72 SIBERIA 



.When the Russian Governnilent recognises the fact 

 that British importers are willing to pay the peasant 

 haridsolHely for his produce, it will be encouraged 

 to protnote the still more rapid development of the 

 industry. £10,600 have recently been spent on a 

 dairy school at Omsk, and others are to be estab- 

 lished at Tomsk and Kourgan. The industry has 

 now spread east of the Obi river as far as Kras- 

 noyarsk and Yenisei, and 800 miles from the railway 

 in a southerly direction in the Altai district. In the 

 latter the industry is still at a' very primitive stage, 

 but the district is an ideal one for tattle-grazing 

 and is bound to have a great future as soon as 

 ever the means of transit aire sufficiently improved 

 to obviate delays and admit of the produce being 

 conveyed to the distributing centres with a minimum 

 risk of being spoiled in transit. I have tasted the 

 finest butter I ever saw in the Altai, but, owing to 

 the delay in conveying it to the London market, its 

 quality has deteriorated by as much as 2d. per lb. 

 This is a tremendous loss to the peasant, and, in- 

 directly, to the country. The projected railway 

 through Barnaul, the business centre pf the Altai 

 butter-producing region, will be a splendid thing 

 for that vast country. It would also be well worth 

 while going to the cost of constructing light rail- 

 ways to convey the cream from" the skimming stations 

 to the central creameries aind the projected railway 

 line. The lack of speedy means of transit and com- 

 munication is the country's greatest drawback, as 

 the enormous advance made by the towns in the 

 neighbourhood of the great railway abundantly 

 proves. 



Owing to the abundance and consequent cheapness 

 of all form's of fodder, horses are very cheap and 

 plentiful, the price of a farm horse being from" £2 

 to £4. Every fanner owns between five and seven 



