Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 13 - From Marx to Mao

AGRARIAN QUESTION AND “CRITICS OF MARX”199must take the average area of farms according to groupsfor the respective years. Here are the figures:Groups of farmsAverage area of farms(hectares)1873 1885 1895Up to 2.5 ha 0.83 0.75 0.682.5 to 10 ” 5.08 5.09 5.1310 to 40 ” 22.28 22.08 22.0140 to 120 ” 61.00 61.66 61.97120 ha and over 281.40 282.30 279.80Average 15.50 14.07 13.70From these statistics we see that in the majority of groupsthe area of farms is extremely stable. The fluctuationsare insignificant, being one to two per cent (for example:279.8 to 282.3 hectares, or 22.01 to 22.28 hectares, etc.).The only exception is seen in the smallest farms, which areundoubtedly splitting up: a decrease in the average areaof those farms (up to 2.5 hectares) by ten per cent between1873 and 1885 (from 0.83 hectares to 0.75 hectares) andalso between 1885 and 1895. The general increase in thetotal number of farms in Denmark is proceeding with almostno change in the total area of land (between 1885and 1895 there was even a slight decrease in the total areaof land). The increase in the main affects the smallest farms.Thus, between 1873 and 1895 the total number of farmsincreased by 30,752, while the number of farms up to 2.5hectares increased by 27,166. Clearly, this decrease in theaverage area of all farms in Denmark (15.5 hectares in 1873,14.1 in 1885, and 13.7 in 1895) really signifies nothing more thanthe splitting-up of the smallest farms.The phenomenon we have noted becomes still more strikingwhen we take the smaller divisions of groups. In thepreface to the Danish agricultural statistics for 1895 (DanmarksStatistik, etc. Danmarks Jordbrug, 4-de Raekke,