Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1900 — RUSSIAN TEA CARAVANS. [ARTICLE]

RUSSIAN TEA CARAVANS.

▲ Mode of Transportation That Will Soon Be Superseded. A Siberian paper published at Tomsk gives some curious -details regarding the Russian tea caravans that transport vast quantities of tea and distribute it in various parts of Siberia and Russia. During the first 20 days of January, 1899, there was an average of a thousand sleighs per day loaded with tea passing through Tomsk. The ordinary size of the tea caravans are from 50 to 70 sleighs, but it is not unusual to have from 200 to 300 sleigh&’in a caravan. The average load is five bales, each bale weighing about 100 pounds. Five sleighs are fastened together and are drawn by one horse and are attended by one

man. On the rear sleigh of each group is tied a bundle.of hay and a ( measure of oats, so that the next horse behind may feed during the march so that the caravan does not need to halt for the purpose of feeding the horses. The front horse is changed occasionally so as to give him an opportunity of feeding also. The caravans travel night and day and only stop at villages where the weary i horses are exchanged. The drivers ' sleep on the sleighs while traveling. When the Trans-Siberian road is completed tea will be carried from j China and distributed through Siberian and western Ruseia with the same dispatch as freight is handled in the United States and 12 cars will carry as much freight as a thousand sleighs drawn by 200 horses and attended by 200 men, the difference in the cost of the tea to the consumer and the saving in time and transportation may be readily imagined.