The Washington times., 1901-07-24
RUSSIAN CROP CONDITIONS
Disastrous Effect of the Drought
in the Cars Domain.
High Temperature PnrchinE the
Growing Grnin-Peasants of the
VoIga Region Practically Desti-
tute-Summnry of the situation.

VoIga Region Practically Desti-
tute-summnry of the situation.
The Department OF Agriculture has
made public the following report on the
condition of crops in Russia:
A St Petersburg despatch dated July
q. states that a temperature of 10S de-
grees was reached that day in Odessa
and that phenomenal heat was prevailing
through all of northern Russia. a ca
blegram from London. dated July 20, men
toned reports that the crops in Siberia
! appear to be nearly d total failure. add
! ing that in the districts of Minusinsk
! and Krasnoyarsk almost the entire
growth of cereals has perished the re-
suit of a two months drought and that
in the TransBaikal country the condi-
ton of crops was almost equally bad.
Minusinsk and Krasnoyarsk are two of
the five districts composing the Siberian
province of Yeniscisk, which occupies the
greater part of the country drained by
the Yenisei River.
| In 1899, when the Siberian crop was
| above an average, these two districts
produced about ~ per cent of the wheat
and rye grown in the four Siberian prov
inces for which crop reports are pub
lished. 1t does not appear from the de-
| spatch whether the reports in regard to
| the failure of the crops in Siberia as
whole are based on information from va
! rious parts of that vast territory or
| whether they rest on an inference drawn
| from the conditions prevailing in the two
| Yenisean districts named and in Trans
| Baikalia, In the latter case, they proba-
| bly, give an exaggerated idea of the ex-
tent of the crop failure in that part of
| the Russian Empire.
| The same despatch mentions seven of
the twelve districts composing the
province of Perm, in the eastern part of
European Russia, in which the condition
of affairs is almost as deplorable as in
the Siberian districts named above. In
the provinces of the Volga region the
peasantry already practically desti-
| tute. having sold tie cattle and horses
they could rot feed, and consumed near
ly their whole scanty stocks of food and
seed grain
Even in that part of southern Russia
where the crops on the whole were said
to be a fair average. there were, says the
despatch, disastrous shortages in the
province of Ekaterinoslav and IAN in
stance is cited of the utter destruction of
about 10000 acres of grain by hailstorms
and the Hessian fly" The same agencies
had blighted large tracts of grain in
Taurida and the Don country in the
provinces of Kuban and Terek, in north
| ern Caucasia.
A cableg-am from Moscow, dated July
| II, contained reports from twenty prov
inces showing the prospects of the Rus
| sian crops are much less favorable than
| they We're a month earlier. According to
| this despatch the grain crop at the best
was now not expected to exceed the
average. while in some districts 1t has
| been almost destroyed by unusual heat
and drought" Elsewhere it adds. 'the
grain has been washed out of the ground
by foods or cut down by hailstorms."
In view of the Importance of Russia's
| contribution to the world grain crops.
| the statements above quoted are con-
| sidered in connection with more detailed
| Information previously received. The
Commercial Industrial Gazette" of st.
Petersburg has recently published two ex-
| tended reviews on the condition of the
growing crops in Euroyean Russia The
| first, based on returns received up to
| May % represented both winter and
| spring crops as ranging from fair to
good through nearly the whole of Euro
pean Russia, with the important excep-
| tion of Poland and with the further ex
ception of a few scattered districts of
| comparatively small agricultural impor-
tance.
The regions in which the conditions
| We're then regarded as good comprised the
greater part of the heavy wheat growing
country north of the Black Sea, includ-
| ing extensive regions in the southwest
| and in the valley of the Don. practically
the whole of North Caucasia, and. as re-
CARDS the spring cereals, considerable
part of AStrachan east of the lower
Volga- In Russian Poland the winter ce-.
reals. comprising almost the whole of the
I4yheat and rye grown in that division of
l-tbe Empire, had suffered severely from
| cofk. coupled with the lack of protection
4 fS0l snow, during the winter months.
ISa considerable portion of these crops
NAN to be plowed up. The part that re,
| drought as Gid also the spring cereals:
and III by far the greater part of Poland
| the outlook at the end Of May was de-
cidedly gloomy for winter and spring
grains alike. In respect to the former
some districts in the Baltic provinces
| had shared in the unfavorable conditions
| that prevailed in Poland and considerable
areas had been plowed up.
Taking into accoun: the whole of
| European Russia, the general condition of
| the crops might have been described as
| fair until after the 10th of June. but the
detailed account published in the Com
mercial Industrial Gazette" of June 30
| shows that unfavorable weather. which
began in the early part of the month, had
| by June q made change for the worse
| throughout a large part of the Empire.
| AS to the great agricultural regions, in
| the southwest region. in Little Russia
and In some of the central parts of the
| black earth zone, the outlook on June
| q was still from fair to good, and in all
these wheat is largely grown. But in the
eastern, southeastern. and part of the
| southern provinces, in which the crops
| have already suffered to more or less
serious extent, at the date named drought
| was for the most part still prevailing and
| threatening further injury, which appears
| from the kilograms already quoted actual
| ly to have occurred. There are also re-
ports by mail of damage in some parts
| of Russia from flood and hail In general
| agreement with the statement on that
| point contained in the kilograms. while
| from the wheat markets Of the Volga re-
gion there are significant reports of a