1 IS iMANUFACTURES OF RUSSIA. 



lu-iiicipal centres of the packing; case trade are the Makarievsk district in the govern- 

 ment of Nizni-Xovg-orod. the Bagrationovsk villages in the Mouromsk district of the 

 irovernment of Vladimir and also the Verkhotoiirsk and Ekaterinburg districts, of the 

 Liovernment of Perm. 



The manufacture, of bent cherry furniture is carried on in the Kosmo- 

 "lemiausk district of the government of Kazan; the material consists principally of 

 sticks in the bark about one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and 2 to 3 

 arshines long; the wood generally comes from a distance and costs at present about 

 35 kopecks per hundred pieces on the spot. One chair takes 25, and an arm chair, 

 about 30 sticks. These chairs made to order cost 6 roubles a dozen and the arm 

 chairs, 80 kopecks to a rouble apiece; footstools, sofas and tables are also made 

 there. This furniture is made in a very simple way; the fresh cherry sticks are 

 pared with a knife and then carefully bent across the knee ; when properly curves! 

 the stick is tied up with bast and put away to dry, after a short time, the bast 

 strings may tJien be removed without fear of the sticks straightening out again. 

 Before being bent they are always stored in a damp place; any sticks which may 

 have become dry require to be steamed or steeped in water before they can be used. 

 The rods which are gathered in June and August are generally discarded, as when 

 peeled they do not turn yellow, and the fui-niture which acquires the deepest natural 

 yellow tint is most prized. The seats of these chairs are made of thin oakwood 

 boards. The production of this district a]iiounts to about 1,100 dozen bent cherry 

 wood chaii's a year, of which about 500 dozen are sent to Moscow and the remainder 

 sold in the towns along the Volga. In the government of Viatka there are as many 

 as 600 village joiners with a united production of 140,000 roubles. Their wares consists 

 of boxes, frames, cases and many other articles, the furniture being worthy of par- 

 ticular attention, on account of its handsome appearance, strength and cheapness ; the 

 chairs are paiticularly cheap the painted ones being sold as low as 9 kopecks 

 apiece. 



In many parts of the government of ]\loscow the village artisans make carved 

 furniture which in artistic design and quality can compete with the best goods of 

 the kind. This furniture finds its way into the hands of the middlemen in Moscow 

 who put foreign trade marks upon it and pass it off as imported goods. 



Carpentry is not such a popular trade among the village workmen; there is 

 however a considerable business done in window frames in the villages of Pourekh 

 and Gorodets in the Balakhninsk district of the government of Nizhni-Novgorod, also 

 in the districts of Syzran in the government of Simbirsk, of Gorbatovsk in the govern- 

 ment of Nizhni-Novgorod and Kotelnichesk in the government of Viatka, and especially 

 in the village of Gadovka in the Simbirsk district, whence the goods are conveyed 

 as far as the Caucasus, the Don, Orenburg and Siberia. Wooden doors for cottages 

 are made in the Kassimovsk district of the government of Riazan and the sale of 

 wooden cottage walls is also often carried on here. In the village of Tseliava con- 

 sisting of 20 homesteads in the district of Borovichi, almost all the peasants are 

 engaged in the making of canoes of poplar wood; these boats, 12 vershocks thick and 

 3 sagenes high, carry 6 men and cost from 5 to 6 roubles. The inhabitants of die 

 large village of Radoul, situated near the Dnieper in the Gorodnitsk district also 

 occupy themselves with boat building in connection with their usual calling of float- 



