WOOD INDUSTRY. ' 119 



iiig timber down the Dnieper, which occupies all the able-bodied men of the locality 

 during the summer months, so that they are only able to devote their energies 

 to boat building in winter. 



The manufacture of wooden spoons is worthy of particuhir attention and is 

 concentrated principally in the Semenovsk district of the government of Nizhni-Nov- 

 gorod; the chief material used is birch, and small quantities of poplar, maple 

 and palm, the latter three being imported. In the Semenovsk district this industry 

 occupies 7,000 men. A load consisting of one-tenth of a cubic fathom of birchwood 

 is sufficient for making 400 spoons, and one man can make 800 pieces per day ; the 

 total production attains the enormous figure of 126 million spoons a year, necessit- 

 ating the consumption of 30,000 cubic fathoms of birchwood. The spoons are sold 

 from 6 to 8 roubles per thousand. All the goods are sent to the village of Gorodets 

 on the Volga and thence to Nizhni and Irbit, penetrating as far as Persia, Khiva, 

 Bokhara and Khokand. 



Small wooden goods are made in great quantities and often with considerable 

 perfection, although the rougher class of goods are more important being produced 

 in greater quantities. Child toys are made in the village of Bogorodsk in the 

 district of Alexandrovsk in the government of Vladimir and the neighbouring settle- 

 ments, 600 men being engaged in the trade. The parish of Petropavlovsk in the 

 government of Viatka is noted for fine wood carving; a good deal of small turnery 

 of difi'erent kinds is done in the districts of Shadrinsk and Ekaterinburg in the 

 government of Perm, in the Zvenigorodsk, Bronitsk districts of the government o^' 

 Moscow. 



In the Kstinsk, Troitsk and Pomzinsk villages of the Viatka district the peas- 

 ants turn out as many as 30,000 pipes, 15,000 pipestems and 10,000 candlesticks 

 and saltcellars. Pipes are also made in large quantities in many colonies in the 

 government of Saratov, about 250 men being engaged in the trade; the maple wood 

 used for this purpose comes from the regions beyond the Volga. 



Counting machines {scliety) are made in the Veraysk district in the govern- 

 ment of iloscow, about 30,000 of them are sent to the Ukraine fairs alone. Since 

 1884 wooden mosaic work in tables and boxes has sprung up in the village of 

 Maklakovo in the Vasilsoursk district of the government of Nizhni-Novgorod, the 

 whole of the village being engaged in the trade, which has now reached a highly' 

 artistic state of perfection. Most of the mosaic workers of the village of Maklakovo 

 use wood artificially stained in various colours in default of naturally coloured varie- 

 ties, and this of course diminishes the intrinsic value of their work. About 10 of 

 them however work in naturally coloured woods which they obtain with some difii- 

 culty, and at rather high prices, from a joiner in Nizhni-Novgorod. These different 

 coloui'ed woods are principally made up of old cigar boxes or the cases in which 

 paints, groceries and other articles are brought from abroad. 



The district of Tula is famed for the manufacture of concertinas, the Avork 

 being divided among at least seven distinct classes of artisans. This industry has 

 been in existence about half a century and the production averages about 240,000 in- 

 struments a year ; they are sold in Moscow, Nizhni and the Ukraine ; the recruits 

 buy a large number, and the Armenians, Persians and Bokhariots are likewise very 

 fond of them. Concertinas are also made in the Viatka, Orlovsk, Kotelnichetsk and 



