1590 OPENING UP LAND FOR CULTIVATION 



Mdeorolosical conditions. — The climatic of Astrakan is continental. 

 Winters are extremely severe and last three months, a minimum temper- 

 ature of — 30" C being occasionaly reached. Then a very short spring 

 is followed by great summer heat when the thermometer often rises to 

 40" C. Prevailing wdnds are from the east and come like a hot blast 

 across the country. The rainfall is verj^ low. At Astrakan it only amounts 

 to 5.72 ins. while the evaporation is 29.3 ins. or five times as great ; there 

 are 121 rainy days per annum with dry intervals which usually last 7 to 

 10 days except in July and August when there may be 50 or more conse- 

 cutive dry days, and on the edge of the Kirghiz steppe drought lasting 

 130 days has been recorded. In Ergenia the rainfall is higher, 4,5 to 9.5 

 ins. per annum. Mean temperatures in the desert region (Astrakan) 

 and in Ergenia (Tzaritzin) are as follows : 



Astrakan Tzaritzin 



C C 



Mean temperature for January 7,2 11.3 



" July 25.5 29.6 



Mean annual temperature 9-4 ' 7-o 



Underground ifatsr. — As a result of numerous investigations it has 

 been proved that there are two layers of underground water in Astrakan : 

 a lower one 25 to 30 feet below the surface, heavily charged with salts, 

 and an upper of fresh water close to the surface and found in the regions 

 where the ground is covered with Artemisia. A well 13 feet deep and 5 

 feet wide in such regions will supply enough water for 100 head of cattle 

 throughout the whole summer. 



I. Ecological study of Ergenia. — • A certain amount of planting was 

 carried out in Ergenia about the middle of the last centur>^ In 1913 the 

 Russian Department of Forests wishing to know whether it would be 

 advisable to resume planting operations, instituted an enquiry into the 

 progress of the planted areas. The writer who was put in charge of the 

 enquiry did not limit his observations to the condition of the forests, but 

 at the same time made a thorough study of the entire regional flora in its 

 relationship to soil, to climate and to cultivation. In the present paper 

 he gives a detailed ecological description of the region, using for the pur- 

 pose not only his own data, but also that collected by other investigators. 

 Afterwards he discusses the agricultural possibilities of the area. 



In studying the plant associations the system was followed of giving 

 to each association a descriptive name which indicates the type of flora 

 represented. For instance : 



P) vy.iim lie I'lS 1 mLiUilloral herbaceous flora in which Poa pratensis is dominant. 



Siipstum (from stipare = to crowd) denotes a typical flora of the virgin steppe fomung a 

 close turf and made up chiefly' of species like Stipa and Koclcria and in the cast Arena dcscrtorum 

 Less. 



Thymelum is the flora of the calcareous hills where the aromatic species predominate, more 

 esp2cially Thymus, Salurcja, Hyssopus, Zizyphora, Salvia, Scutellaria, Stachys, Teycrium. 



