2 9 o THE WHEAT INDUSTRY 



is the zone where the northern forests gradually 

 merge into the dry steppes of the south. This 

 belt is over 100 miles in width from north to south 

 and has an extent from east to west of more than 

 a thousand miles. The soil is a fertile, black 

 loam. Of this vast area only about 3 per cent is at 

 present being farmed. Immigration from Euro- 

 pean Russia has been going on rapidly, however, in 

 recent years, to such an extent that nearly half 

 a million people settled in this part of Siberia in a 

 single year. Farther eastward development has 

 not been so rapid as in the west. 



The Machinery of Cultivation. - The tools and 

 implements of the Siberian peasant are of crude 

 and primitive types. The plow is large and 

 clumsy and is usually homemade. It turns a 

 wide furrow but in order to do so it requires the 

 combined strength of 3 to 8 yoke of oxen or teams 

 of horses. Sowing is by hand, and crude har- 

 rows are used to cover the grain. Almost all of 

 the wheat raised is of spring varieties. Of late, 

 however, modern methods are gradually being 

 introduced. American harvesting and threshing 

 machine firms are engaged in an educational cam- 

 paign which is designed to stimulate to better 

 methods of production, and thereby create a de- 

 mand for their machinery. Modern threshers are 

 also to some extent replacing the flail and threshing 

 floor. 



