TENURE AND USE OF LAND. 95 



hero still less possible than in the rest of Amouria otherwise than after a preliminary drain- 

 age of the country, or by the adoption of some other measures for combatting the excess of 

 moisture. 



With this may be closed the general economical appreciation of those regions into 

 which Siberia falls according to the degree of development of the practice of agriculture, 

 and the transition may now be made to the survey of the separate sources of prosperity of 

 the population of Siberia. In consequence of the predominating importance of agriculture 

 for the main mass of this population the largest share of attention must be devoted to its 

 description. 



The fashion and character of agricultural production are determined, on the one hand, 

 by the deuseness of the population, the conditions of sale and other similar economical ques- 

 tions, and on the other, by the natural and physical conditions, mainly those dependent on 

 soil and climate. The density of the population and the climate have been discussed in the 

 preceding descriptions. The discussion of the conditions of sale and of the general economical 

 situation will appear below. Here then it is necessary to give a general characterization of 

 the Siberian soils. Unfortunately, the data existing upon this subject are far from complete. 

 An exact scientific exploration of the soils, accompanied by chemical analyses, has hitherto 

 been carried on only in two limited regions, in one district of the government of Irkutsk 

 and in the Barabinsk steppe in the Tomsk government. Further descriptions of the soil exist in 

 reference to a few districts of the Tobolsk and Tomsk governments and to the Amour 

 country. These are founded upon mere surveys, connected with measurements of the depth 

 of the soil and in a few cases only with the determination of samples of it, based upon a 

 superficial inspection, more rarely by means of the method of subsidence, the determination 

 of the humus contained, and other more exact methods. In reference to many localities there 

 exist no published indications v^hatever upon the conditions of the soil. It may thus be said 

 that the soil of Siberia still awaits a serious investigation. A great step will be made in 

 this direction in the near future when fruit shall be borne by the expedition now projected 

 by the Ministry of State Domains, having for its object the exploration of the conditions 

 of the soil of the whole expanse of Siberia, traversed by the line of the Great Siberian 

 Eailway. Till then it is only possible to present the most general sketch of these conditions, 

 only a superficial characterization is possible, far from satisfying the demands of a strict 

 scientific description. 



The greatest variety and at the same time the fullest account are met with in the 

 case of the soil conditions of the government of Tobolsk. That portion of the latter possess- 

 ing agriculture may, in respect to the situation of its arable lands and of the conditions of 

 the soil, be divided into three zones, the northern, lying approximately between the parallels 

 58" and 59° and embracing the northern parts of the districts of the Turinsk and Tobolsk; 

 the middle zone, lying between 56'^ and 58V2°, and including the southern halves of the above 

 named districts, the whole Tiumen district and the northern parts of those of Tarsk, Ishimsk 

 andYalutorovsk; and the southern, taking in the southern portions of the last named three 

 districts, the whole of Knrgausk and Tiukaliusk, and the strip of the Akmolinsk territory 

 adjacent to the frontier of the govenunent of Tobolsk. 



