Range Cattle Season of 1899. 



377 



The indebtedness to the Crown, Zemstvo, and other relief 

 funds of provinces, at one time the most fertile of the whole 

 Empire, namely, some of those of the centre, Mid- Volga, and 

 of the south-east, which had suffered from a failure of the 

 harvests in 1891-92, amounted in 1897 to no less a sum than 

 ,£3o7 8 >354> and it stood at this high figure in spite of the 

 considerable remissions of the Imperial Ukase ot 1893, 

 and Notifications of November, 1894. The failure of 

 the harvest of 1S98 in most of the above provinces will 

 further augment the debt of the peasants now again stricken 

 with famine. Starvation threatened them, and it became 

 necessary to come to their rescue. The efforts of the 

 Government, local authorities, Red Cross Society, and 

 private individuals are being actively exerted on their behalf 

 by grants in aid, public subscriptions, and other means. 

 Unfortunately, however, relief on an extended scale was 

 undertaken only when the effects of starvation in the shape 

 of typhus, scurvy, and other diseases began to manifest 

 themselves in many of the stricken districts in an epidemic 

 form during the winter and spring. 



The hay crop of the past year yielded 50,130,182 tons as 

 compared with 45,380,356 tons gathered in the preceding 

 year, or more by id; 5 per cent. The area under hay 

 meadows is reckoned at 92,994,336 acres, or an increase of 

 1,049,074 as compared with 1897. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Sei'ies, No. 2343. Price 5^.] 



The Range Cattle Season of 1899 at Chicago. 



Messrs. Clay, Robinson and Co., in the Live Stock Journal 

 of 9th Novembei, 1899, state that the season's receipts of 

 range cattle at Chicago at the time of writing had amounted 

 177,300 head, . a decrease of 18,000 from last year, and of 

 59,000 from 1897. Generally speaking', the season had been 

 a very satisfactory one from the ranchman's point of view, as 

 a good demand had prevailed throughout. Most of the 

 animals were bought for dressed beef purposes, eastern 

 shippers taking a smaller proportion than last year, and 



