94 SIBERIA. 



themselves tninsreirin^ tin; centre of f,nuvily of tln-ir economy to cattle laisiiif.'. By <loiag so 

 they lost nothliif,' as the profitable sale opened to the produce of their cattle breeding, which 

 a|)|)eared with iln; arrival nf ili.- Russians, fully compensated tlii-m for the contraction in the 

 extent of their agricullnic 



Passing at last the Amour border huul, it appears that Amouria may bii split up into 

 three pjiits, the lirst of which is situated above the confluence of the Zeya with the Amour, 

 the second hdow the coidliience of the Bureya, the third between the lower reaches of these 

 two streams. In the lirst tracts the only lauds at present suitabh; for cultivation are those 

 situated on the second terrace of the AiiiDiir valley, the lir.st terrace is inundated several 

 times every summer and therefore is unsuited to either settlement or agriculture. Outside this 

 valley the region presents partly mountain ranges, partly tablelands scored with gullies and 

 valleys, whose summits, thanks to the dense forest covering them, never dry up properly and 

 therefore have to a considerable degree a swampy character. With the gradual felling and 

 bMniing of the forest, the soil of the tablelands is slowly drying and becoming suitable for 

 cultivation, so that in time the latter will undoubtedly take in a wider and yet wider 

 tract. But this question is incapable of rapid settlement, and at any rate at the present 

 time the whole mountainous part of the locality under consideration is absolutely desert ami 

 affords only an arena for the industry of the trappers of the Amour population. The main 

 occupation of the latter is agriculture. Sowing on an average four to five dessiatines per 

 household the local population on the whole secures its own provision but has no surplus 

 grain for sale. The chief supplementary earnings are the carriage of goods and the 

 furnishing of hay to the gold mines, fishing, trapping and the supply of wood fuel to 

 the steamers. Upon section between the lower reaches of the Zeya and Bureya the zone 

 adapted to cultivation is much wider, here not only is the second terrace of the Amour 

 valley suited to agriculture, but also the watershed of the Zeya and Bureya, which has earned 

 the name of the «prairie of the Amour», The population, partly Russian, partly Manchurian, 

 is here much denser than in the rest of Amouria, the extent of the arable land much 

 greater, and grain is produced not only for home consumption, but for sale. But in this 

 district, as in the whole of Amouria, climatic conditions stand in the way of the development 

 of cultivation; there is in effect an excess of moisture. The beyoml measure damp and rainy 

 climate has a sinister effect upon both the quality of the grain and upon the raising of live 

 stock. The latter industry so far brings hardly any profit to the local population. For the 

 development here of cultivation, there is wanted either a change in the climatic conditions, 

 of which there is a hope in the future, or the elaboration of methods of agriculture and 

 cattle raising more suitable to these conditions. Such a change in the climate was observed 

 by the latest explorer of the country, the Academician Korzhinsky, as a result of the com- 

 parison of his own observations with the statements made by the academician Maximovich, 

 who travelled in the Amour region thirty years earlier. 



A still greater excess of moisture is met with in the most eastern borderland of 

 Amouria and indeed of the whole of Siberia, namely in the Ussuri country. Here it is 

 impossible to sow grain otherwise than in ridges leaving between them trenches for the 

 drainage of the water and the free movement of the air. The development of cultivation is 



