Horses and working cattle are raised, especially in the west, for local use ; the Kuznetsk breed is famous, but the number of horses fell during the post-1914 period and have not yet reached pre-war numbers. The stock raising districts of Minusinsk, Achinsk and Turukhansk are recovering more rapidly. Sheep breeding, especially of the newly introduced merino sheep, is rapidly developing on the Yenisei plains, where the hay is excel lent. Pig-breeding has developed with the increasing dairy indus try, which provides buttermilk as pig food, and bacon and sausage factories are springing up. Reindeer are valuable in the Turu khansk district, while in the southern hill regions the maral, a kind of wapiti, is bred in farms for the sake of its horns, which are in demand in China for the preparation of a drug called panty. Bee keeping is of very ancient origin, and is profitable in the Achinsk, Minusinsk, Kuznetsk, Biisk and Zmyeinogorsk districts; the destruction of the forests and the desiccation of the steppe have diminished it elsewhere. In spite of the vast forest wealth of the region the timber industry is little developed, mainly owing to the lack of transport facilities; the Tomsk district is markedly deficient in timber and receives some of its timber from camel transport across the Kirghiz steppe. If the Yenisei sea-route comes into regular use, a timber export may spring up on that river. There are timber mills at Omsk, Novo-Sibirsk and Tomsk; those at Novo-Sibirsk use the wood from the district between Barnaul and the railway, but these mills supply local needs only, as do the mills at Irkutsk.
Mining.—The mineral wealth of the region is great, but little worked at present. Rich deposits of magnetic iron ore exist on the Telbes, a tributary of the Kondoma near Kuznetsk, with beds of good coking coal 20 m. away. Gold exists in quantity, but is hampered by lack of proper dredging apparatus. The Mariinsk taiga gold mines are prosperous, and the first dredger in west Siberia was established here, but the Altai placer mining is declining. The Bogom-Darovanni reef gold mine near the Abakan river is up-to-date and flourishing. The Yenisei gold areas, one in the region between the Pit and the Angara rivers, and one in the upper basins of the Teya and Kalami, tributaries of the Stony Tunguska, are less fully developed in the absence of roads. They are, however, able to get food from the rich Minusinsk district and do not suffer from the danger of starvation, as do some mines in Yakutsk. The Bodaibo district on the Vitim river lies within the Siberian Area and produces 25% of all the gold in U.S.S.R.
The gold is alluvial and 13 tons can be produced per annum; transport is a difficulty, since necessaries have to be brought from Irkutsk, but a recently constructed light railway to the Vitim river has somewhat lessened the costs. There is an assaying and gold smelting laboratory at Bodaibo. Silver is produced in quantity in the Altai region, and platinum from Verkhoture in the Tara river district. Platinum occurs with the gold in the Pitski Moun tains and in the Vitim district. Asbestos is worked in the Angara
district and from the dolomite veins of the left bank of the Kamishta, a tributary of the Abakan. It is reported from other places in the Altai, but is not at present worked (1928). Graphite of good quality exists near Turukhansk on the Yenisei and on the Lower Tunguska, but is little exploited. Mica is spasmodically worked in the Krasnoyarsk district.
There are antimony mines in the Yeniseisk district and in Minusinsk also, while radium has recently been found on the Ayakhta, a tributary of the Pit, and osmiridium is known in the Nizhne-Udinsk district. Coal is mined in the Kuznetsk beds which extend from Sudzhenka on the railway to 4o m. S. of Kuznetsk and the output in 1926-27 was 1,950 tons, mainly of coking or semi-anthracite coal used on the railway. The Minusinsk region, and Dudinsk on the Lower Yenisei have rich deposits, as yet little worked. Copper exists in the Minusinsk district, and near Verkhne Udinsk. Salt is obtained from salt lakes in the Baraba steppe; from Lake Abakanskoe, which produces about 7,500 tons per annum, and from Ussolye near Irkutsk the annual output is about 10,000 tons. Glauber's salt (sulphate of sodium) is found in the lakes of the Baraba steppe. Hot mineral springs exist near Biisk. Lime, building-stone and clays are abundant and the Irkutsk district produces kaolin and white clay for porcelain. The jasper and porphyry of the Altai region are famous. The above is an indication only of the great mineral wealth of the Siberian Area; much of the region is as yet unsurveyed and of the mineral wealth reported (see YENISEI RIVER), little is worked. Increasing colonization and consequent improvement of transport may lead to a great development of mining.
Industries and Communications.—Factories are springing up in the larger towns, the chief occupations being distilling, brewing, tanning, soap and tallow making, flour-milling, saw milling, weaving, oil-milling, glass-making, brick and cement mak ing and pottery. There are printing works at Omsk, Tomsk and Irkutsk, and the latter town has cigarette-case factories, steam sausage and pearl-barley factories. Rope-making is usually a koustar (peasant) industry, but Barnaul and Minusinsk have rope factories. The most famous glass factory is that 28 m. from Kras noyarsk, established in 1840. Of timber industries, apart from saw-milling, Minusinsk has boat-building and Omsk, Tomsk and Irkutsk carriage-building; Omsk also manufactures railway sleep ers. At Tomsk and Biisk are match factories. In the western districts koustar industries carried on in the peasants' cottages are common; they are less so in the east. The most noted of these are the smiths and joiners of Kuznetsk and Tomsk, the making of metal pots for milk and barnaulkas, or skin coats of the Barnaul district, the cedar-nut oil of Biisk, the pottery of Yeniseisk, the boot-making of the Irkutsk district. Woodwork, the dressing of sheep-skin and wool products, weaving and metal work are widespread peasant industries in the Yenisei basin and the Irkutsk district.