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

214V. I. LENIN1898) and lagged behind the increase of the population. Areal and rapid increase is observed only in large-scale capitalistlivestock farming. Between 1876 and 1893 themedium-big farms increased more rapidly than the big farms;but between 1893 and 1898, the biggest farms increasedmore rapidly.Taking the figures for 1876 and 1898 for the group ofbiggest farms, i.e., owners of 200 or more head of cattle,we find that in 1876 they numbered 79 (0.05 per cent of thetotal number of livestock owners) with 18,970 head ofcattle (1.4 per cent of the total); while in 1898, there weretwice as many, viz., 195 (0.1 per cent of the total) with52,385 head of cattle (3.0 per cent of the total). The numberof the biggest farmers more than doubled and their outputnearly trebled.The ousting of small-scale production by large-scale productionproceeded steadily between 1876 and 1898. Theshare of the small farms in the total number of cattle continuallydiminished: from 11.0 per cent in 1876 to 8.4 percent in 1893, and to 8.1 per cent in 1898. The share of themedium farms also continually diminished, althoughsomewhat more slowly (38.2—31.8—31.7 per cent). Theshare of the medium-big farms increased from 39.0 per centin 1876 to 46.8 per cent in 1893, but remained at the samelevel between 1893 and 1898. Only the share of the biggestfarms steadily increased, pushing aside all the other categories(11.8—13.0—13.4 per cent).The more favourable the conditions for livestock farming,the more rapid is the development and progress of commerciallivestock farming, and the more intense is the processof capitalist concentration. For example, in the Copenhagendistrict, which had a population of 234,000 in 1880 and378,000 in 1901, dairy and meat products were, of course,the most marketable items. The farmers in that districtwere richer in cattle than all the other farmers in Denmark,both in 1876 and in 1898, having on an average 8.5 and11.6 head of cattle each, compared with an average of 7.9and 9.7 for the whole country. And in this district, in whichthe conditions are most favourable for the development oflivestock farming, we see the process of concentration ismost intense.