KATUNDA 221 



interested merchants, and forwarded to the Russian 

 Minister of Ways and Communications, in which I 

 requested that thermometers in the refrigerator 

 wagons should be read and recorded at mid-day 

 every twenty-four hours, in order to ensure si uniform 

 low temperature while the butter is in transit. This 

 the Ministry promised to do. 



Another drawback is in the appearance of the 

 Siberian cask and the quality of the wood of which it 

 is made. English buyers are prejudiced against the 

 butter before it is tasted, and argue, that if the 

 dairies are not sufiSciently up-to-date to pack their 

 butter in neat, handsome casks, similar to those used 

 by the Danish dairies, they may also neglect to em- 

 ploy the best methods of making the butter, and 

 that, on the other hand, the wood may interfere with 

 the quality of the butter. The wood used in Siberia in 

 the manufacture of butter casks is altogether different 

 from that of which the Danish casks are made. It 

 appears, that there are no trees in the Altai of which 

 the wood could be obtained, and very little elsewhere, 

 so that there is no possibility of the Siberians making 

 casks of the same quality. On the other hand, the 

 hoops on the casks are brown and coarse, which 

 makes them look primitive and clumsy. The real 

 difference is, that the Danish cask and hoops are cut 

 by machinery in enormous numbers and are all of 

 the same size and dimensions. The reason that the 

 Siberian casks are made now is because they can 

 be purchased cheaper, the Government having lately 

 imposed a tax on foreign casks, which should be 

 taken off without delay.' 



The right kind of cask reaches the dairies cheaply 

 enough, in view of the keen competition of the firms 

 who sell them', but, owing to the tax already referred 



• I understand that this tax has since been repealed. 



