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Radom, Russia (Government)

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A government of Russian Poland, occupying a triangular space between the Vistula and Pilica, and bounded N. by the governments of Warsaw and Siedlce, E. by Lublin, S. by the crownland of Austrian Galicia and the Polish government of Kielce, and W. by that of Piotrkow. The area is 4768 sq. m. Its southern part stretches over the well-wooded Sandomir heights, a series of short ranges of hills, 800 to l000 ft. in altitude, intersected by deep valleys, which, running west and east and drained by tributaries of the Vistula, are excellently adapted for agriculture. In its central parts, the government is level, the soil fertile, and the surface, which is diversified here and there with wood, is broken up by occasional spurs (800 ft.) of the Lysa Gora Mountains. The northern districts consist of low, flat tracts with undefined valleys, exposed to frequent floods and covered over large areas with marshes; the basin of the Pilica, notorious for its unhealthiness, is throughout a low marshy plain. Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic deposits appear in the south, Cretaceous and Jurassic in the middle, and Tertiary in the north. Extensive tracts are covered with Glacial deposits, - the Scandinavian erratics reaching as far south as Ilza; these last in their turn are overlain by widespread post-Glacial lacustrine deposits. The climate is cold and moist, the mean temperature for the year being 47°

5 Fahr., for January - 5°

8, and for July 77° The Vistula skirts the government on the south and east, and is an important means of communication, steamers plying as far up as Sandomir (Sedomierz). The Sandomir district suffers occasionally from disastrous inundations of the river. The tributaries of the Vistula are short and small, those of the Pilica are sluggish streams meandering amidst marshes. The estimated population in 1906 was 932,800. The government is divided into seven districts, the chief towns of which are Radom, Ilza, Konskie, Kozienice,' Opatow, Opoczno and Sandomir. Out of the total area about 50% is under cultivation and 28% under forests. The principal crops are wheat, rye, barley, oats, buck-wheat, hemp, flax and potatoes, these last chiefly cultivated for distilleries. Grain is exported. Live stock is kept in large numbers. Manufactures have considerably developed of late years, the government being rich in iron ore, while coal and zinc occur, as also marble, gypsum, alabaster, potters' clay and red sandstone. The iron industry occupies more than 60,000 workmen, and turns out annually some ioo,000 tons of pig iron, 25,000 tons of iron, and 550,000 tons of steel. There are several sugarworks, tanneries, flour-mills, machinery works, distilleries, breweries and brickworks. Trade is not very extensive, the only channel of commerce being the Vistula. (P. A. K., J. T. BE.)