THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 56 



in aiding emigrants, by granting them cheap railway 

 fares, cheap food and medical assistance, and by 

 distributing them on the land from the thirty emigrant 

 stations, of which the most important is that of 

 Cheliabinsk. The quantity of land apportioned out 

 in this manner between 1885 and 1899 exceeded 

 19,000,000 acres. 



In 1 90 1, 55,233 emigrants returned to European 

 Russia, of whom 18,019 were pioneer emigrants sent 

 by groups of intending settlers. It would, however, 

 be premature to assume from these figures that 

 immigration is on the decline, as the years 1901 to 

 1903 were years of bad harvests, when relief was 

 required and obtained from European Russia, and 

 the temporary decrease in the number of emigrants 

 to Siberia must be attributed to that fact. The 

 development of the butter industry, however, will 

 not fail to add to the general material well-being 

 of the Siberian peasant, who, at present, is practically 

 financed and trained by the Government. 



A professor of agriculture is appointed by the 

 central authorities, whose duty it is to make him- 

 self acquainted with the latest discoveries and 

 improvements in the science and art of butter- 

 making all over the world. He afterwards publishes 

 the results of his researches in book form, and these 

 are used as guides by the trained teachers— Univer- 

 sity men — at the Siberian dairy schools established 

 at Kainsk, Omsk, Kourgan, Smernagorsk, and 

 Barnaul, important centres of the industry. An 

 " agronom " (professor of dairy -farming) has the 

 control of each dairy, and a peasant of average 

 intelligence and industry, after three months' tuition 

 at one of these practical dairy-schools, is qualified 

 to undertake the management of a dairy, and is 

 accordingly hired by an " artel " (co-operative 

 group) of peasants, to convert their milk into butter. 



