WOOD JNDUSTIIY. 12:5 



beyond the Volga in the government of Nizhni-Novgorod consists in the manufacture 

 of bast fibre goods for the tradei"s of the settlement of Lyskov. A good deal of bast 

 fibre is prepared in the government of Minsk for Riga. 



The coarser kinds of bast fibre and lime bast are used for making tackle for 

 rafts. On the Yetlouga alone 15 thousand pouds of bast fibre are used for 1,500 

 rafts. Lime bark as well as bast fibre is used for roofing, generally in pieces '6 

 arshines long, which are used for covering boat cabins and also for making hamjiers 

 or cases, almost all drapers goods in Russia being kept in such boxes; Riga receives 

 this material from the western governments; the Moscow market is supplied from 

 the Veraysk district, the Shouisk district makes them at home. In the Vei.jsk district 

 in the government of Vitebsk a large quantity of round boxes are manufactuied ; 

 in the government of Kostroma alone 50,000 bast baskets are made. Bast is also 

 used in large quantities for making sieves in the government of Kalouga. At Zimen- 

 china in the Kovrovsk district of the government of Vladimir 500 men are engaged 

 in making bast sieves; their production amounts to 1,500,000 pieces per annum; the 

 raw material comes from the governments of Nizhni-Novgorod and Tambov. 



In general the manufacture of this class of goods is located in particular 

 centres at a distance from those places where the raw material is produced. Thus 

 in the village of Grigorovo in the Melenkovsk district of the government of Vla- 

 dimir there are 300 men engaged in weaving mats of imported bast fibre. The Or- 

 lovsk district of the government of Viatka which does not possess any lime trees, 

 has distanced aU the other districts in the mat and sack trade and works up 85 

 thousand pouds of bast fibre, part of which is conveyed to the fairs of the village 

 of Ouny from the Malmyisk and Glasovsk districts and from the government of 

 Perm, and the remainder is iloated down the river Viatka from the Menzelinsk district 

 of the government of Ufn. 



The pitch and tar indl'stry. 



The distillation of tar is one of the oldest trades in Russia and is up to the 

 present time centred in insignificantly small establishments where the owner is 

 at the same time workman and salesman. The production of these works varies 

 from one to three thousand roubles a year; larger works are rarely met with, and 

 there are very few indeed which have a production of more than 15 or 20 thousand 

 roubles a year. 



Even in ancient times the products of the pitch and tar industry not only 

 sufficed for the internal requirements of the countrj'-, but also for export; thus 

 when Novgorod belonged to the Hanseatic League, pitch was an important item 

 in the export trade and was obtained from the northern appanages of Russia. At 

 the present time pitch is principally exported to England from Archangel where it 

 is one of the principal articles of trade ; turpentine is sent to Germany from the 

 Baltic ports and overland. Of late years in the western governments and those by 

 the Vistula large quantities of pitch and turpentine are distilled from the stumps 

 left after the clearance of woods. This turpentine is in great demand in Germany 

 on account of its good quality and cheapness. 



