RUSSIAN BUTTER

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 49

RUSSIAN BUTTER

I SOME OFFICIAL INFORMATION. i Mr George Robertson, 'Wellington, writes: —We occasionally see a short paragraph in our colonial newspapers ' about Russian butter, but the information supplied is very meagre, and in fact little seems to be known about the expansion of this great industry in the territory of the Czar. It may, therefore, interest tiiose engaged in the • New Zealand butter business to peruse the attached translation of a communication which I have received from the Deputy Minister of Finances at St. Petersburg, in reply to my inquiries regarding the Russian butter trade. I have given, in parentheses, the English weights, money, etc. I may add that the only outlet at present from Siberia to European Russia is the Tcheliabinsk-Samara-Mascow railway line, but as this is quite insufficient in view of the steadily increasing trade, the Itusian Government is building two additional lines St. Petersburg-Vologda-Yiatka and Moscow-Kazan-Kishtine—which are both urgently required as further outlets for the enormous Siberian traffic. The emigration of peasants and others from European Russia into the fertile Siberian districts is at the rate of 100,000 peprsons per annum, and this movement would be impossible but for the railway line which now runs right through to Vladivostok. I TRANSLATION. 1. The Russian Government offers no special facilities to butter manufacturers, either in European Russia or in Siberia, seeing that this very profitable industry, which has already considerably developed in some provinces of the Empire, is increasing year by year, thanks to its productiveness.

2. In Western Siberia, where the butter industry is actualy making the most progress, there is no land for sale, but as the farmers in that district hold vast tracts of country, it is easy to find land which can be taken up for farming purposes, for 6 or 10 years, with the consent of the local village community. The rent for a piece of land 25 by 30 square sagenes docs not exceed 30 to 50 roubles (£3 2s 6d to £5 4s 2d) per annum. Besides this, it is not uncommon for the, rural community to charge the owner of the factory for the right of using the ice of the rivers and lakes. The local farmers supply milk to the factories established on their lands.

3. The Avages of the workers are not high. Factory managers are paid salaries not exceeding GOO roubles (£G2 10s) per annum with board, fuel, and light besides, an assistant manager gets 120 to 180 roubles (£l2 10s to £lB 15s) per annum, and eommon workers, who are hired by the day, receive wages not exceeding from 60 kopecks to 1 rouble (Is 3d to 2s Id) during the busy season, but at other times, and especially in the winter, the wages drop to 40 or 45 kopecks ClOd or lljd) per diem for

adults. No special class of worker is exclusively employed in the butter factories, the workmen being recruited from among the local peasants or descendants of the old convicts.

4. The charge-for the carriage of buttel’) by express or goods trains, for a ! distance of over 813 vestes (542 miles) is , l-24tli of a kopeck (l-96ths of a penny) per poude (36b 2oz) per verste (2-3rds of a mile), with a reduction of 30 per cent, on freight so calculated when the distance exceeds .2000 vestes (1333 and ! a third miles). Besides this, a charge in ! all of 1 rouble and 3 kopecks (2s ljd) per | is made for loading, unloading, i and railway station charges. At the j sea ports tlie shipping charges are 3 J kopecks (Jd) per poude at Riga, and 5 kopecks lljd) at Reval. The freight to London varies from 10 to 15 kopecks (2-Id to 33d) per poude. 62 poudes go to tlie English ton. 5. The shortest land route for the carriage of butter forwarded to foreign parts is as follows:—The Siberan railway stations to Tcheliabinsk, Batraki, Rousaievka, Moscow, Bologoie, Pskow, and Riga. From the port of Riga there is a regular line of steamers to London, and the boats are provided with refrigerating chambers, the trains on the Siberian line to Riga also have cool cars specially adapted for the carriage of butter. The duration of the journey from a station on the Siberian railway to London does not exceed on an average nineteen days. 6. At- present tlie price of blitter of good quality, bought first hand, in Western Siberia varies from 9 to 10 roubles (18s 9d to £1 0s lOd) per poude. I The cool cars carry 450 poudes (7 tons ! sewt 181 b), and tlie cost of a car of but- : ter, not including charges for carriage | to the railway station, is therefore 4050 I to 4500 roubles (£421 17s 6d to £468 i 15s).

7. Tlie butter industry exists in various parts of the Empire, but it is principally carried on by the farmers.in the provinces of Jaroslav and Vologda in European Russia, and iu the Siberian provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk, also in part of the district, of Akmolinsk and the provinces of Orenbourg and Perm. In the province of Orenbourg, the production of butter has specially increased in the Tcheliabinsk district, which is crossed by the Siberian railway line. The province cf Jaroslav supplies butter j principally to the markets of tlie inj terior, while the butter of Vologda and | of the Siberian provinces, where this ■ industry lias just commenced to de- ( velip, is exported. These last mentioned provinces are therefore recom- ; mended as suitable places for the i starting of new branches of tlie butter : industry. In 1900 the total amount of Russian butter sent across the European frontier was 1,199,000 poudes (19,339 ; tons), valued at 13.500,000 roubles (£1 - 406,250), and of this quantity 1,077,000 poudes (17,371 tons) came from the railway stations on the Western Siberian line.”