EMERSON, ker son, a government and capital of the same name in southern Russia. It lies between Kiev and Poltava on the north, Yekaterinoslav on the east, the Black Sea on the south and Padolia and Bessarabia, and has an area of over 27,000 square miles, of prac tically flat country lying at a very low eleva tion. Though watered by the Dniester, Bug and Dnieper, much of the country suffers fre quently from insufficient rainfall. Among the industries of Kherson are foundries (principally for iron), machine shops, carriage and wagon factories, flour mills, agricultural machinery works, leather, hemp and wool establishments and marble and granite quarries. Stock raising and fruit growing form trite chief agricultural pursuits of the south while grain growing is more popular in the north, and tobacco and wine are produced in favored localities through out the whole ogovernment.D Population 3.500, 000, principally Russians with an admixture of Greeks, Germans, Bulgarians and Jews. Kher son, the•capital, has a population of over 90,000, composed about the same as that of the ((gov ernment" except that the Jews number over 30.000. It lies on the Dnieper about 20 miles
from its mouth. It is a distributing point to the interior for Odessa and Nilkolavev of the imports of these centres of trade; and it helps to furnish exports for the foreign commerce of the district, especially in hides, flour, tallow, beer, wool and soap. Kherson is one of. the Most ptogressive cities of southern Russia and it is modern in appearance and pleasing and the buildings are well constructed. It possesses an obelisk erected to the memory of John Howard who died there (1790). Among the industrial establishments of the city are tobacco factories andgrain and woolen mills. The city, which was founded in 1778 by Prince Potemkin as a naval port with very strong fortifications, has erected a fine bronze statue to the memory of its founder. The fortifications of the new city were, however, scarcely completed when the plans were changed and Nikolayev replaced Kherson as the great southern naval port.