Agriculture.— Nearly 90 per cent of the people are engaged in agriculture in the Ukraine, which is fitted by nature to be one of the most valuable food-producing regions in the world. Owing to lack of education in scientific methods, however, agriculture is still in a very backward condition. Better conditions prevail in the western borderlands, where regular ro tations of crops, artificial fertilizing and im proved machinery have considerably raised the volume of produce with less.expenditure of hu man energy. Agricultural co-operative associa tions are spreading branches over the country and performing useful work to raise the level of husbandry by means of tuition, advice and assistance. Under foreign rule much of the land has accumulated in the hands of alien land owners, while the native peasant had perforce to be content with the less valuable °leavings.° While the great landlords grew wealthier the peasants grew poorer and were for many years compelled to seek homes elsewhere, in Siberia, Turkestan, Caucasia and further afield in the American continents. The Russian community system of land ownership existing in parts has not proved conducive to encouraging labor on land which the actual tiller cannot call his own. Despite all these obstacles the Ukraine remains the greatest grain-producing country of Europe, excepting Russia. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, millet, Indian corn, beans, lentils, fodder, hemp, flax, sunflowers, rapeseed, poppy, sugar-beet in enormous quantities, tobacco, all kinds of vegetables and fruits, grape-vine in parts, etc., are raised in the Ukraine, besides which there is also a flourishing cattle-raising industry. See Flora and Fauna.
Minerals, mention has been made of mineral deposits found in Ukraine. (See Topography). The more important items are iron, mercury and manganese. The only im portant coalfield is situated in the Donetz Pla teau, and is one of the largest and richest in Europe. In petroleum and ozokerite the Ukraine is richer than any other European country. There are large peat deposits await ing exploitation; salt production has grown to great proportions from the immense deposits in salt springs and lakes and mines of pure rock salt. Other natural treasures include phos phorites, containing from 70 to 75 per cent phosphoric acid; kaolin or porcelain clay and fireproof clays; slate, lithographic stone, mineral paints, sulphur, pumice-stone, mill-stones, whet stones, chalk, gypsum, building stones, Devonian sandstone and granite gneisses, etc.
Until recent years home in dustries predominated in the Ukraine, weaving being the most important. The steady en croachment of the factory system and introduc tion of machinery are gradually displacing many of the domestic industries, though among the latter that of producing cloth, woolens, linen, carpets, tapestries, etc., is still carried on throughout the country, where weavers may be found in almost every village, especially in Galicia. Rope, cordage and nets are produced in large quantities, while the wood-working in dustry comes second to the textile craft in mag nitude. It includes carpentering, cabinet-making, cooperage, shipbuilding, wagon-building, turn ing, carving, ornamental boxes and picture frame making. Basket-weaving, shoemaking, pottery, brick-making, stone-cutting and metal working are trades located in districts where the soil provides the raw materials. Leather is
abundant and prepared in flourishing tanneries; horn combs, buttons and other small articles are made for export as well as home consumption. There are also numerous families devoted to painting sacred pictures. Among the many other branches of industries are those of pe troleum refining, sugar manufacturing and re fining alcohol distillation, beer brewing, milling, cotton and hemp production; lumber, iron and steel, cement, tiles, matches, cork and paper are worked or manufactured to a large extent by foreign capitalists.
The trade and commerce of the Ukraine are still in a backward condition; what there is rests almost exclusively in foreign hands, Rus sians, Greeks, Armenians and Jews. Native competition against these more expert traders is as yet out of the question owing to the ab sence of educational opportunities. Another powerful drawback is the primitive condition of the means of communication in eastern Europe, which restricts or localizes most of the trade to small ,annual fairs, of which some 4,000 are held. The paucity of railroads and the bad state of the public highways render transport slow and difficult for horses and carts. Within recent years, however, some attempts at com mercial organization have been made by the creation of exchanges and chambers of com merce in the principal centres to promote the exportation of raw materials. Since home in dustry covers the greatest part of domestic de mand, the extent of foreign imports of manu factured goods is very small compared with the great export of foodstuffs which crosses the Ukrainian borders. Under the Russian regime the national resources of the Ukraine were ex ported in enormous quantities to other parts of the empire, while the Ukraine region was flooded with the inferior goods of central Rus sian industry. At the same time an annual customs balance of about $100,000,000 went to the central government from the Ukraine to be used for the development of the central prov inces. In addition to this serious drain the Ukraine raised about one-third of Russia's total cattle supply, five-sixths of the empire's total sugar-beet output, 60 per cent of the whole coal production and one-sixth of the world's manganese supply. Yet with all this boundless natural wealth which his country provided, the Ukrainian peasant was left in grinding poverty, illiteracy and lack of proper clothing; he sup plied the necessary manual labor in return for a pittance inadequate to maintain a decent ex istence. Centuries of oppression and political dependence resulted only in hindering the ma terial and spiritual development of one of the naturally wealthiest countries in the world.
Cities, Towns and The largest city and most important seaport of the Ukraine is Odessa (q.v.), situated on a deep, open roadstead 20 miles north of the Dniester outlet. Kiev (q.v.), with over S00,000 inhab itants, comes next. It was the capital of the ancient Ukrainian kingdom and its spiritual cen tre; it is still called the Jerusalem of the na tion. Other populous sett ements are Kharkov, Chernigov, Ekaterinoslav and Zhitomir. See