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Siberian Butter Industry. 



depots at some of the stations, more particularly Novi- 

 Nikolaievsk, are as yet at times insufficient to accommodate 

 the butter supplies awaiting transport. It is detentions of 

 this kind, often in the open, exposed to the sun, that tell on the 

 butter more than the rail journey itself, prolonged as the 

 latter is. 



The butter is packed in clean-looking new beechwood casks 

 made locally from imported German or Danish staves. These 

 casks are themselves wrapped round with matting. The empty 

 cask, after being smeared with salt, is lined internally with wet 

 parchment, the butter then being mashed tight in, and coated 

 with salt at the top. The average weight of the filled cask is 

 about 122 lb. 



The butter is conveyed by steamships from Windau to 

 London and to Newcastle {via Copenhagen) ; from Riga to 

 London, to Hull, and to Leith ; and from St. Petersburg (Reval) 

 to London, in each case once a week. The rail freights for 

 butter from Ob station, Omsk, and Kourgan, the three principal 

 Siberian export centres, to Riga and Windau, vary from 

 about 5s. 8d. to 6s. yd. per cwt. The sea freight from Riga and 

 Windau to London, Hull, or Leith is is. 5<f. per cwt. 



