October i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
239 
about 5,500 barrels apiece each trip. As the Volga at 
itH wi<lo mouth is very [shallow, the tank steamers cau 
proceed no farther than a locality known as " nine-feet 
sounding," about twenty miles from land, when the oil 
is transferred to oil barges, in which it is conveyed to 
Tgaritzin, the first railway point on the river Volga, 400 
miles distant, where Nobel Brothers have established 
one of their great distributing centers for Russia. They 
have twenty barges on the Volga, and from Tsaritzin 
they distribute tho oil by trains of oil-tank wagons. 
Of these, the Nobels own 1 ,500 holding 2,000 gallons, or 
about ten tons of refined oil each. These are, made up 
into trains of twenty-five wagons, so that the firm rugs 
sixty such trains continuously in their distributinn 
work. The accompanying map shows the network of 
storage depots and distributing stations that the Nobels 
have established throughout Russia and the adjacent 
countries. This system of storage depots is not merely 
a matter of convenience to them, but is to a large de- 
gree a matter of necessity. During at least four 
months in the year, the Volga is frozen over solidly, 
so that the oil needed for consumption during tbis 
winter term has to be accumulated at points ac- 
cessible by rail connection. The oil trains of the 
Nobels, therefore, are occupied during part of 
the year in collecting the oil in their storage depots, 
and during the winter in distributing it for con- 
sumption. This work is directed from St. Peters- 
burg, where Ludwig Nobel, the presideut of the 
company, resides. They are beginning also to ship 
their oil by tank steamers from Libauon the Baltic, where 
they bring it by tauk cars, to .Stettin, Hamburg and even 
to London. At Stettin, they have begun to erect 
storage tankB for the supply of the German trade. 
In 1883 the Trans-Caucasian ltailruad was finished 
and oil is now shipped from Batoum on the Black 
Sea in quite considerable amounts to Mediterranean 
ports. A pipe lino from Baku to Batoum lias also 
been surveyed, and the government concession having 
bieu obtained, it wi'.l likoly be built in tho near future. 
Tho successful introduction of transportation of oil in 
bulk by means of oil-tauk steamers on the Caspian, 
of course, led oil shippers to consider the 
question of nsings similar tank steamers for the 
transportation of oil in bulk to Europe. Indeed 
some slight experimenting in this line had preceded 
the adoption of the tank steamers on the Caspian, 
but the engineering difficulties connected with the 
shipment of oil in bulk for the voyage across the 
Atlantic were far grcator, and hence greater precau- 
tions against danger had to bo devised. Two large 
tank steamers, however, have been running this last 
year successfully, the "Crusader" and the "Andromeda" 
the former to London and tho latter to Bremen. 
Tho most important feature of their construction is 
the provision of auxiliary tanks above tho level of 
the storage tanks and in communication with them. 
Tho storago tanks can thus always be kept quite 
fnll of oil, tho auxiliary tanks serving to hold tho 
siuplm when the storage tanks become expanded by 
In .a and supplying tho deficiency when contraction 
talus plaoo. Tin: "Crusader" is provided with forty- 
five tanks, with an average capacity of 125 barrels each, 
tho "Andromeda" with seventy-two tanks, and carried 
in its Brat trip to Bremen 684,641 gallons of rctinod oil. 
The statistics of production of both American and 
Etonian oil and of exportation* of the two, as far as 
■•tan tics are attainable, aro given in the tables in 
tin appendix. 
AfPKNDIX. 
TAKLB I. 
Annutl production and valuu of petroleum in tho 
I'uitnl xutt s, according to the Bureau * of Mining 
Statistic*, U.S. Department of tho Interior: 
Production. 
Hbla.f Valued at 
1882 ... 30,053,500 623,7O5,09S 
1H.M ... SMOn.J-.'l) 25,740.2.->2 
IBM ... 24.080,768 20,470,291 
1885 ... 21,842,0*1 LD,198,6M 
1886 ... 88,110,116 20,028,457 
• N. B.-Eo. t Barroli.-En. 
TAnr.ii ii. 
Annual production of crude oil in the Baku district 
according to Bnglcr : 
1881... 4,900,000 hundred kilos, or 3,500,000 bbls. 
1882... 6,800,000 „ 4,857,143 „ 
1883... 8,000,000 ., 5,714,280 „ 
1884 ..11,300,000 „ 8,071,428 „ 
1885... 16,360,000 „ 11,685,714 „ 
TABLE III. 
Kxports of crude and refined petroleum from the 
United States during tho years 1884-85 and '86 accord- 
ing to the U. S. Bureau of Statistics: 
1884. 1885. 1880. 
Gallons. Gallons. Gallons. 
Crude petroleum 
exported 79,670,395 81,435,600 76,340,480 
Valued at... $6,102,819 $6,040,685 $5,068,4(19 
Napthas and 
light distillates 13,676,121 14,739,469 14,474,961 
Illuminating oils 433,851,275 445,880,518 485,120,680 
Lubricating oils 11,985,219 12,978,955 13,918,367 
Bbls. Bbls. Bbls. 
Residuum & tar. 126,269 136,474 47,474 
Value of the re- 
fined products $43,354,306 $13,631,058 $43,076,795 
TABLE IV. 
The shipments of Baku petroleum for the years 1885 
and 1886 are thus given in the U. S. Consular 
Reports. 
(1) From Batoum via Trans-Caucasian K?ilway : 
1885. 1886. 
Gallons. Gallons. 
Illuminating oils 26,865,325 39,321,005 
Crude, lubricating and res- 
iduums .' 4^774,600 14,965,315 
Total 31,039,925 54,236,320 
(2) Via Astrachan on tho Caspian Sea : 
First six mouths of 1880. 
Gallons. 
Illuminating oil 14,428,335 
Crude, naphthas and residuums 79.866,200 
Other products 8,851,960 
Total 133,146,405 
— Oil, Paint and Dr&ff Reporter. 
INDIA IN 1887.* 
This title is so comprehensive, that k „it might 
mislead, were it not followed by the frank limitation 
that the India referred to is boundc 1 by the vision 
of the professional agriculturist. It is desirable 
also to state that Mr. Wallace landed in Bombay 
on May 10th, and embarked from the gate of Western 
India on September 13th, 1887, during which period 
he " travelled by rail over thirteen thousand miles," 
including a flying visit to Ceylon. It cannot be said 
that he did not make the most of his time ; for he 
reached Simla and Lahore through the Aravulli 
route by Ajmere, ran down to Calcutta and up to 
Darjeeling, flitted back to the Western coast, and 
thence descended on Southern India, whence, after a 
trip to Kandy.he returned to Bombay. Pour months' 
travel in the hot season implies great energy, and, to 
profit by it, olose attention to the special objects for 
which the journey was unportaken ; and, so far as 
the contents of his volume warrant an opinion, 
he kept steadily to his purpose throughout his 
rapid tour. He wished, primarily, to ascertain 
what had become of certain British and native 
students whom ho had taught at Cirencester, next 
to press on tho Indian Government the necessity of 
establishing an Agricultural Department, and also 
to extend his own knowledge. We aro bound to say 
that, although he was so short a time in the 
country, tho result of his toil is not an example of 
•••In. hi in its i. ii* men by Hubert Wallm-i". I'rofog'or uf 
Ai;riiMilttiro ami Rural Economy tu thn t'olvrnitr of, 
Bdlnbnnb." E.iinburgh -. Oliver ftud Boyd. Loudou i SiuipkiQ 
Mutiutll »u<t do; 
