But the time has come, at last, in which the possibility lies in the hands of the Ukrainian people to make use in the future of the rich resources of the Ukrainian land for themselves.
Economic- Geographical Survey of Ukraine
To give a lucid economic-geographical view of the Ukraine today is very difficult — almost impossible. The Ukrainian territory is divided among three states, and nowhere does the Ukrainian country form unbroken administrative units. Consequently, the official statistics cannot give an exact picture of the economic conditions of the Ukraine. The following attempt, also, can lay no claim to accuracy. A very heterogeneous and incomplete mass of material has made it impossible to attain the desired accuracy and uniformity.
The Ukraine differs from the cultural countries of Central and Western Europe first, in that its settlement is not yet complete, so to say. Only the northwestern regions of the "Old Ukraine" possess a sufficient density of population. The entire south and east are thinly, in places even very thinly, peopled. And the complete exploitation of the natural resources is still a far way off, even in the most thickly settled parts of the Western Ukraine.
In our economic-geographical survey of the Ukraine, we shall begin with the most primitive branches of the exploitation of natural resources and proceed from them to those that are more advanced.
Hunting and Fishing
The most primitive way of exploiting the natural resources of a country has always, and everywhere, been hunting and fishing. Both played a great part in the economic life of the Ukraine a thousand years ago. Our ancient chronicles contain many reports of the great abundance of game and fish in the Ukrainian land, and of their great importance for the population. Five centuries of Tatar warfare effectively interrupted the exploitation of these natural treasures, and even in the 16th and 17th Century the Ukraine still aroused the amazement of travelers from foreign lands, thru its great wealth of game and fish. In these centuries, hunting and fishing were among the main branches of industry of the Cossack border population of the Ukraine. As late as the second half of the 18th Century, hunting and fishing were still two of the main sources of industry of the Zaporog Sich. But soon agriculture began to gain ground in the regions ruled by it, the density of the population increased, and with it the fundamental strength of the Zaporog organization. This circumstance seemed threatening to the Russian government, and was the chief motive for the destruction of the Sich. Today hunting has almost no significance in the economic life of the Ukraine. Altho in the year 1906, in Galicia, 500 stags, about 10,000 roes, over 2000 boars, about 90,000 rabbits, over 8000 pheasants, 50,000 partridges, 30,000 quail, 10,000 woodcocks, and 14,000 wild ducks were killed, the figures for other countries at the same time were much higher; in Bohemia which is more thickly populated there were brought down more than 800,000 rabbits, 1,000,000 partridges, etc. These figures show that in Galicia the natural wealth of game has declined considerably, while the artificial conservation of game has not yet begun. In the Austro-Hungarian part of the Ukraine, hunting has become a mere diversion of the upper classes — a mere sport. The hunting monopoly of the upper classes even bring to the country folk serious disadvantages, for boars and stags cause great damage to agriculture, especially in the Boiko and Hutzul country, and it is forbidden to keep them off. This circumstance encourages poaching, which in many districts is quite common. The extermination of beasts of prey, bears, wolves, lynx and wildcats is as a rule, undertaken only in occasional general chases, but the Ukrainian mountain-dwellers are very well able, despite all game laws, to defend themselves and their herds effectively from these wild animals. In 1906 more than 9000 foxes were brought down in Galicia.