,187 These figures lose, however, some of their significance if the corre- sponding rate of progress in manufacturing productivity in western Europe be taken into account. Besides, since the great improve- ments of 1861-70 the industrial progress of Russia has been but slow. The manufactories of rails and railway plant, and even the Ural iron- works, are in a precarious condition. The textile industries, though Lindoubtedly they have made great 'advances, are subject to great luctuations in connexion with those of the home crops, and are thus in an abnormal state. The artisans labour for twelve, fourteen, and sometimes sixteen hours a day, and their condition, as revealed by ecent inquiries, is very unsatisfactory. Many causes contribute to this, the want of technical instruction, the want of capital, and 3 See the yearly accounts in Mining Journal ; Dobronizskiy, Mining in the Russian Exhibition of 1883 (detailed account) ; publications of the Minister of finance ; Koppen's " Mining Industry of Russia," in Mining Journal 1880 and fivestia Geog. Soc., 1880 ; Marvin's Petroleum Industry of Russia, 1885.