522 



Reports on Foreign Crops. 



diminished by nearly a million and a half acres, fell short 

 by almost ten million tons. 



Russian Harvest of 1899. 



The fig-ures quoted in the last number of this Journal from 

 the Trade and Industries Gazette relating to the results of the 

 harvest of 1899 in Russia have been confirmed by the 

 official estimates issued by the Department of Rural 

 Economy and Statistics of the Miniscry of Agriculture at 

 St. Petersburg. According to these estimates, the yields of 

 the four principal crops in the sixty-three Governments 

 included in European Russia, Poland, and Cis-Caucasia, were 

 as follows : — 



1899. 1898. 



Quarters. Quarters. 



Wheat 46,449,000 50,587,000 



Rye 96,841,000 86,982,000 



Barley ...... 27,023,000 38,795,000 



Oats 84,021,000 71,653,000 



The estimates of the Central Statistical Committee of the 

 Ministry of the Interior of the results of last year's harvest of 

 winter wheat and rye were published in the Journal of the 

 Ministry of Finance on January 21st. For the sixty-three 

 Governments referred to above these estimates give 20,250,000 

 quarters of winter wheat, and 101,768,000 quarters of rye; 

 and, with the addition of the spring grain, the total harvest 

 of wheat and rye is estimated to amount to 49,094,000 

 quarters and 102,250,000 quarters respectively, whereas, 

 returns issued by the Ministry of Agriculture give, as has 

 been shown above, 46,449,000 quarters of wheat and 

 96,841,000 quarters of rye. 



The report of the Russian Minister of Finance on the 

 Budget for the present year contains the following infor- 

 mation regarding the agricultural conditions of the Empire. 

 It states that the bad crops of the past few years have caused 

 the Russians anxiously to consider the possibility of the 

 exhaustion of their soil, hitherto rich and fertile. The bad 

 harvest of the year 1897 was followed by a poor yield in 

 1898, although the crop, slightly better than that of 1897,. 

 was very unevenly distributed throughout the Empire. In 



