Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1915 — FARMING LANDS IN SIBERIA [ARTICLE]

FARMING LANDS IN SIBERIA

That They Are Rich Is Proved by the - Crops That Are Gathered From Them.

We have inherited from the traditions of the past the idea that Siberia is a country with a not very fruitful soil. Yet in the last few years very decided advances in farming have been made there, as a result of the efforts of the Russian government to arouse the native peasants and settlers to a more intensive cultivation of the ground. In the western section of the country, so the German journal Prometheus tells us, large associations of farmers have been organized for the export of their products. In 1912 butter to the value of 7,000,000 rubles (a ruble is about 51 cents) was exported. In 1913 this amount had doubled, for in this year butter to the value of 14,500,000 rubles was sold to Germany, Austria-Hungary and England. In 1912 experiments were made in the manufacture of the English cheddar cheese. After several failures, the cheese, which is very popular in Great Britain, was so successfully imitated that in 1913 England imported 65 tons of Siberian cheddar. The trade Is carried on by ships directly from the interior of Siberia to London. —Scientific American.