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

308
V. I. LENIN
(1897, No. 16) on “industrial melon growing.” This branch of
production arose in the village of Bykovo (Tsarev Uyezd,
Astrakhan Gubernia) at the end of the 60s and the beginning
of the 70s. The melons, which at first went only to the Volga
region, were consigned, with the coming of the railways, to
the capital cities. In the 80s the output “increased at least
tenfold” owing to the enormous profits (150 to 200 rubles
per dess.) made by the initiators of the business. Like true
petty bourgeois, they did all they could to prevent the number
of growers from increasing and were most careful in guarding
from their neighbours the “secret” of this new and profitable
occupation. Of course, all these heroic efforts of the “muzhik
cultivator”* to stave off “fatal competition”** were in vain,
and the industry spread much wider—to Saratov Gubernia
and the Don region. The drop in grain prices in the 90s
gave a particularly strong impetus to production, compelling
“local cultivators to seek a way out of their difficulties
in crop rotation systems.”*** The expansion of production
considerably increased the demand for hired labour
(melon growing requires a considerable amount of labour, so
that the cultivation of one dessiatine costs from 30 to 50
rubles), and still more considerably increased the profits of the
employers and ground-rent. Near “Log” Station (Gryazi-
Tsaritsyn Railway), the area under water-melons in 1884
was 20 dess., in 1890 between 500 and 600 dess., and in 1896
between 1,400 and 1,500 dess., while rent rose from 30 kopeks
to between 1.50 and 2 rubles and to between 4 and 14 rubles
per dess. for the respective years. The over-rapid expansion
of melon planting led at last, in 1896, to overproduction
and a crisis, which finally confirmed the capitalist
character of this branch of commercial agriculture. Melon
prices fell to a point where they did not cover railway charges.
The melons were left ungathered in the fields. After tasting
tremendous profits the entrepreneurs now learned what
losses were like. But the most interesting thing is the means
they have chosen for combating the crisis: the means chosen is
to win new markets, to effect such a cheapening of produce
* Mr. N. —on’s term for the Russian peasant.
** Mr. V. Prugavin’s term.
*** Better tilth is required to raise water-melons and this renders
the soil more fertile when sown later to cereals.