themselves by the convenient circumstance that just
over the south-west frontier, in the neighbourhood of
Biisk and Barnaul (the happy land where, in 1879, I
found good black earth letting at 3%d. an acre), the
peasants can easily grow, in a year, five times as much
corn as they can eat, and when, in 1881, the crop of
their neighbours so completely failed, the official report
says it “ had no particularly bad consequences.” The
reserves of the Tomsk district amply sufficed for the
emergency, and “ there was not even an extraordinary
rise in the price of corn.’ *
The Cossacks are great gardeners ; or, at least, their
wives are ; the husbands also being sometimes driven
thereto by lack of other work. They grow tobacco,
water and other melons, and hemp. The crop for 1881
was 197 tons of tobacco; of hemp, 53 tons; seeds of
flax and other oleaginous plants, 16 tons ; and 1,298,300
melons. The tobacco is of inferior quality, but suited
to local taste. In 1879 the province yielded 292 tons ;
and in 1880, 243 ; but the official return for 1881
was only 194. This last figure, however, is judged
to be too low, because of the male Kirghese and
Cossacks, the former all ‘ snuff,’ and the latter all smoke,
and, since no importation took place, their estimated
requirements of 486 tons must have been supplied by
local culture. The Cossacks make much of their hay,
selling the surplus in townS, especially* in Pavlodar,
or to the Kirghese. The poor or thriftless Cossack
sells his crop on the ground; but the rich reap for
themselves, or with the help of the Kirghese, paying
*T h e Cossack and settled populations even stocked their corn reserves,
as usual in other parts of the Empire, as a precaution against
famine. In 1880 there were in the province 69 store-houses, and a t the
end of 1881 there remained available 2,354 quarters of corn, besides
6,634 quarters due on account of 'loans or arrears.
in wages, or in kind with a third or half the crop. The
dry season of 1881 was unfavourable for hay, and
though 65,000 tons were cut by the settlers, which was
one-fourth in excess of the preceding year, it did not
suffice to feed the herds without breaking in upon the
reserves.
Cattle-breeding constitutes the chief means of subsistence,
not only of the nomads (who form more than
89 per cent, of the population), but also of a certain
portion of the settled inhabitants of the province, especially
about Karkarali and Pavlodar, where, to a great
extent, the climate and soil are unsuitable for agriculture.
No attempt is made to improve the breed of the
Steppe cattle, the settlers conducting their operations
partly on the Kirghese system, with this difference,
that instead of sheep, which constitute the first article of
Kirghese management, their attention is chiefly devoted
to horned cattle, though making less of milk produce
than the nomads. According to official information,
the number of beasts in the province in 1880 amounted
in all to 3,081,082.
Camels.
Settlers 325
Nomads 69,277
Horses. Horned Cattle ‘ Sheep. Goats. Pigs.
48,240 29 ’455 38,703 5-099 510
463,149 202,437 2,223,887
But only in regard to the herds of the settled population
are these data even approximately correct. The
official report says the figures for the Kirghese herds are
far too small. This statement is based upon the Calculation
that, according to the Kirghese returns, computed
with reference to their population, it would appear that
they profess to have only for each kibitka, or tent,
664 head of large, and 21 head of small • cattle, the
equivalent, that is, to 48 sheep; whereas, for food
alone, each nomad family require yearly not less than