Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 3 - From Marx to Mao

226
V. I. LENIN
published by the Pskov Gubernia Zemstvo Administration
(Severny Kurier [Northern Courier], 1899, No. 32), the increasing
use of machinery is noted, particularly of flaxscutchers,
in connection with the transition from flax
production for home use to that for commercial purposes.
There is an increase in the number of iron ploughs. Reference
is made to the influence of migration in augmenting the
number of agricultural machines and in raising wages.
In Stavropol Gubernia (ibid., No. 33), agricultural machinery
is being employed on an increasing scale in connection
with the growing immigration into this gubernia. In 1882,
there were 908 machines: in 1891-1893, an average of
29,275; in 1894-1896, an average of 54,874; and in 1895, as
many as 64,000 agricultural implements and machines.
The growing employment of machines naturally gives
rise to a demand for engines: along with steam-engines,
“oil engines have latterly begun to spread rapidly on our
farms” (Productive Forces, I, 56), and although the first
engine of this type appeared abroad only seven years ago,
there are already 7 factories in Russia manufacturing them.
In Kherson Gubernia in the 70s only 134 steam-engines were
registered in agriculture (Material for the Statistics of
Steam-Engines in the Russian Empire, St. Petersburg, 1882),
and in 1881 about 500 (Historico-Statistical Survey, Vol.
II, section on agricultural implements). In 1884-1886,
in three uyezds of the gubernia (out of six), 435 steam threshing
machines were registered. “At the present time (1895)
there must be at least twice as many” (Tezyakov, Agricultural
Workers and the Organisation of Sanitary Supervision
over Them, in Kherson Gubernia, Kherson, 1896, p. 71). The
Vestnik Finansov (1897, No. 21) states that in Kherson Gubernia,
“there are about 1,150 steam-threshers, and in the
Kuban Region the number is about the same, etc. . . . Latterly
the acquisition of steam-threshers has assumed an
industrial character. . . . There have been cases of a fivethousand-ruble
threshing machine with steam-engine fully
covering its cost in two or three good harvest years, and of
the owner immediately getting another on the same terms.
Thus, 5 and even 10 such machines are often to be met with
on small farms in the Kuban Region. There they have become
an essential accessory of every farm that is at all well