528 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



largest yields being in the Baltic provinces and Pskov, St. Petersburg, 

 and Novgorod, in the governments in Central Russia lying around and 

 including that of Moscow, and in the northern and central divisions of 

 the Blackearth region. 



The* returns on spring rye and spelt are meager, averages being given 

 for only a few governments. 



The average for barley on proprietors' land ranges from 2o bushels 

 down to 8 J bushels, and on peasants' land from 21 bushels down to 7 J. 

 The highest yields of this grain are in the northern and eastern portion 

 of the Blackearth region (including the governments of Kazan, Sim- 

 birsk, Samara, and Saratov, in the Volga Valley), in Moscow and the 

 governments immediately around it, in the Baltic provinces and the 

 northern and northwestern divisions of the non-Blackearth region, and 

 in the Vistula district in Poland. 



The averages for oats range from 28 down to 12J bushels per acre on 

 proprietors' lands, and from 21 down to 9J bushels on peasants' lands. 

 This crop is very generally good, the governments which offer the most 

 marked exceptions te the rule being Grodno, Minsk, and Volhynia in 

 the portion of West Bussia drained by the Pripet River, the chief trib- 

 utary of the Upper Dnieper, and the region north and west of the Sea 

 of Azov (including the Crimea), embraced in the governments of Tau- 

 rida and Ekaterinoslav. 



The maize maize region of Russia is confined to the southern half of the 

 Blackearth region and portions of the Caucasian governments. The 

 average yield, as shown in last year's returns, given below, is very 

 small compared with that of the chief corn-producing States of our own 

 country, ranging from 18f bushels per acre in Bessarabia and Kiev, down 

 to 6^ in Ekaterinoslav. 



The returns as to sugar beets are chiefly from the central, southwest- 

 ern, and northern divisions of the Blackearth region. The average 

 yields, as shown in the table, range from 10,733 pounds per acre in 

 Kharov down to 8,207 pounds in Poltava and Volhynia. According 

 to data furnished by the Department of Untaxed Crops, the average 

 yield in the governments which have a very large area under beets is 

 from 80 to 90 berkovets per desiatine (10,101 to 11,364 pounds per acre), 

 and elsewhere from 50 to 80 berkovets per desiatine (6,318 to 10,101 

 pounds per acre). According to information furnished by the same de- 

 partment the area under sugar beets in 1883 was 114,374 desiatines on 

 lands connected with the factories, and 165,757 desiatines on the lands 

 of planters, making a total of 276,131 desiattnes,* or 789,735 acres. 

 The total product is stated at 22,351,696 berkovets, which is equivalent 

 to 8,071,867,976 pounds, or nearly 4,035,934 tons of 2,000 pounds, the 

 average yield per acre for the entire country being 10,221 pounds. The 

 total number of beet-sugar factories reported is 242, of which 19 are in 

 Warsaw, 11 in Volhynia, 68 in Kiev, 14 in Kursk, 49 in Podolia, 22 in 

 Kharkov, 7 in Voronej, 14 in Tshernigov, and the remaining 38 scat- 

 tered through sixteen other governments. It thus appears that the 

 heaviest production of beet sugar is in Southwestern Russia, nearly 

 one-half of the total number of factories being in the two adjoining 

 governments of Podolia and Kiev. 



The returns for potatoes show a wide distribution, and, in general, a 

 good crop, the highest yields for the year being in governments outside 

 of the Blackearth region. The averages range from 166§ down to 21 



*Theroisa discrepancy upon this point in the Russian document from which these 

 figures are taken, one statement making- the total 236,131 desiatines instead of 276,131, 

 but there is reason to believe that the latter is the correct number. 



