Russian Forest Products. Remarkable Utilisation of them in Industrial Pursuits.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 80, 13 December 1884, Page 5

Russian Forest Products. Remarkable Utilisation of them in Industrial Pursuits.

Fkw countries can show a better utilisation of forest products than Russia, and particularly in the furnishing of industrial employ* ment to the peasantry. Carriage and carfc building forms an important item in woodwork, giving occupation to at least 5.30 villages, particularly in the Governments of Nijini Novgorod, Viatka, Kazan, Moscow, Riasan, Vladimir, Jaroislav, Tula and Kaluga. The annual production in the Government of Moscow is 116,000 roubles, the wheels alone in that of Ekaterinburg amounting to the value of 145,000 roubles per annum. It is a singular fact, however, that a vehicle is rarely if ever finished on the spot where it was begun, one village providing the spokes, another the boxes, whi'e a third will make the body. The manufac ture of wooden spoons is on a large scale, about 126,000,000 being turned out every year. The same subdivision of labour is seen in this case, one workman cutting the wood into lengths, another shaping the spoon in the rough, a third hollowing it out, and a fourth varnishing it. The spoons are usually made of birch and poplar, or boxwood for the most expensive, the average price per 1,000 being from six to eight roubles. Some 3,200 cubic fathoms of wood are annually cut up into spoons, one cubic fathom making about 4,000. They are exported in great numbers via Irbit to Khiva, and via Astrakan to Persia. The Government of Kazan is noted for producing the majority of the "donga" or yokes, which are made of elm and willow. Of these a family that includes three workmen will produce from 700 to 1,000 in the course of the winter. The frames, however, which are made of birch and maple, come from Kaluga, and are sent to market at Kursk. The alder tree yields the dye with which the harness is stained. Combs for weavers are specially from a place called Jegorieffalow, in the Government of Riazan, and are produced at the rate of 500,000 a year, the reeds being bought in the south and the metal work at Moscow. The spinning wheels, however, all come from the Government of Jaroslav. A place called Swenigrod, in Moscow Government, supplies veneered and inlaid furniture peculiar to the empire. Tula provides concertinas to the amount of 250,000 per annum, and in Viatka Government are also made organs and violins. In the same locality are grown great numbers of lime trees, the bark of which is turned into bast for matting and sacks, and also for making bast shoes, to the extent of 100,000,000 per annum. The bast matting known as "schangskaia," is imported to England, and to supply these industries over half a million lime trees are annually cut down in Viatka. Paper-making is beginning to employ a considerable amount of wood, while of grosser industries the annual production of tar is 2,000,000 poods (one pood equals 36 pounds), of birch oil 4,000,000 poods, pitch 150,000, turpentine oil 60,000, and charcoal 8,000,000.

Dr. son of Hon. John Albert Martin, Martin of Wellington, has obtained the appointment as resident physician at Guy a Hospital, London, at a salary of £500 to start with. Dr. Martin is now on a visit to the colony. It is proposed to form a company to run. . steamers on the, Upjer Wanganui River,,