DAIRY PRODUCE

Evening Star, Issue 19663, 16 September 1927, Page 2

DAIRY PRODUCE

SIBERIA A DANGEROUS RIVAL (specux. xo the ' Stab,'] WELLINGTON, September 15. New Zealand’s most serious competitor in tho market for dairy produce is destined to bo Siberia, declares Dr Olsen, lecturer in geology for tho University of Norway. Three times the size of Europe, extremely rich in soil of the famous Russian black variety, immense in potentialities, Siberia has been retarded by bad Government, by lack of transport, and by ignorance of the language on the part of Europeans. “ When these difficulties are surmounted,” says Dr Olsen, “ she will he able to supply the entire demands of Europe for dairy produce. The Russians have kept the country back by making it a prison colony, which retarded settlement there. Otherwise Siberia would now hold much more than tho nine millions of people which she possesses. As it is, tho population is concentrated in a few spots, and the vast forests to the north are almost uninhabited. Siberia’s presence on the dairy produce market at all is due to the fact that Danes were induced to go out and start dairy farming. The development of this work was checked by the war, and farming on Danish lines had been restricted to Western Siberia, but it is now-going ahead. Branch railways have been built from the Transcontinental line, and one railway is being pushed down into Turkestan, a great fruit-growing country. ft seems probable that Siberia will have to depend upon this means of transport, for her ports are icebound and communication by them is very irregular. Once Siberian supplies arrive on the European markets in any quantity the result will be very disturbing, for prices will be low.