198 SIBERIA 



1898 to 67,000,000 lbs. in 1901. The value of 

 Siberia's total butter export in 1903 was put at 

 £3,000,000. 



How can so great a business as this have been 

 developed, in so short a time, in a land which 

 the English farmer has, probably, hitherto asso- 

 ciated with frost, and snow, and political exiles, 

 rather than with successful and competitive agri- 

 cultural pursuits ? 



To begin with, the ordinary idea of Siberia is 

 an altogether erroneous one, for the country has 

 vast expanses of virgin soil of wonderful fertility, 

 and though the summer is short, the climate 

 uncertain, and the locusts destructive, there is 

 scope for almost limitless production. But the 

 natural advantages of the land remained un- 

 developed until the advent of the Trans-Siberian 

 Railway, which put the country in touch with 

 the Western world ; though even then the re- 

 sults indicated above have been due far more to 

 foreign than to native enterprise. 



The first person in Siberia to make butter 

 according to modern methods was an English- 

 woman, married to a Russian ; and the first 

 dairy with an equipment of separators for butter 

 production was opened in the district of Kourgan 

 by a Russian. Notice was attracted to the 

 Siberian product by an agricultural show held 



