592 



RUSSIA. 



these except in size. The Retwisan, a vessel of 

 12,700 tons, with 10-inch armor, has the same 

 armament and the same steam-power and speed. 

 The Potemkin Tavrichesky, of 12,480 tons, is a 

 slower vessel more heavily protected and armed, 

 being an improved Trisvititelia, which was 

 launched in the Black Sea in 1893 and has the 

 most complete protection of any vessel afloat, and 

 of much greater weight than the Harvey armor 

 of the newer vessel. The beginning of a strong 

 Black Sea fleet was the construction of the still 

 formidable barbette ships Ekaterina II, Tchesme, 

 and Sinop, of 10,180 tons, launched in 1886 and 

 1887. The Dvenadsat Apostolov, Pobiedonosetz, 

 Trisvititelia, and Rostislav, all remarkable ves- 

 sels, with 8 gunboats, completed the fleet as it 

 existed in the beginning of 1901, the Potemkin 

 Tavrichesky not being finished, nor two ar- 

 mored cruisers that were in hand. The Russian 

 armored cruisers are as varied and striking in 

 design as the battle-ships. The Rurik, launched 

 in 1892, has a displacement of 10,900 tons, with 

 a powerful quick-firing armament, besides 4 8- 

 inch guns, and a coal capacity sufficient for a 

 cruise of 20,000 miles. The older Pamiat Azova 

 has been newly armed with 6-inch quick-firers. 

 The Rossia, of 12,130 tons, launched in 1896, is 

 surpassed by the Gromovoi, of 12,336 tons, which 

 will have 4 8-inch quick-firers and 16 6-inch, 24 

 3-inch, and 24 smaller ones. The Bayan, of 7,800 

 tons, carrying 2 8-inch, 8 6-inch, 20 3-inch, and 



7 smaller quick-firers, is designed to steam 21 

 knots an hour, 1 knot better than the Rossia and 

 the Gromovoi. The protected cruisers Aurora, 

 Diana, and Pallada, built on the Neva in 1899, 

 displace 6,500 tons, carry 8 6-inch, 20 3-inch, and 



8 smaller quick-firers, and with engines of 11,610 

 horse-power can steam 20 knots. A speed of 23 

 knots is expected from the Bogatyr and Askold, 

 built' in Germany, the Waryag, built in the 

 United States, and four more of the same class 

 to be built in Russia, all of 6,500 tons, armed with 

 12 6-inch, 12 3-inch, and 6 smaller quick-firers, 

 and having engines of 20,000 horse-power. The 

 novel torpedo-cruiser Novik, of 3,000 tons, built 

 at Elbing, and her sister, the Boyarin, built at 

 Copenhagen, carry each 7 4.7-inch guns and have 

 a speed of 25 knots. There were 21 destroyers 

 completed and 13 building at the beginning of 

 1901 ; 45 first-class torpedo-boats were completed 

 and 6 were not yet ready; and there were 41 of 

 the second and 101 of the third class. Of sub- 

 marine boats none were in existence, but there 

 was a plan to build 50. The torpedo-craft can 

 pass by rivers and canals between the Baltic and 

 the Black Sea. A ship canal is projected for the 

 passage of the larger vessels, which would enable 

 Russia to concentrate the two separate fleets. 

 Sebastopol has been converted into a strong naval 

 port. Treaty covenants stand in the way of the 

 free entrance of Russian war-vessels from the 

 Black Sea into the Mediterranean, and Turkish 

 forts guard the passage. The Baltic fleet can 

 operate in winter only by the aid of ice-cutting 

 steamers. An ice-free naval port is being made 

 at Libau and another is projected on the coast 

 of Lapland. The complications in China caused 

 the best part of the fleet to be despatched to the 

 East, where, having Port Arthur as an alterna- 

 tive base, the fleet is not ice-locked in winter at 

 Vladivostok. A Russian volunteer fleet, by a 

 contract made in 1892 for ten years, receives a 

 subsidy of 600,000 rubles a year on condition of 

 making a certain number of voyages with passen- 

 gers and mails from Odessa to Vladivostok and 

 intermediate ports. The managers also undertook 

 to build 4 fast cruisers of from 8,000 to 10,000 



tons, and have accordingly built the St. Peters- 

 burg, Kherson, Moskva, and last the Smolensk, 

 which makes 20 knots. A new port for naval and 

 commercial purposes was opened at Kherson on 

 July 28. The channel of the Dneiper was deep- 

 ened to permit the navigation of vessels of 17 feet 

 draft. A canal with a depth of 18 feet is planned 

 to connect the Sea of Azov with Rostov. 



