“ Owing to its advantageous position Elets has grown rapidly. Its merchants buy large quantities of grain, and numerous flour-mills, many of them driven by steam, prepare flour, which is forwarded to Moscow and Riga. The trade in cattle is very important. Elets has the first grain elevator erected in Russia (1887) , a railway school, and important tanneries, foundries for cast iron and copper, tallow-melting works, limekilns and brickworks. ”