Ukraine, the land and its people : $b an introduction to its geographyRudnytskyi, Stepan
Science
Ukraine, the land and its people : $b an introduction to its geography
Rudnytskyi, Stepan
Ukraine; Ukrainians
Besides grains and cereals, some other species of plants are of great importance in
the agricultural production of the Ukraine. The first of these is the potato. The fact that the yield of the potato is six or eight times that of the other plants
makes it a very important staple. Yet this advantage of the potato is but little exploited
in the Ukraine. Only in Galicia does the potato take up 14% of the farm-land (annual
production in Eastern Galicia 38.7 million q.). Even in the Polissye region and in
Chernihiv, only 6% of the farm-land consists of potato-fields, in Poltava and Kharkiv
only 3%, in the Southern Ukraine barely 1%. The total production of potatoes in the
Russian Ukraine is 63.2 million q. annually, therefore 22% of the production of European
Russia. The large landowners use the potato for distilling alcohol (especially in
Galicia), or for cattle-feed.
Various species of beans and lentils are raised everywhere in the Ukraine, but on a small scale, chiefly in kitchen-gardens.
In Galicia these vegetables take up 3% of the farm-land, in Polissye and Chernihiv
2% each, in the other districts of the Ukraine still less. The culture of forage (clover, lucerne, fodder-turnip) is still in its infancy in the Ukraine. Only in
Galicia do such plants take up more than 10% of the farm-land.
[266]
The cultivation of commercial plants stands upon a comparatively low level. Most extensive
is the cultivation of hemp and flax; but it takes up only a tiny part of the general area of cultivation of the land.
Flax is cultivated chiefly in the Polissye region and in Katerinoslav (3% of the farm-land).
In Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, it takes up 1 to 2% of the farm-land, in Galicia 1%
(together with hemp). In the Southern Ukraine a short-stemmed variety of flax, raised
only for obtaining oil, is cultivated widely. Hemp takes up on the average 1% of the
farm-land, only in Chernihiv as much as 4%. All the hemp products are used in home
industry, white the flax products are mostly exported. Another plant grown for the
sake of oil thruout the Ukraine, but especially in the eastern borderlands of the
country, is the sunflower. Rapeseed is grown only by the large landowners, chiefly in Kherson, Kiev, Poltava, and Podolia.
Poppy is cultivated everywhere in the Ukraine even by the peasants. Among the industrial
plants of the Ukraine the sugar-beet plays a very important part. In the year 1897 Russia had 410,000 hectares of beet-fields,
330,000 hectares of this area being in the Ukraine. The total Russian production of sugar-beets was
60 million metric hundredweights, of which 50 millions, that is, five-sixths, came
from the Ukraine. The most important centers of sugar-beet production lie in the Governments
of Kiev, Kharkiv and Podolia, much less being produced in Volhynia, Chernihiv and
Kursk. In the Austrian Ukraine sugar-beet culture is developed only in Southeastern
Galicia and Northern Bukowina. Not only the large landowners, but also frequently
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account