RUSSIA. 



759 



acres are arable, 174,958,734 orchard, meadow, and 

 grazing land, 425,520,714 forest, and 210,058,770 

 mountain, barren, roads, etc. In Poland 55 per 

 <3ent. of the land is arable. In the western prov- 

 inces 2,516,919 peasants redeemed with Govern- 

 ment assistance 25,517,788 acres of land, valued 

 at 162,506,668 rubles, the average size of the 

 allotments being 10 acres, purchased at the aver- 

 age price to the peasants of 6 rubles 37 copecks 

 per acre. In the rest of Russia, where the con- 

 ditions of redemption were more onerous to the 

 peasants, the number of individuals who redeemed 

 their land was 6,641.836, the total area being 

 61,575,821 acres, the average allotment 9.4 acres, 

 the average price 11 rubles 43 copecks per acre, 

 the total value of the lands 704,018,004 rubles. 

 By the transfer of the land to the peasants 

 through the Government the state mortgage bank 

 received back the loans made to the landlords, 

 about 42 per cent, of the purchase money in the 

 western provinces and 35 per cent, in the rest 

 of Russia, and the remainder was paid over to 

 the landlords to enable them to improve the 

 -estates remaining to them. Besides the former 

 serfs, 109,791 leaseholders purchased their hold- 

 ings, about 2,100,000 acres in total extent. 



In European Russia 170,253,400 acres were 

 cropped in 1896; in Poland, 10,284,650 acres; in 

 northern Caucasia, 9,459,440 acres. The area re- 

 ported from Siberia was 8,402,000 acres and from 

 central Asia 2,495,800 acres; but these returns 

 are far from complete. About 66 per cent, of 

 the arable land was planted in central, 78 per 

 cent, in southern, and 10 per cent, in northern 

 and eastern Russia ; in Astrachan, 8 per cent. The 

 production of wheat in 1897 was 6,332,000 tons in 

 European Russia, against 7,986,000 tons in 1896; 

 in Poland, 473,000 tons in 1897, against 518.000 

 tons in 1896. The rye crop of Russia in Europe 

 was 14,080,000 tons in 1897, against 17,392,000 

 tons in 1896; in Poland, 1,345,000 tons, compared 

 with 1,534,000 in 1896. Of barley, 4,325,000 tons 

 were raised in the Russian provinces and 340,000 

 tons in Poland in 1897; of oats, 7,757,000 tons in 

 the Russian provinces and 590,000 tons in Po- 

 land; of potatoes, 36,277,000 tons in Russia and 

 2,950,000 tons in Poland. There were 8,358,000 

 acres planted to flax in 1897, yielding 290,000 tons 

 of fiber and 645,000 tons of linseed; and under 

 hemp there were 2,241,000 acres, yielding 301,500 

 tons of fiber and 370,000 tons of hemp seed. The 

 annual production of hops is about 650,000 hun- 

 dredweight. The hay crop of European Russia 

 in 1897 was 33,208,000 tons; in Poland, 1,805,000 

 tons; in western Siberia and northern Caucasia, 

 10,200,000 tons. Siberia produced 4,464,000 quar- 

 ters of wheat in 1896, and northern Caucasia, 

 comprising the provinces of Kuban, Stavropol, 

 and Terek, produced 5,707,000 quarters. The 

 Tvheat product of Transcaucasia in 1897 was 

 :5,535,000 quarters. The area planted in 1895 to 

 iobacco in Russia, Siberia, and Caucasia was 

 128,480 acres, producing 1,263,400 hundredweight. 

 Vineyards cover 16,000,000 acres, but only on 

 361,000 acres in certain districts of south Russia 

 is wine making carried on successfully, the vint- 

 age in 1895 amounting to 4,550,000 gallons. Cot- 

 ton is grown in central Asia from American seed, 

 but about half the crop comes from the native 

 cotton tree. The production of cleaned cotton in 

 Turkestan, chiefly in Ferghana, was 840,000 hun- 

 dredweight in 1895; in Khiva and Bokhara, 322,- 

 000 hundredweight. This product has been intro- 

 duced in Transcaucasia also, and about 200,000 

 hundredweight is raised in Erivan alone. About 

 330,000 hundredweight of cocoons are produced 

 annually in Turkestan, and the silk culture is 



well established in the Caucasus also. Turkestan 

 produces also 2,670,000 hundredweight of rice 

 every year. 



