The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

WhiteLakes458 KUSSIA IN EUEOPE.Industries.In Russia the manufacturing industry is still but feebly represented, and itsmain resources continue to be drawn from the chase, the fisheries, agriculture, andstock-breeding. Entire populations arc still composed exclusively of fishers,hunters, nomad grazers. The Russian fisheries are by far the most productive inEurope, although relatively to the population greatly inferior to those of Norway.The Caspian fisheries alone yield at least double of the produce derived from theEnglish, French, and American fleets on the bank of Newfoundland.*The chaseis important only in the thinly peopled regions of the north, and even here it hasmuch diminished during the last two centuries. Certain species, whose skins werehighly prized, have disappeared altogether, though the Ziryanians of Vologda alonestill bring yearly to market at least 400,000 of the common furs.Beasts of prey,so destructive to game, are still numerous in many places ; bears in the woodlands,wolves everywhere, attacking herds and flocks, and in hard winters even manhimself. The packs are still supposed to number about 175,000, annuallydestroying 180,000 cattle, 560,000 sheep, 100,000 dogs, representing a total valueof £2,500,000, or a revenue of over £13 per wolf ! The number of human beingsdevoured by them amounts to about 125—in 1875 as many as 161.Agriculture.Of all European states Russia is by far the largest corn producer. The yieldwas till recently in excess even of that of the United States, but she now rankssecond amongst the corn-growing countries of the world, f Some districts, suchas the Chernozom, seem destined to become one vast corn-field ; but the processesare still very defective, and in the south speculators often rent large tracts ofCrown lands, on which they raise two or three crops of wheat, followed by twoexhausting growths of flax. Were the product of each acre as great in Russia as inGreat Britain, the total yield would be raised from 224,000,000 to about 1,700,000,000quarters, a quantity sufficient for 500,000,000 human beings. Yet the cropsoften fail, owing either to drought or too much rain, or to the locusts, so feared,especially in Ukrania. On these occasions, while distress prevails in some districts,others are often sending their corn to the foreign market, as happened during thegreat famine of Saratov in 1873. This is due to the poverty of the small farmers,* Yearly value of the Russian fisheries, £4,OGS,000, thus distributed:Caspian and its affluents . . £2,400,000 1 Set and its affluents . . £160,000Sea of Azov „ 640,000 Black Sea „ 96,000Baltic . „ ... 200,000| .„ 400,000t Comparative table of cereal crops in various countries :United States (1869—78) .... 222, 2S6.000 qrs., or 5-3 per inhabitant.Russia (average between 1S70— 74)225,000,000 „3-4Fiance (1874) .79,600,000 „2-8Germany (1873—77)89,000,000 1-4.,Austria-Hungary (1869—76)57,500,000 1-6,.Great Britain (1875) .22,800,000 1-0,,