294 THE WHEAT INDUSTRY 



homemade implements are used. Wooden plows, 

 hand sowing, reaping by means of scythe or sickle, 

 and flail threshing, are the common operations. 

 Because so much hand labor is available and 

 because the work is so well done, the country 

 produces large crops of wheat, as well as of other 

 cereals, in spite of the primitive methods in vogue. 



The development of any country is largely 

 dependent upon its transportation facilities. No- 

 where has this fact been better demonstrated than 

 in the case of Asiatic Russia. The isolation here 

 has been largely due to lack of adequate means of 

 commercial intercourse. The country, has, how- 

 ever, two great transportation agencies that must 

 be considered, - - its railways and rivers. 



Of the Trans-Siberian Railway it has been 

 said, c It is destined to have a more far-reaching 

 political and commercial influence than any in- 

 dustrial and economic scheme that has ever been 

 executed." This great railroad extends from 

 Moscow in Europe to Vladivostok on the Pacific 

 coast. In its total length of 6100 miles it trav- 

 erses central western Siberia and extends the 

 entire length of the south border of eastern Siberia. 

 It furnishes an outlet both to the east and the 

 west for this enormous territory which it serves. 



To the south has been built the Transcaspian 

 railway. It bears the same relation to Turkestan 

 that the Trans-Siberian railroad bears to Siberia. 



