RUSSIAN HORSES. 



55^ 



Norses bred on the Steppes ujidcr improved conditions. — 

 There are many private breeding farms in the steppes 

 of the Don, Volga, Dnieper, and other parts of Little 

 Russia, which raise some good stock (Fig. 550), and which 

 supply the Russian mihtary authorities with a large 

 number of remounts. The fifty-four dragoon regiments 

 (cavalry of the line) require every year about 7,200 



Photo by] 



[J. Delton, Paris. 



Fig. 549. — Viatka ponies (ij-i)' 



remounts, which they receive from the remount depots 

 of Sysran, Ostrogorchsk, Kirsanov, Liski, Balaklaya, 

 Borisoglebsk, Tambov and Armavir, at all of which 

 I stayed, except the first and last. The average price 

 of these animals is about 125 roubles (£13 5s.), which 

 mounts up to about £22 by the time they arrive at the 

 depots (cadres), and is increased to about 350 roubles 

 (£37), before they join their regiments. They are 

 received into the cadres from about the 20th September 



