TEMPERATE SURPLUS-PRODUCING REGIONS 89 



Moreover, it is only Western Siberia that is likely for a long 

 time to come to be a producer of surplus foodstuffs, since in the 

 Eastern half of Siberia, beyond the Altai region, the northern limit 

 of wheat cultivation is 52 N., 1 which parallel is roughly 140 miles 

 north of the irregular Chinese 'frontier. Besides, the mining 

 population of this eastern half tends to absorb an increasing quan- 

 tity of locally produced and imported foodstuffs. There is, there- 

 fore, no surplus of animal produce from Eastern Siberia, and none 

 seems likely to be forthcoming in the future. In Western Siberia, 

 however, wheat can be grown as far north as 62 N. 2 Though 

 barley, oats and rye can be cultivated further north in the Northern 

 Hemisphere than wheat, it is not likely that permanent settlement 

 with animal industries as a prominent feature will advance 

 tor many years to come much beyond these critical parallels. 



The greatest need that Siberia has in order to secure increased 

 agricultural production is more extended means of transport and 

 improvement of those already in existence. The Trans-Siberian 

 Railway was mainly a military work, and by taking a shorter route 

 in Western Siberia, avoided some of the more fertile tracts of 

 country. Fortunately, however, this mistake has to some extent 

 been remedied by the recent completion of a new line (the Altai 

 Railway) from Nikolaievsk on the Trans-Siberian south-westward 

 through Barnaul to Semapalatinsk. 3 Much still remains to be 

 done in the construction of branch lines, and even of additional 

 East and West Trunk Lines. A comparison between the railway 

 map of Western Canada and that of Western Siberia will show 

 how deficient railway transport is in the latter region. The great 

 navigable rivers of Western Siberia, the Obi and its tributaries, 

 relieve the situation to some extent ; but the advantages of these 

 river highways are reduced, because during the winter they are 

 frozen, and during the summer season of navigation they have no 

 outlet of commercial value except by the Trans-Siberian. Canali- 

 sation of the smaller tributaries is badly needed, and alternative 

 lines of through communication are desirable ; either by canal, or 

 by shorter lines of railway northwards to Obdorsk on the Gulf of 

 Obi or to Archangel ; or westwards, using an eastern affluent of 

 the Volga and the navigation on that river and on the Don, to the 

 Black Sea. 



Roads, also, in Siberia appear to be very poor owing to the 

 absence of road-making material, as well as to the undeveloped 

 state of the country and the great distances to be traversed. Such 

 roads as exist are most serviceable in winter when frozen hard, 

 and least so in the spring and early summer. Grain, when proper 



1 Clemens Brandenburger, article already quoted, p. 7. 



2 Ibid., p. 7. 



8 See U.S. Daily Commerce Reports, Oct. 7th, 1915. This is an important 

 commercial line running at right angles to the Obi, Irtish and Yenisei, and 

 connecting the intermediate country south of the Trans-Siberian, with the lines 

 of navigation upon these rivers. Since 1914 a number of other new branch 

 lines have been opened. See U.S. Daily Commerce Reports, Nov. 2nd, 1916. 



