92 SIBERIA. 



tlie Tomsk govenmiont, about GG per coiil; 41 jji-i > i-ni m im- lirst of llie said localities, ami 

 34 per cent in tlio socoinl, loriii saleable surplus. And yet llie regions in question are far 

 Iroiii l)(;lonf,Mng to tlio uunibrr of tiic most fertile areas of agricultural Siberia. In such local- 

 ities as the Altai mining district, the Minusinsk district of the Yenisei.sk government, the 

 best volosts of the south-westi'rn districts of the Tobolsk government, the proportion borne 

 by the produce dH grain to its consumption is yet considerably more favourable and the sale- 

 able surplus, on average harvests, forms not less than half of the whole yield. The expoil 

 of grain, principally spring wheat from Western Siberia, reached in recent years 10,000,000 

 to 12,00<),000 ponds ainiually. The total (piantlty therefore of grain raised in this part of 

 SibiTia forms not los;, than 85,0Of),0<JO pomls a year. It must not be forgotten, however, that 

 in the i)alo of the agricultural tract of Siberia occur such patches where the land, on account 

 of the ba<l conditions of soil and climate, cannot feed the population. But such .spots are 

 very small and their population exists upon the surplus grain of the nearest more fertile 

 localities. 



However this may be, the whole economical fate of the population of the cultivated 

 zone of Siberia is entirely determined as a general rule by the condition of agriculture and 

 of cattle-breeding so closely connected therewith. "Where the land is good the population 

 attains a high degree of wealth and gi'ows alike by natural increase and by the tide of 

 immigrant elements; when the land is poor, the population ordinarily lives In poverty and not 

 unfrequeutly dwindles away in search of better places of settlement. 



Trades and industries speaking in general terms, play the least considerable part 

 in the economical life of the population of the agricultural tract of Siberia. But there 

 are within the agricultural zone such regions also where agriculture loses its position as 

 the sole source of prosperity and either shares it with other earnings or even altogether 

 yields it to the latter. Thus, first of all may be pointed out many localities lying along 

 the banks of great rivers where a very essential part in the economic life of the 

 pcipulation is played by fishing, service on vessels and in the neighbourhood of fine forests, 

 the raftage of timber. In localities nearly approaching uninhabited taigas and urmans great 

 importance is possessed by hunting, the gathering of cedar nuts, and in the presence of a good 

 market, the felling of timber. The volosts bordering on such great town centres as Tomsk, 

 Tinmen, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk have the character usual for suburban regions. Agriculture is 

 little developed in Ihem or nou-existont, and the population lives by market-gardening, dairy 

 farming, the furnishing of hay and wood fuel, the letting in summer of \"illa residence, 

 works in connexion with the cleansing of the streets and other similar occupations, directly 

 serving to satisfy the wants of the town population. There are furthermore a few regions 

 engaged in household industries. The largest of these suiTounds the town Tinmen stretching 

 therefrom to the north-west; the second is situated around the town of Tomsk; other such 

 small industries occur in all the governments of the agricultural tract of Siberia. In all these 

 regions articles of wood are principally manufactured, as also the results of wood distillation. 

 These products are destined partly for the needs of the local true peasant population, partly 

 to furnish the caravans moving over the great Siberian and other tracts. But the importance 

 of all the enumerated non-agricultural earnings in the general economy of Siberia and in 



