Ludwik Tegoborski
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 224
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ...also from bad pasture and general carelessness. In the southern and eastern provinces, the steppes, with their abundant pastures, are well suited for horse-rearing; but during their severe winters, the frost and drifting snow often occasion great mortalities amongst the numerous herds which roam about exposed to all the inclemency of the sky. In some districts, especially in the governments of Orenburg, Stavropol, and Astrakhan, and in the country of the Don Cossacks, horse-breeders consider themselves lucky if, after a severe winter, they have not lost more than a tenth of their stock. The animals, however, which have passed through the ordeal are found indomitable in the endurance of fatigue. What is chiefly wanting for the encouragement of breeders is a market: amongst the nomades of Orenburg and Astrakhan, and the Don Cossacks, a good threeyear old horse can sometimes be bought for 8 or 10 roubles. The horses exported to Asia from some of the eastern districts are valued in the official estimates at 5 or 6 roubles per head; but we must not take these figures as indicating the value of all our steppe horses; many of them fetch from 80 to 100 roubles, or even more. The horses which figure in our export commerce with Europe are valued in the official estimates at from 45 to 50 roubles per head; but this trade has greatly fallen off of late, and during the three years 1847--1849, the average yearly export was but 1,950 head. In the government of Astrakhan the horse trade, which used formerly to be very actively carried on, has fallen off within the last twenty or fiveand-twenty years in consequence of some severe winters having caused a great mortality among the animals; purchasers lost the habit of frequenting the fairs, and now, ..