39 



about 57i busliels per acre, though the average did uot exceed 40 or 41 

 bushels. " For such results it is estimated that 120 francs per hectare, or 

 $9 to $10 per acre, must be invested by the actual cultivator. Allow- 

 ance must be made for years of drought in which the average yield falls 

 to 5 or 6 bushels per acre. Under such conditions, the farmer with an 

 ordinary market realizes from |4 to $5 per acre on an average. A farmer 

 owning his own land here enjoys special advantages, realizing, without 

 speculative risk, from 15 to 20 per cent, average profit upon his invest- 

 ment, including both good and bad years. He is able to sell wheat at 

 10 to 12 francs per 100 kilograms,"^or from 58 to 70 cents per bushel. 

 Agricultural hand-labor is always cheap, the wages of male hands 

 ranging from $40 to $50 per annum, with board, or from $70 to $76 

 without board. Good harvesters are difficult to secure at 50 to 80 cents 

 per day without board, or from 40 to 00 cents per day with board. 



Of late years the attention of proprietors has been directed to the 

 systematic cultivation of their estates. Institutions of credit are also 

 springing up in some parts of Eussia, which will afford the capital 

 necessary for a more extended farming enterprise. The vast plains of 

 Central Kussia, where thousands of acres lie without a single break in 

 the surface, will yet witness the complete success of steam-culture and 

 of the applicatioti of agricultural machinery on the grandest scale. Im- 

 proved farm-implements are brought into the country in increasing num- 

 l3ers. English manufacturers have devised patterns for plows specially 

 adapted to the culture of these regions, as well as threshing-machines 

 driven by portable engines requiring little more fuel than the refuse 

 straw of the crops. 



While cereal culture forms the basis of farming enterprise in Eussia, 

 the sugar-beet and textile plants will demand increashig attention. 

 Sugar-beet culture is diffused through Kieff, Podolia, Tschnernigoff, 

 Karkov, Poltowa, Koursk, Toula, Orel, and Tamboff, and is enlarging 

 its scope, especially to the westward. Three hundred beet-sugar facto- 

 ries have been organized, giving employment to 70,000 workmen. The 

 necessity of importing coal, however, raises the cost of manufacturing 

 sugar to a figure higher than in France or Germany. The quality of 

 the product averages very high. The seed sown is mostly the white Sile- 

 sian. It is thought that the extension of railways will remove most of 

 the causes which enhance the cost of production. 



Of oleaginous plants flax is most generally cultivated. It extends 

 over all of European Eussia and over part of Siberia. The total pro- 

 duct of flax in the empire is estimated 441,000,000 pounds, and of flax- 

 seed over 300,000,000 pounds. Hemp is largely cultivated in Central 

 Eussia. Its aggregate annual product is supposed to average about 

 275,000,000 pounds. The most of this home-product is absorbed by 

 domestic manufacture. The export is almost solely of flax, that of Eiga 

 being in great esteem throughout Europe for the fabrication of linens. 

 About 50,000 acres are devoted to cotton in Central Asia ; tobacco 

 occupies about 86,450 acres. The grape crop, in the southern provinces, 

 average over 6,000,000 pounds per annum. 



The total value of soil-products is thus averaged: Forest-prod- 

 ucts, $120,000,000; cereals and potatoes, $848,000,000; sugar-beets, 

 $4,400,000; textile plants and oleaginous grains, $65,480,000; tobacco, 

 $2,400,000; grapes, $10,000,000; total, $1,050,280,000. Forest-products 

 average about 26 cents per acre in gross value ; arable-culture about 

 $3.80 per acre. AThat the French call " industrial plants," those form- 

 ing the basis of special manufactures, yield the greatest average values. 



