Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM OF MODERN AGRICULTURE443duction, a fact which is always stressed by Marxists.No statistics can take direct account of this fact, but ifthe statistical data are regarded in the light of theireconomic significance, it becomes clear which types offarming are bound to develop, cannot fail to develop, inmodern society when machines are used, and when theiruse is impossible.The Hungarian statistics provide an illustration of whathas been said. Like the German census of 1907 (and of 1882and 1895), like the Danish statistics on the use of machinesin 1907, and like the French enquiry in 1909, the Hungariancensus of 1895, which for the first time collected precisedata for the whole country, shows the superiority of capitalistagriculture and the increased percentage of farms withmachines as the size of the farms increases. From this anglethere is nothing new here but only a confirmation of theGerman data. The special feature of the Hungarian statistics,however, is that information was collected not only on thefew up-to-date implements and machines, but on the entire,or almost the entire, farm inventory, on the number of thesimplest and most essential implements, ploughs, harrows,carts, etc.Thanks to these exceptionally detailed data it becomespossible to establish accurately the, as it were, symptomaticsignificance, characteristic of the whole system of farming,of the information on the use of some agricultural machinesand technological “rarities” (such as steam ploughs). Let ustake the Hungarian statistical data* on the use of ploughsother than steam ploughs (of which in 1895 there were altogether179 in the whole of Hungary, including 120 in 3,977largest farms).The following are data of the total number of ploughsand of the number of the simplest, most primitive and least* See Landwirtschaftliche Statistik der Länder der ungarischenKrone (Agricultural Statistics of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown).Budapest, 1900, Vols. 4 and 5. The Hungarian statistics divide allthe farms into four chief groups: 1) dwarf farms (less than 5 yokes;one yoke= 0.57 hectares); 2) small farms (5-100 yokes); 3) mediumfarms (100-1,000 yokes); 4) big farms (over 1,000 yokes). The secondgroup obviously includes very diverge kinds of farms and thereforeI make four subdivisions of it.