Peter Kropotkin and John Thomas Bealby

“ Excellent breeds of horses are met with, not only on the larger estates, but also in the hands of the wealthier peasants, those of the Bityug river being most esteemed. Manufacturers are represented chiefly by distilleries, tallow-melting works, sugar factories, flour-mills and woollen-cloth mills. Commerce is brisk, owing to the large grain export—Kozlov, Morshansk, Tambov and Borisoglyebsk being the chief centres for this traffic, and Lebedyan for the trade in horses and cattle. This government is backward educationally. ”

“ Forests occupy about 71⁄2 per cent, of the total area, and occur chiefly in the west; in the south-east wood is scarce, and straw is used for fuel. The soil is fertile throughout; in the north it is clayey and sometimes sandy, but the rest of the government is covered with a sheet, 2 to 3 feet thick, of black earth, of such richness that in Borisoglyebsk cornfields which have not been manured for eighty years still yield good crops. ”

“ The government is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which are Tambov, Borisoglyebsk, Yelatma, Kirsanov, Kozlov, Lebedyan, Lipetsk, Morshansk, Shatsk, Spask, Temnikov and Usman. The inhabitants are Great Russians in the centre, but there is a notable admixture of Mordvinians and Meshcheryaks in the west and north-west, as also of Tatars. The Mordvinians are rapidly becoming Russified. Nonconformity has a relatively strong hold in the government. Notwithstanding a high birth-rate (45 in the thousand) , the annual increase of population is but slow (0.5 per cent. annually) . ”