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

290
V. I. LENIN
etc.* The area of the biggest development of distilling is
also distinguished for the biggest (in the Russian gubernias,
i.e., not counting the Baltic and the western gubernias)
net per-capita harvest of potatoes. Thus in the northern
black-earth gubernias the figures for 1864-1866, 1870-
1879 and 1883-1887 were 0.44, 0.62 and 0.60 chetverts
respectively, whereas for the whole of European
Russia (50 gubernias) the corresponding figures were 0.27,
0.43 and 0.44 chetverts. As far back as the beginning of
the 80s the Historico-Statistical Survey noted that “the
region marked by the greatest expansion of potato cultivation
covers all the gubernias of the central and northern
parts of the black-earth belt, the Volga and Transvolga
gubernias and the central non-black-earth gubernias” (loc.
cit., p. 44).**
The expansion of potato cultivation by landlords and
well-to-do peasants means an increase in the demand for
hired labour; the cultivation of a dessiatine of potatoes
absorbs much more labour*** than the cultivation of a dessiatine
of cereals and the use of machinery in, for example,
* Cf. Raspopin, loc. cit.,—Historico-Statistical Survey, loc.
cit., p. 14. The by-products of distilling (wash) are often used (even
by commercial and not only agricultural establishments) in commercial
beef-cattle raising.—Cf. Agricultural Statistical Information,
Vol. VII, p. 122 and passim.
** The great rapidity with which the use of potatoes for distilling
has increased in the central agricultural gubernias can be seen from
the following data. In six gubernias: Kursk, Orel, Tula, Ryazan,
Tambov and Voronezh, during the period 1864-65 to 1873-74 an
average of 407,000 poods of potatoes was distilled per annum; during
1874-75 to 1883-84—7,482,000 poods; during 1884-85 to 1893-94,
20,077,000 poods. For the whole of European Russia the corresponding
figures are: 10,633,000 poods, 30,599,000 poods and 69,620,000 poods.
The number of distilleries using potatoes in the above gubernias
averaged 29 per annum in the period 1867-68 to 1875-76; in the period
1876-77 to 1884-85, 130; and in the period 1885-86 to 1893-94, 163.
For the whole of European Russia the corresponding figures are:
739, 979, 1,195 (see Agricultural Statistical Information, Vol. VII).
*** For example, according to the Zemstvo statistical returns
for Balakhna Uyezd, Nizhni-Novgorod Gubernia, the cultivation
of one dess. of potatoes requires 77.2 working days, including 59.2
working days of a woman occupied in planting, hoeing, weeding and
digging. The greatest increase, therefore, is in the demand for the
day labour of local peasant women.