74 SIBERIA 



able ice-houses situated at stated intervals along the 

 line. Frofflf Moscow the butter is conveyed to 

 Windau and Reval, which are ports of shipment all 

 the year round, and also to Riga and St. Petersburg 

 during the summer. Two regular lines, of three 

 steamers each, fitted with refrigerator plants and 

 owned respectively by Messrs. Lassman Brothers a:nd 

 Messrs. Helmsing & GrimmJ and which sail under 

 the Russian flag, carry the butter to London. Messrs. 

 Helfflsing &" Grimm's boats sail twice sL week and 

 Messrs. Lassfflan Brothers' once a week. They have 

 reduced the freight from 27s. 6d. to iss. per ton, 

 or a little higher in winter — so much for competition. 

 The freight on the 1,000 miles' voyage jfrom' the 

 Baltic ports is about half as mUch as is paid on 

 butter brought from' Ireland. The total cost of con- 

 veying a hundredweight of butter from" Siberia to 

 London is from; 5s. 3d. to 6s. 7d, The proprietors 

 of Hay's .Wharf, Tooley Street, Southwark, have 

 spent thousands on the construction of a new landing'- 

 stage and in dredging the Thairfles, and have shown 

 the old-fashioned, slow-moving port of London how 

 to save lighterage to the importer and reduce by, 

 about twenty hours the time wasted in docking and 

 loading barges. The curious, by visiting the wharf 

 during August, may see lots of 1 5,000 casks of butter 

 landed, which will be sold by the importers for what 

 it is — i.e., Siberian butter — frequently within three 

 days after arrival. 



The trade is already a, large one. During the 

 two years which ended with the winter of 1903 

 Siberia exported more than all our Colonies put 

 together, and the industry is as yet in its infancy. 

 The quantity produced and exported ainnually is a 

 little over 80,000,000 lbs., while the cows owned by 

 the peasantry are capable of producing more than 

 fifteen times as much, or, rp^ghly, 1,200,000,000 lbs., 



