Fruit and Vegetable Raising
Vegetable-culture is very slightly developed in the Ukraine. Beyond the little vegetable gardens about the houses and the melon-patches in the steppe we see no developed vegetable culture even in the neighborhood of large cities. It is worthy of mention only in the Chernihiv and Odessa regions, as well as in the old Zaporog country on the Dnieper (Oleshki, etc.). Here vegetables are harvested twice a year, in the early summer for exportation and in the fall for home use. The South Ukrainian melon plantations (bashtani) annually yield great masses of sweet melons, watermelons, pumpkins and cucumbers. Here there has even arisen a special class of bashtanki, who rent pieces of land for melon patches.
Fruit-culture is much more highly developed in the Ukraine. The love of the Ukrainian people for trees favors the planting of orchards. The ignorance of progressive fruit-culture, owing to illiteracy, as well as the exploitation of the fruit growers by middlemen is hindering the development of Ukrainian fruit-culture, which, nevertheless, has [[268]]a great future before it, and even now plays an important part in the economic life of the Ukraine.
The greatest amount of space is taken up by orchards in Bessarabia (40,000 hectares), where the more delicate kinds of apples, pears, plums and walnuts, almonds and apricots are raised. In Podolia the orchards of the peasants alone comprise more than 26,000 hectares. Besides apples, pears and plums, great quantities of cherries are raised here. The orchards usually lie in the deep river-valleys. The yar of the Dniester, between Khotin and Yampol, produces annually half a million metric hundredweights of fruit. From Podolia and Bessarabia over 800,000 q. of fresh fruit, 100,000 q. of dried fruit and 20,000 q. of nuts and almonds are exported annually. The most luxuriantly growing orchards are those of Tauria, which cover over 7000 hectares on the northern declivities of the Yaila Mountains. The annual production exceeds 160,000 q. of fruit and 40,000 q. of nuts. In this region the tenderest species of apples, pears and plums flourish, besides apricots (4,000 q. a year) and peaches. About the middle of May the cherries ripen here. In the middle of June the apricots; at the end of June plums and early pears; about the middle of July peaches and early apples; in August we have autumn pears and apples, and in the first half of September, the winter apples.
Beyond these districts, fruit-culture is practised on a large scale in the Kiev region and in Volhynia. Here, above all, the hardier northern species of apples and pears are raised, as well as cherries. In Kherson and Katerinoslav, too, fruit-raising flourishes; especially in the Dnieper valley, where apricots also thrive. In the Poltava country fruit-culture is still important enough, while in the districts of Kharkiv, Voroniz, Kursk and Chernihiv it is much less significant, altho we find, even here, a few centers of intensive fruit-growing; for instance, in the [[269]]vicinity of the cities of Kharkiv, Okhtirka, Bohodukhiv. In Galicia fruit-growing is not especially developed, except in Pokutia, the vicinity of Kossiv, and the Podolian yari-valleys, where (near Zalishchiki) even apricots and grapes are grown.
There is a certain connection between fruit-growing and viniculture. The northern boundary of the grape in the Ukraine, coincides approximately with the May isotherm of +16° and reaches the 49th parallel. This boundary line may be drawn from Zalishchiki, past Kamianez and Katerinoslav, to Astrakhan. In places, however, the northern boundary of the vineyards extends beyond the 50th parallel; for example, near Bilhorod, in the Government of Kursk. Thus, the entire southern part of the Ukraine may be considered a favorable vine-growing region. But vine-culture has not developed in the entire great expanse of the Southern Ukraine; it is confined to only a few centers. In Galicia the vine is cultivated only in Zalishchiki, in Russian-Podolia only in a few river-valleys. Somewhat greater is the wine-production of the old Zaporog district, where both inclines of the Dnieper valley are planted with grape-vines. In the Kherson region the vineyards cover about 7000 hectares. The most important wine-producing district of the Ukraine is Bessarabia, where the vineyards take up 75,000 hectares, that is, a third of the entire Russian wine-country, and yield over 2½ million metric hundredweights of grapes annually. From this amount usually 870,000 hl. of wine are obtained, which, despite its fine quality, is so cheap, as a result of the poor organization of the wine trade, that the barrel often costs more than its contents. Vine-growing is but slightly developed in the Don region, where 33,000 q. of grapes are obtained every year, and the familiar sparkling wines are manufactured. In the Government of Stavropol we find large vineyards only in the Kuma [[270]]and Terek valley. In Ciscaucasia, the vineyards cover about 19,000 hectares, and nearly 200,000 hl. of wine (of very good quality) are obtained annually. Grapes flourish very luxuriantly in the Black Sea region and in Tauria. Many vineyards are found in Melitopol and Berdiansk, but the most successfully flourishing vines are those of Crimea, where tender French and Spanish varieties are also cultivated. Wine-growing has become an important branch of industry for the population here. Tauria yields only 250,000 hl. of wine annually, because of the exclusive use of raw grapes for medicinal purposes.
Bee-culture has, since ancient times, been carried on in the Ukraine in very close connection with fruit-growing. It is very popular thruout the Ukraine, and in some districts of the country we rarely find a peasant farm without several beehives. Yet the almost fabulous wealth of honey which the Ukraine originally possessed is steadily declining. Deforestation has limited the original forest bee-culture to the Polissye only. The continued assimilation of meadows and steppes for agriculture has greatly injured the Ukrainian bee industry, and progressive bee-culture is spreading very slowly among the Ukrainians, due to the lack of education and instruction. The chief producing centers of honey in the Ukraine are Kuban (326,000 bee-hives), Poltava (305,000 bee-hives), Chernihiv (283,000 bee-hives), Kharkiv (246,000 bee-hives), Kiev (242,000 bee-hives), Volhynia and Podolia (each 206,000 bee-hives). The total production of honey of the Russian Ukraine, in 1910, amounted to 125,900 q., wax 13,700 q. (38% and 34% respectively of the total production of the Russian Empire). In Galicia, in 1880, the number of bee-hives was still as high as 300,000, in 1900 only 210,000. Nevertheless, the land produced one-half of the honey and one-eighth of the wax of the entire Austrian production (25,000 and 350 q. respectively). The damp, cool summers [[271]]of the past decades have greatly injured the Galician bee industry, but, in very recent years, progressive bee-culture has begun to develop strongly here, and to increase the honey and wax production of the land.
Silkworm-culture is very slightly developed in the Ukraine, altho the mulberry trees thrive almost everywhere in the country, and silkworm-culture requires no great outlay in money and labor. Attempts are being made in the Don region, Tauria, Bessarabia, Kherson, Katerinoslav, Kharkiv, Kiev, Poltava and Chernihiv, but the silk output is still very small. In the Government of Kiev, in 1907, barely 1,300 q. of cocoons were obtained.