RURAL INDUSTRIES. 127 



The importance of the industries not connected with the exploitation of the forests in 

 regard to the general economy of the country is not great. Attention must here in the first 

 place be directed to hand spinning and weaving, converting flax and wool into linen and 

 coarse cloth. Weaving has an almost exclusively domestic character; but small quantities of 

 linen and cloth are oifered for sale, the main mass being consumed in the form of clothing 

 by the peasantry. Further, in many localities, particularly those near the towns or the tract, 

 home-spun linens and cloths are driven out by imported manufactured fabrics. Next, notice 

 must be taken of the leather, sheepskin, wool beating in coiniection with the making of felt 

 shoes, hat, girdle, worsted glove, and other industries, all of which are of universal occurrence. 

 Ordinarily those employed in these industries live isolated in different settlements, occupying 

 themselves with their particular industry as an aid to agriculture, and working in their own 

 or the neighbouring villages at piece work upon material not their own. In some places 

 however sheepskin dressers, makers of felt shoes, and tanners live in whole communities, 

 specialize to a greater extent in their trade and work for the population of more consid- 

 erable regions lying around. The second of these trades is established on a large scale in the 

 Kurgan and Tinmen districts of the government of Tobolsk, which supply not only the neigh- 

 bouring localities, but also the Eastern Siberian market. 



Other trades are carpentry and joinery, brick making, and similar branches, which 

 while existing everywhere, here and there form small industrial communities. Of the more 

 refined industries may be mentioned the making of metallic sieves, carpet weaving and sign 

 painting in the Tinmen district, the construction of mills in Ishim, the dressing of hare 

 skins neai' Tomsk, the winnowing fan industry in the Mariinsk district and in the Altai, as 

 well as some others. All these industries exist only in distinct settlements or groups of set- 

 tlements, but are somewhat highly specialized in the region of their distribution and provide 

 the population employed in them very considerable wages. 



To complete the description of the peasant industries, there still remains to say a few 

 words upon the carrier trade and the occupations connected with it. The conveyance of 

 goods constitutes the chief form taken by this industry, and with it is occupied not only a 

 considerable part of the population dwelling in the immediate vicinity of the tracts, but a 

 large number of peasants living at a distance from the latter in the sphere of attraction of 

 one or other of the leading depots, that is, mainly Tiuraen, Tomsk and Irkutsk. The principal 

 branch of this trade is that along the great Siberian tract, including the carriage of goods 

 between the different localities of Siberia and European Russia. Next in order comes the 

 conveyance of provisions of all kinds to the gold mines and the grounds of the native nom 

 ads, situated without tht; pale of the cultivated zone of Siberia; after this, follow the rest. 

 But by far the most important of all is the traffic ovox the great Siberian tract of which 

 it is necessary to speak. 



The chief articles of export fioni Eiiro|)ean Ilussja into Siberia are the most varied 

 productions of manufacturing industry, beginning with ladies fashions and confection- 

 ery and ending with machinery and bar iron. From Western Siberia into European Rus- 

 sia are conveyed grain and the produce from the slaughter of cattle, such as hides and 

 tallow, while from Eastern Siberia goes almost exclusively tea with which many Ihous- 



