460 



EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



seed, the total yield of flax being estimated at about £12,000,000, and of hemp 

 £4,000,000. 



The cultivation of beet has also been greatly developed, the quantity produced 

 now amounting to nearly one-fifth of the European crop. Of this the government 

 of Kiev alone raises one-fourth, or about 2,800,000 tons. The Russian supply 

 generally equals that of Austria-Hungary, thus ranking next to France and 

 Germany. The annual value of the crop is estimated at nearly £2,000,000. 

 Since the middle of the century the production of potatoes has been nearly 



Fig. 246. — Arueaks of Payment fok the Redemption of the La\d in the vauioi s Provinces 



DURING thk Ten Yeak>< from 1862 to 1873. 



According to Wilson. 





v^^t.S^v^ V^'-^'^ 



^l^hl>l^Jy 



30 to .50 

 per cent. 



doubled, now amounting to about 173,000,000 bushels. In Lithuania and White 

 Russia they are chiefly used in the distillation of spirits, which are elsewhere 

 made more commonly from rye. The tobacco crop has also considerably increased 

 of late years, and is now valued at £480,000. Wine is grown mainly in the 

 south, and three-fourlhs of the yield come from districts beyond the natural 

 limits of Europe, the Terek and Kuban valleys, and especially' Kakhetia, on the 

 southern slopes of the Caucasus. In European Russia proper the vine flourishes 

 only in Bessarabia, on the shores of the Dniester liman, in the Crimea, on the Lower 

 Don, and to a small extent in Kherson. The limits of its cultivation have cer- 



I 



