Hop Cultivation in Russia. 



243 



the south of Chili, where luxuriant pastures are found, but the 

 animals tend to diminish in size in the more northern 

 -districts. The native breed is being gradually displaced by 

 Shorthorns, which are more profitable as regards yield and 

 quality of meat, although this breed is said to become 

 acclimatised with difficulty, and its powers of reproduction 

 apparently diminish. The home production of meat is 

 insufficient to supply the demand, and although about 6,000 

 bead of Chilian cattle are annually exported to Peru, over 

 100,000 head are received each year from Argentina. Sheep- 

 rearing is a comparatively new, and as yet undeveloped, 

 industry in Chili. The native breed of sheep, which is a very 

 poor one, is being gradually improved by the importation of 

 Merino and Lincoln rams. Sheep-breeding is carried on 

 in the Magallen district. The native breed of pigs has been 

 improved by the introduction of Yorkshire and Berkshire 

 boars. 



In several districts in the Russian provinces of Kieff and 

 Volhynia the cultivation of hops was 

 Hop Cultivation introduced by Czech immigrants pur- 

 in Russia. chasing and settling on land in 1880-90. 



Bringing with them as seed the best 

 Bohemian brands, they caused the cultivation of hops to be- 

 come a recognised industry, giving employment to a large 

 number of people. They now complain that their trade has 

 been practically ruined with the coming into force, in 1894, 

 of the revised commercial treaty with Germany, by which 

 the import duty on German hops was reduced from 93s. to 

 32s. per cwt. The growers lately petitioned the Minister of 

 Finance upon the subject of their grievances, asking him to 

 afford them assistance to replace their industry upon the 

 footing it occupied previous to the German commercial 

 treaty. In his reply, the Minister of Finance says that the 

 treaty with Germany having been made for ten years, he 

 cannot help them by re-enacting the former duty, and points 

 out, among various other schemes, that the petitioners, 

 instead of selling most of their harvest to the Nuremberg 

 market, whence the hops are exported to other countries 



Q 2 