The mineral resources of Russia have been rap- 

 idly developed of late years. The production of 

 ?ig iron increased from 448,000 tons in 1880 to 

 ,612,000 tons in 1897; of coal, from 3,289,000 to 

 9,314,000 tons; of naphtha, from 352,000 to 7,057,- 

 000 tons; of copper, from 3,203 to 5,416 tons. The 

 quantity of finished iron produced in 1896 was 

 440,000 tons; of steel, 879,000 tons. The output 

 of gold in Siberia and the Urals was 37,176 kilo- 

 grammes in 1897. The best Ural mines are ex- 

 hausted, but in Siberia new fields have been dis- 

 covered. The production of platinum, which is 

 found only in the Ural mountains, has increased 

 from 2,947 kilogrammes in 1880 to 4,930 in 1897. 

 The production of silver, obtained mainly from 

 the Altai, was 10,757 kilogrammes in 1896; of 

 lead, 412 tons; of zinc, found only in Poland, 

 4,951 tons; of salt, extracted chiefly in southern 

 Russia, Perm, and Astrachan, 1,523,000 tons; of 

 quicksilver ore in 1895, obtained from the Cau- 

 casus, 81 tons, from which 954,000 pounds of 

 mercury were extracted in southern Russia; of 

 cobalt ore from Elisabethpol, 56 hundredweight; 

 of manganese ore, 118,170 tons; of tin from Fin- 

 land, 12 tons. The imports of coal increased from 

 1,502,800 tons in 1891 to 1,948,600 tons in 1896; 

 of coke, from 199,900 tons to 357,800 tons. 



The production of spirits, reduced to pure alco- 

 hol, was 79,300,000 gallons in 1897, against 82,- 

 216,000 gallons in 1896; of beer in 1895, 87,282,100 

 gallons. The sale of spirits by retail was first 

 undertaken by the Government in 1894, and the 

 system had been extended to 25 provinces before 

 1898. The area planted to the sugar beet in 1898 

 was 992,980 acres ; the production of refined sugar 

 in 238 factories was 636,890 tons in 1897. The 

 cotton industry has grown so that the products 

 are valued at more than 400,000,000 rubles a year, 

 compared with 240,000,000 rubles in 1880. 



The customs duties on imports were repeatedly 

 increased until by the tariff of 1894 they aver- 

 aged 24 per cent, on raw materials, 32 per cent, 

 on manufactured goods, and 61 per cent, on arti- 

 cles of food. Out of a total value of 508,516,000 

 paper rubles for imports in 1897 raw cotton stands 

 for 67,037,000 rubles; unmanufactured metals, 

 56,604,000 rubles; machinery, 53,125,000 rubles; 

 wool and woolen yarn, 29,209,000 rubles; metal 

 goods, 26,080,000 rubles; tea, 17,867,000 rubles, be- 

 sides the overland importations, which were only 

 3,362,000 rubles in value, although in previous years 

 they exceeded the importations by sea, amount- 

 ing in 1896 to 20,25*3,000 rubles; rice, 708,000 

 rubles by sea and 18,940,000 rubles from Persia, 

 the latter import having increased from 2,775,000 

 rubles in the previous year; leather and skins, 

 14,434,000 rubles; colors, 11,926,000 rubles; coal 

 and coke, 10,846,000 rubles; wine, beer, and spir- 

 its, 10,345,000 rubles; various textiles, 10,599,000 

 rubles; raw and spun silk, 10,131,000 rubles; fish, 

 9,544,000 rubles; chemicals, 9,297,000 rubles; gums 

 and resin, 9,146,000 rubles; fruits and nuts, 6,423,- 

 000 rubles; coffee, 6,042,000 rubles; watches and 

 clocks, 2,753,000 rubles; cotton goods, 2,530,000 

 rubles; tobacco, 2,306,000 rubles. The export of 

 wheat in 1897 was 68,670,000 hundredweight; of 

 barley, 28,780,300; of rye, 23,685,900; of oats, 14,- 

 044,900; of corn, 6,810,600. The total value of 

 cereal exports was 353,353,000 rubles. The grain 

 exports form on the average 55 per cent, of the 

 total exports to Europe. The exportation of eggs 

 has grown from 724,000,000 in number in 1893 

 to 1,737,000,000 in 1897, valued at 25,520,000 

 rubles, besides 30,300 hundredweight of preserved 



