Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-06-07
COTTON IN RUSSIA.
Government Of the Gar Wants to Get
Free From America.

COl lON IN RUSSIA.
Government Of the Car Wants to Get
Free From America.
The Russian cotton industry, says a
st. Petersburg dispatch, Is feeling the
effects Of the abrogation Of the Russo
American treaty. Russian determina-
tion to resist influence with reference
to the Jewish passport question Is now
seen to involve the eventuality Of trade
hostilities with America.
To Russia the most vital article Of
Russo American trade Is cotton. Con-
sequently, when aggressive proposals
were introduced in the duma upon the
heels Of the abrogation, public opinion.
in unison with Baron Knop and all
that reprisals on American products
would strike none but the Russian con-
sumer.
The patriotic motto now Is to free
Russia from American cotton. OF
some American farming machines she
cannot hope to free herself soon be-
cause of quality. The peasants and the
opposition vote threw out bounties for
Russian built machines in a ministe-
rial bill for farm machines manufac-
ture, but the duma members in the
joint committee receded from the duma
vote, and the bounties clause has been
restored. Only the agrarian and peas
ant interests now might stay the with
drawal of the reduced schedule on for
eign machinery. Even so, new works
are planned at Riga, Kiev, and other
points by German and Russian capital.
Greater Impetus.
A still greater impetus has been CIV
en- to home cotton The minister Of
agriculture, M. Krivoshein, with a staff
of experts, has completed a fortnight's
tour of inspection in the cotton dis
tricts Of Central Asia. The Russian
delegate at the coming international
Congress of Navigation in Philadelphia,
M. Shovguenoff, an engineer by pro-
fession, has been commissioned to make
study of the big irrigation works,
with mechanical appliances, which are
now being carried out in the United
States.
All Russian cotton in Central Asia Is
irrigation grown. Upon 1,026,000 OF
the total of 3,5OOOOO acres of irrigated
land there has been produced, roughly.
half of the cotton Russia now needs.
But this area has been powerless to
change the ratio, and has barely sue
ceeded in keeping up with the demand.
Alongside Of it, however, are 100000
acres of suitable land, available for
irrigation from the water of the Syr
Darya and the Oxus, at an estimated
expense of from $19 to $3S per acre,
the work to occupy 20 to 25 years.
Causes connected with the cost, the
requisite technical skill and labor, the
involved land and water rights have
hitherto blocked progress. Bills pend
ing before the duma, or being drafted
by the ministry of agriculture, would
establish a water law in the Turkestan
and permit private initiative and cap
ital to assist the treasury in this big un-
dertaking. A contract with moscow
engineer, M. Tchaeff. calls for the
completion Of a canal to irrigate 1885,
900 acres in Samarkand province by
1914. The work has been advancing
slowly for years, when the Russo
A s,atn fnrn-
ed the pace.
$4,000 Acres.
A group of Moscow business men,
headed by M. Kusnetsoff Of the Pere-
slavl cotton manufacture, who accom-
panied the minister on his tour, has bid
for the irrigation Of $4,000 acres in the
center of Fergghana with the waters of
the Naryn and Kara Darva. Their
Russian and Swiss engineers are now
rushing the surveys. The terms of their
offer call for a grant of part OF the
irrigated area to the company In fee
simple or qualified, the crown to re-
ceive an equal part. Three hundred
thousand dollars has been assigned for
study of other projects, as we'll rs
81. .5OO,O 900 for canals already begun.
The building Of a railroad from
Arys, on the Orenburg-Tashken line,
to Verny, in Semiretchensk province
726 miles away, has been sanctioned b"
the proper authorities. The plans call
for it's completion in 1915. 1t could be
built in two years. Its capacity will be
2,S0O,O00 bushels yearly of Semiret-
chensk grain to relieve Fenghana and
Samarkand, where prices are double
the market rate. Being In itself a
splendid outlet for the grain of Russian
colonists in Semiretchensk, who are 3S
per cent of the population, 1t will serve
its principal purpose in automatically
releasing large part (perhaps up to
million acres) of irrigated land in
Gerghana and Samarkand from the
obligatory grain crop, to pass under
the more valuable cotton crop. In
Gerghana 80 per cent Of this land Is
under cotton, but in Samarkand only