Photo and coi)\'right bj- Underwood «i Underwood 

 A GROUP 01? RUSSIAN COSSACKS 



The Cossacks are the world's foremost rough riders. Vast areas of land were many 

 years ago set aside for them by the government in return for their military services. These 

 lands, totaling 146,000,000 acres — 105,000,000 of these arable and 10,000,000 under forest — are 

 among the richest in Russia. The}^ have been apportioned on the basis of 81 acres per 

 person, leaving about a third in reserve. The men, in return for this bounty of the govern- 

 ment, are required to give 20 years of service — one-third active — to the army, furnishing all 

 their own equipment, including horses, except arms and ammunition. Their rich lands give 

 them large incomes, and they are better educated than any other like body of the general 

 population. 



prevent the riotous debauchery of the 

 mining" camp and can send the miner 

 home for the winter with money for his 

 family. 



While Russia produced one-fifth of the 

 world's petroleum in 191 o, its oil industry 

 is not in as satisfactory a state as that of 

 the United States. In 1900 the produc- 

 tion of the United States amounted to 

 2,672,000,000 gallons, as compared with 

 3,030,000,000 for Russia. In 1910 the 

 production of the United States had 

 reached 8,801,000,000 gallons, while Rus- 



sia's output had faljen to 2,850,000,000 

 gallons. 



Across Russia's broad reaches, extend- 

 ing from 18 degrees east of Greenwich 

 to 169 west, there is a great belt of forest 

 containing 900 million acres that is the 

 finest timbered area still intact on the 

 face of the earth. While wood is still al- 

 most the universal fuel, no land-owner is 

 allowed to convert his forest lands to 

 other uses, if the clearing of the land has 

 not been provided for in some general en- 

 actment, until he has first notified the 



