KAINSK 103 



ing of the rough life these emigrants— man and wife 

 —were living. They had leased i,ooo acres of land 

 for twelve years with the intention of placing 200, 

 cows on it, which, my friend said, would show' la' 

 profit, even in bad times, of £2 12s. each cow per 

 year. He was paying id. per acre rent, and intended 

 to begin making butter, which is very profitable, 

 if he could only get his own cows. I inquired 

 about the possibility of procuring milk from the 

 peasants, and was told that the supply was un- 

 reliable, as the peasant will very often offer to bind 

 himself for two or three years to a certain creamery 

 if the manager consents to give 8 or 10 roubles 

 a year to the church, and he mentioned a village, 

 four miles away from Kainsk, which offered a 

 creamery all the milk of the village if the pro- 

 prietor would give 20 roubles a month to the village 

 church. Of course the supposed market price is 

 paid to the creamery for the milk^ but it interferes 

 with competition. 



There are one or two banks in each of the twenty- 

 seven towns in Siberia, but there was no bank at 

 Kainsk, and, as it takes seven or eight days to get 

 the money from Omsk, it was necessary to go to the 

 Jews, who, not knowing anything about butter, took 

 heavy risks and charged a high percentage accord- 

 ingly ; but, as the merchants only made use of 

 them when it paid them to do so, I do not think 

 there was any need for them to complain. The 

 Government should attend to the banking arrange- 

 ments, besides seeing to it that merchants get the 

 right weight and quality of butter, which the bank 

 pays for on behalf of the foreigner. A little illus- 

 tration of how backward banking is in Siberia may 

 be of interest. A banker's draft, drawn by a Bristol 

 man on a London bank, was sent to Kainsk, and was 

 forwarded in a registered letter on the 3rd of 



