Ukraine

Four-fifths of the population are engaged in agriculture and in spite of the destruction of the years of civil war 1917-21 and the famine of 1921, production in 1926-27 had reached about 90% of the 1913 level. Despite war conditions and deaths from famine, the population has increased by 8.7% since 1913 ; rapid increase of population has always been a feature of the Ukrainian race. This increase of population in a region of lessened agricultural production and markedly diminished manufacturing output has still further impoverished the peasantry, and the two features of agricultural life which have been so marked a result of this fecundity of the race, emigration and seasonal wandering in search of work, still persist. The redistribution of land after the revolu tion diminished the number of landless peasants, but 4.4% are still landless.

Since the revolution and famine also, there has been a change in the type of cultivation, maize, which is a more drought resisting grain now occupies more than twice the share of 1913, and rye, potatoes, sunflower-seed, hemp, grasses and cultivation of melons, water melons and cucumbers are markedly above the 1913 level. Barley, wheat and sugar beet are below that level. The many field system is rapidly replacing the three-field system, artificial man ures are increasingly used and mechanical traction in place of the former reliance on horses and oxen is slowly making its way; the peasants in many cases combine to purchase more up-to-date agri cultural implements; here, as elsewhere in Russia the demand for such implements exceeds the supply. In good years a surplus of grain for export is produced, but in drought years there is insuffi cient grain for the needs of the population.

Stock is important, especially sheep and pig breeding; the former has surpassed the 1913 level, but the number of pigs is less. Horses and working cattle are also below pre-war level, and they were deficient then; the crisis in lack of power for agri culture has been partly met by the use of tractors, more than 8,000 having been imported into the Ukraine since 1924. Meat, leather and wool are exported. Communal farms and artels are increasing and pay special attention to improving the breeds of animals. The most important communal agricultural enterprise \is the sugar trust which farms half a million hectares.

The manufactures depending on agricultural products in pre war times occupied a smaller share than metal manufactures, but at present they surpass them; the depression of the metal trades and the more rapid return to normal conditions of food products, leather goods and textiles has been a common feature in most of the countries affected by the 1914-18 war. This is partly due to the more complex nature of the laws of demand and supply in metal industries and partly to the greater initial capital needed for construction and repair of plant. Flour milling is everywhere

important, especially near the Black Sea ports and macaroni pro duction is increasing. Sugar refining diminished markedly during the disturbed conditions of 1917-1922, the peasants giving up sowing of sugar beet in their need for food grains. In 1925 a re vival set in and by 1927 sugar-refining had reached s of its former level, syrup production has not yet revived to any great extent. Oil-pressing, brewing, distilling and tobacco manufactures are important. A marked post-revolution feature is the develop ment of leather preparation and the manufacture of leather goods and textiles, previously peasant industries, on factory lines. Smaller agricultural occupations are vine growing, fruit-cultivation and bee-keeping. Apples, pears and cherries are produced in the north and apricots, almonds and peaches in the south. A recent development is the cultivation of kenaph, which is replacing jute in the manufacture of sacking.

Minerals.

Of the mineral wealth, rock salt from Artemovsk (Bakhmut) and salt from the limans of the Kherson region, have long been exploited, salt from the latter district being an article of trade in the earliest days of Kiev. Before the railways were built, the Chumakhi, or drivers of ox-carts, in which dried fish and salt were carried from the Black Sea to all parts of the Ukraine, and exchanged for grain, were a noted organisation. Ox cart transport is still the only available method in rural districts remote from the railway, the roads being too poor for motor trans port. In 1928 a society for road improvement was formed and a "road week" on American lines has been planned to encourage local councils to provide roads suitable for motor transport.

The coal of the Donetz region began to be exploited in the latter part of the 19th century; it includes good anthracite beds and in 1927 production reached 24.5 million tons (97% of the 1913 production), this being 77% of all the coal raised in the U.S.S.R. in that year. The important Krivoi Rog iron region was first developed about 188o and produced 6.4 million tons in 1913 ; but in 1927 only 55% of this quantity was mined. Manganese production from the oligocene strata of the Nikopol region, on the other hand, reached 179% of the pre-war level. Phosphorite beds are worked in the west and graphite north of Dnepro-petrovsk. The mercury and copper of the Donetz are little worked at pres ent. Good pottery clays are found everywhere, fireproof clays, in the Donetz, slate near Dnepro-petrovsk, lithographic stone in Podolia and mineral paints in the Donetz, Krivoi Rog and Kherson districts. Building stone, lime, chalk, and gypsum (yielding ala baster) are also found.