TENURE AND USE OF LAND. 



Ill 



Thus, the fluctuations in the prices of grain in the Tomsk government although considerable 

 are far from reaching the intensity attained by the fluctuations in the wheat localities of 

 the Tobolsk government. In the agricultural governments of Eastern Siberia the fluctuations in 

 prices exhibit approximately the same character. In such localities of the Tobolsk govern- 

 ment, where farming with the application of manure has already become established, the 

 prices and harvests are distinguished by great stability, which naturally has a very good 

 influence upon the prosperity of the population. Thus, at the extreme northern boundary of 

 agricultural operations in the Tobolsk government the prices for grain during the last ten 

 years were : 



Maximum. Minimum. Average. 

 Per poud of rye flour. . . . 1.30 roubles 55 k. 80 k. 



» » » oats ..... 1.0() » 40 k. 55 k. 



Thus the maximum price exceeds here the minimum 2'/^ times. Independently of the 

 fluctuating niovemont, the prices of grain in all the agricultural localities of Siberia have 

 further a tendency to rise, which is explained among other causes by the expansion of the 

 sale of Siberian grain for distilling and export to European Russia. The prices of the 

 Tomsk market may give a perfectly clear idea of this rise. These prices, during a twenty 

 years period, taken for each five years, give the following increasing series: 



In proportion to the progress made by the works on the Siberian railway, the rise in 

 the prices for grain in the agricultural regions will doubtless proceed still faster. 



Live Stock Industry. 



Cattle raising in the localities containing the main mass of the Siberian population, 

 tluit is, in the whole agricultural tract of Siberia, plays only a secondary part in the eco- 

 nomical life of the population. Its dimensions and relative importance change in dependence 

 mainly upon the relation between the quantity ami quality of arable lands, on the one hand, 

 and of the lands adapted to the purpose, namely meadows and pastures, on the other. Siberia 

 is on the whole very rich both In meadows and pastures, although the low nutritive value of 

 forest herbage makes it necessary in the greater part of Siberia to expend much more hay 

 and grazing space upon rearing cattle than is re(iuireii under similar circumstances in European 

 Russia. Siberia nevertheless is capable of sustaining mucli more cattle than it does at 