Commerce and Production. Of the land 

 area of Russia proper, 1,100,405,967 acres, 36.7 

 per cent, of the whole, 403,609,583 acres, belong 

 to the Government or to the imperial family, 

 385,422,924 acres, or 35 per cent., have been al- 

 lotted to the emancipated serfs, and 311,373,460 

 acres, or 28.3 per cent., to private owners or to 

 municipalities or other corporations. Of the 

 state and imperial domains, 68.3 per cent, is fit 

 for cultivation; of the peasants' lands, 90.4 per 

 cent.; of the private estates and other lands, 85.6 

 per cent. Of the total area, 317,710,554 acres, or 

 28.9 per cent., are arable; 162,387,035 acres, or 

 14.7 per cent., are orchard, meadow, and pasture; 

 410,116,113 acres, or 37.3 per cent., are forest; 

 and 210,192,265 acres, or 19.1 per cent., are waste 

 land or occupied with roads, buildings, etc. In 

 the private and corporate estates 31.2 per cent, 

 of the land is arable, 18.8 per cent, orchard and 

 grass land, 35.6 per cent, forest, and 14.4 per 

 cent, waste, roads, etc. The total area of Poland 

 is 29,931,076 acres, of which 1,807,050 acres, or 6 

 per cent., are property of the state or the Czar, 

 of which 94.9 per cent, is tilled; 12,233,732 acres, 

 or 40.9 per cent., are owned by peasants, who till 

 94.6 per cent, of their land; and 15,890,294 acres 

 belong to private owners, towns, etc., 92.9 per 

 cent, being tilled. The arable land of Poland, 

 15,931,912 acres, is 53.2 per cent, of the whole, 

 while orchard, meadow, and grazing lands, 5,421,- 

 207 acres, are 18.1 per cent., forests cover 6,763,337 

 acres, or 22.6 per cent., and 1,814,620 acres, or 6.1 

 per cent., are unfit for tillage or used for roads, 

 etc. The area under crops in the European prov- 

 inces of Russia in 1899 was 180,613,000 acres; in 

 Poland, 12,538,000 acres; in northern Caucasia, 

 10,129,000 acres. The crops of the Russian prov- 

 inces in 1900 were 531,683,000 pouds of wheat, 

 1,285,243,000 pouds of rye, 249,462,000 pouds of 

 barley, 660,845,000 pouds of oats, 228,683,000 

 pouds of buckwheat, millet, corn, peas, etc., and 

 1,026,678,000 pouds of potatoes; crops of Poland, 

 32,767,000 pouds of wheat, 104,860,000 pouds of 

 rye, 24,476,000 pouds of barley, 45,400,000 pouds 

 of oats, 14,065,000 pouds of various crops, and 

 515,722,000 pouds. of potatoes; crops of northern 

 Caucasia, 94,374,000 pouds of wheat, 11,623,000 

 pouds of rye, 35,537,000 pouds of barley, 15,317,000 

 pouds of oats, 29,095,000 pouds of various grains 

 and pulse, and 22,599,000 pouds of potatoes. Si- 

 beria in 1899, as far as reports were received, pro- 

 duced 75,552,000 pouds of wheat, 47,333,000 pouds 

 of rye, 68,101,000 pouds of oats, 12,437,000 pouds 

 of other grain crops, and 28,241,000 pouds of 

 potatoes. The production of the steppes was 

 24,819,000 pouds of wheat and nearly as much of 

 other cereals. The total wheat-crop of the Em- 

 pire in 1899 was 754,545.000 pouds; the"rye-crop, 

 1,413,667,000 pouds; the crop of oats, 881,954,000 

 pouds; the crop of barley, 301,600,000 pouds; the 

 crop of potatoes, 1,504,123,000 pouds. In Russia 

 and Poland 4,004,642 acres under flax in 1899 pro- 

 duced 357,369 tons of fiber and 17,304,357 bushels 

 of seed, and 1,813,034 acres under hemp produced 

 217,380 tons of fiber and 19,675,262 bushels of 

 seed. There were 250,675 acres of vineyards in 

 Transcaucasia, producing 17,043,000 gallons of 

 wine, and 10,265 acres planted to tobacco yielded 

 3,392 tons, while 12,830 tons were grown on 29,- 



