232 



Siberian Butter Trade. 



as regards rail facilities. Thus, during the high summer 

 temperatures last year, Siberian exporters, owing to the in- 

 sufficiency of refrigerating trucks, had to send the consign- 

 ments, which were continually arriving at Omsk from the 

 surrounding districts, in ordinary goods trucks, with small 

 casks of ice packed in. As a result of being transported in 

 this way over a distance of 2,400 miles, from Omsk to Reval, 

 part of the butter was only lit for cart grease. Prices fell in 

 consequence at the producing centres from 12 roubles per 

 poud net (36*112 lbs.) towards the end of June, to 9 roubles 

 in September. At the present time 160 special refrigerating 

 trucks have been assigned for the carriage of butter by the 

 Siberian railway, of which number 125 will be granted to 

 Riga firms for the special Riga train, the butter being then 

 sent on from that port in the special steamers direct to 

 London. Considering that a special truck can carry over 

 7 tons gross of butter, that the truck so loaded will be at 

 least two weeks on the way from the Ob to the Baltic ports, and 

 the same time returning, it will follow that during the 

 seventeen summer weeks (May- August) each truck can make 

 four trips, carrying altogether about 29 tons. Consequently, 

 all the 160 trucks can carry, starting from the various stations 

 between Kourgan and Ob [a. stretch of 733 miles), a maximum 

 quantity of about 4,650 tons, or some 270 tons per week. 

 There is every reason to expect that this weekly quantity 

 will be despatched from Omsk alone, whence in 1900 one- 

 fifth of the total amount of Siberian butter was despatched, 

 and one-sixth of all the butter exported abroad from Russia. 

 And there are several exporting stations as important as 

 Omsk, such as Kourgan, Ob, Tatarskaia, and Kainsk. There 

 will remain, therefore, some four-fifths of the production to be 

 disposed of, which will have to be transported either in 

 ordinary trucks fitted out for the carriage of butter, or as 

 last year, in common goods trucks, with small ice casks in 

 each, the latter requiring to be continually refilled en route, 

 entailing delays and possibly disastrous results to the 

 butter. 



These transport questions, and others connected with the 

 conditions of export, Air. Cooke points out, all require atten- 



