THE DAIRY INDUSTRY 73 



horses, which, when not eiHployed on the farm, are 

 taken long journeys with sledge or drosky, being 

 frequently away from home for four or five days at 

 a time in winter, conveying butter to the various 

 centres. The longest of these journeys are from 

 some parts of the Altai district to Bysk, 300 miles. 

 Long caravans, consisting frequently of as many as 

 100 sledges, led by one or two men, bring the butter 

 400 miles farther to the Siberian line, being joined 

 by still larger caravans half-way at Barnaul. The 

 sight of these crawling caravans of butter in the 

 endless steppes is unique. The road is only wide 

 enough for sledges to advance in one direction, so 

 that all trafific proceeding in the opposite direction 

 is compelled to pull to one side into the deep snow 

 to allow the endless procession to pass. 



The Russian horse is fairly good as a racer. It is 

 on record that, at one race meeting, a Kirghiz horse 

 ran 20 versts (14 miles) at the rate of one verst 

 (or two-thirds of a mile) in a minute and a half. 

 •We travelled behind one in the Altai district which 

 drew our sledge 40 miles, trotting all the way and 

 only resting for a brief half -hour. The horses are 

 not very extravagantly fed, but the air is very bracing 

 and invigorating. A Government publication dealing 

 with Siberia states explicitly that the Siberian horse 

 is not particular as to food. 



So far as the railway is concerned, it has been 

 arranged that a weekly service will be run of from 

 seven to nine butter trains, if necessary, each train 

 to consist of thirty-five carriages. These trains will 

 take from ten to twenty-one days to convey the butter 

 to Moscow from" the different Siberian centres. The 

 rolling stock includes 1,080 refrigerator wagons, 

 with a carrying capacity of 1 5 tons each. These 

 are painted white and are cooled by ice, which is 

 taken from' the rivers in winter and stored in suit- 



