200 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



SIBERIA. 



Siberia was advancing as an important factor in live stock 

 I)roduction. Petropavlovsk, on the trans-Siberian railway, was 

 the centre of an immense cattle-breeding district, and consign- 

 ments of beef have been made from that region. The nnmber 

 of cattle there rose from 360,000 in 1903 to 770,000 in 1909, and 

 subsequently the advance has continued. ]\lutton will also l:e 

 largely exported when the new ways of conuuunication provide 

 means of tapping the great outlying i)asture lands, and as a 

 proof of their importance the olficial returns show 2.000,000 

 sheep in Kirghiz Steppes, and 1,300,000 slieej) in Akmolinsk, 

 both areas being capable of greater development. In respect to 

 such progress, however, the trans-Siberian railway, whilst tra- 

 versing a rich pastoral zone, leaves some hundreds of miles to 

 the south, said to be the most fertile lands of Siberia. The 

 cattle-breeding industry there awaits the impulse of railway 

 communication and settled government. Pig-breeding is oP 

 special iniiicrtance, thanks to cheap and abundant food supplied 

 by dairies in the Kurgan district, whence large quantities of 

 bacon and pork are exported annually ; but the inadequacy of 

 railway transit prevents, for tlie present, an extension of that 

 trade. 



An English firm has erected meat works at Barawei. Re- 

 frigerators have been erected at Semipalatinsk, and works are 

 contemplated at Omsk. Stock and game are abundant and 

 cheap, and the climate is favourable for the frozen meat trade, 

 but what effect the last four years have had remains to be seen ; 

 however, new blood may make things progress after the war is 

 over. 



The vast region of Asiatic Russia is practically a new country 

 in cattle raising, and has possibilities too numerous to be esti- 

 mated. From 1905 to 1911 the number of cattle increased 

 from 5,600,000 to 14,700,000. Russia was proposing to go in 

 very largely for mechanical refrigeration directly after the war. 

 Nundiers of cold storage buildings were to be erected in the 

 principal cattle-growing districts, and receiving stations Avith 

 cold storage facilities were to be installed. 



I had intended visiting this country, and had received my 

 passport from Earl Grey and letters from the Russian Govern- 

 ment when the war broke out, and I had to cancel the trip. 



