1594 OPENING UP LAND FOR CULTIVATION 



The deterioration of Steppes and the means taken to check it. — Sheep 

 farming is general in the Ergenia region, and the system of grazing is such that 

 it frequently has a deteriorating effect on the flora which tends to become 

 more xerophytic in character and by its gradual modification influences 

 the grazing value and the general productiveness of the virgin steppes. 

 In order to prevent this deterioration and consequent decline of the live 

 stock industry it is absolutety necessary that all grazing areas be given 

 regular periods of rest during which the natural flora will have a chance 

 of recovering from the effects of the grazing. Further, selected plots 

 of the virgin steppes should be fenced round and protected from live stock 

 in order to provide natural seed producing centres for the reconstitution 

 of the surrounding flora. These plots should occur at frequent intervals 

 and include various types of plant associations, i. e. stipetum gramineum, 

 stipetum subsabulosum, stipetum cinereum, stipetum sabniosum. It is also 

 recommended that dr^^ farming methods be tried with the idea of intro- 

 ducing a more intensive form of farming. 



The creation of artificial forests on the arid steppes is one of the 

 most interesting experiments in applied botany and has important bear- 

 ings on ecological problems. On the Ergenian plateau woody plants 

 will only prosper in places where the water table is accessible, such as for 

 instance in deep hollows, in ravines, or at the foot of gentle slopes. And 

 such places being very limited in extent, there is no possibility of establish- 

 ing forestry as a separate industry. All attenpts to do so by the De- 

 partment of Forests have failed. The cultivation of trees will have to 

 form part of the ordinary farming practice, and small plantations will 

 be the rule. Both fruit and timber may l)e produced. The most sui- 

 table trees have proved to be: Robina Pseudacacia, Quercus spp. Populus 

 spp., Pyrus communis, Mortis spp. 



II. — The shifting sands of Asirakan (i). — Ten million acres of 

 the province of Astrakan are covered with shifting sands which have been 

 formed during the nineteenth century and which are estimated to spread 

 at the rate of lOO coo acres per annum. The principal cause of the rapid 

 transformation of good pasture into barren sand is the bad management 

 of the pastoral population who keep their flocks and herds so long in one 

 place as to result in the complete destruction of the turf. Neither 

 is the condition of affairs very much better where arable farming is prac- 

 tised, for the use of tillage implements helps to loosen the surface, while 

 the cultivators manage to suck the land dry in a few years by a bad system 

 of husbandry, taking one crop after another without manure; then as the 

 crops began to fail, the sand invades the ruined fields and gradually co- 

 vers considerable areas. 



The damage done is enormous, not only in Astrakan, but also in the 

 adjoining provinces and in the whole of southeastern Russia. In 1880 

 the Government became aware of the inroads of the scourge, but it was 



(i) A list of Government publications on the subject is given. 



