LIVE STOCK INDUSTKY. 



113 



20 to 25 roubles. A horse fit for post service costs In either government 50 to 60 roubles. 

 In Eastern Siberia horses are considerably dearer; in the Irkutsk government the average 

 price of a working horse is not less than 35 to 40 roubles; on the Amour a small Transbai- 

 kal horse fetches from 50 to 80, and a Tomsk horse, 100 to 150 roubles. 



The horned cattle over all Siberia belong to the ordinary Russian breed. They are small; 

 a full-grown cow has a carcass weighing 5V« to 7 pouds, rather lean and gives little milk. In 

 summer, on usual feed, a cow gives about V* to ^/h vedro, and only when fed on oil cake, 

 from ^2 to ^,8 of a vedro. In winter, the yield is much less and does not on an average 

 exceed Vs vedro a day. Most of the milk obtained from the cows, as well as such products 

 as curds and buttermilk, are used by the peasants at home, and only localities near the 

 towns sell their milk. On the contrary, butter forming an important article of Siberian export 

 is sold from every household possessing more than one or two cows. Here too the butter does 

 not all go to market; the greater part is consumed by the peasants, only the surplus being 

 offered for sale. The quantity sold therefore depends not only on the number of cows, but on the 

 composition of the family. Taking the average family as containing 5 to 6 members, it can with two 

 to three cows, in the localities most favourable to cattle raising in the agricultural zone, sell 

 not more than 10 to 15 pounds per cow; with 5 to 7 cows, 25 to 30 pounds; with 8 to 10 cows, 

 a poud for each milch cow or somewhat more. The butter is made from sour cream. It is not sold 

 in the fresh state but salted down and kept till certain dates, occurring once or twice in the year, 

 when it is bought up by factors who supply it to large merchants who melt it down and clarify it. 



The sale of milk and dairy produce has a prime importance for the peasant only in a few 

 localities, principally in the neighbourhood of towns or in the steppes. For the most part horned 

 cattle are kept for slaughter. The meat is consumed mostly by the peasants themselves, only a 

 small quantity being sold in the towns; the tallow and hides are as a rule sold; they go from 

 Western Siberian to European Russia, while a considerable proportion of the h'des from Eastern 

 Siberia, of which come from Transbaikalia alone 150,000 skins a year, is used to cover tea boxes. 



Dairy farming, and even so very badly organized, is carried on only by peasants in 

 the neighbourhood of the more important towns, Tomsk, Irkutsk, and a few others. Perhaps 

 the most important source of revenue from cattle is the sale of the live beasts, the more 

 well to do peasants selling them at a later age than their poorer brethren. The cattle are 

 bought up by a special class of traders, who slaughter them and either sell the produce in 

 the towns or export the same to Europeaii Russia. 



The average prices for cattle for some parts of Siberia appear in the following table. 



