FROM O. PRINGSHEIM’S ARTICLE, “AGRICULTURAL MANUFACTURE AND ELECTRIFIED
AGRICULTURE”65
Dr. Otto Pringsheim (in Breslau), “Landwirtschaftliche
Manufaktur und elektrische Landwirtschaft”. [Braun’s
Archiv, XV (1900), S. 406-418.]
The author starts by pointing out that he will try to characterise “the forms which agricultural production
assumes in the capitalist epoch” (406). Until now “the question of agrarian morphology” has hardly been dealt
with. (Farms were classified into large and small in a stereotyped way, superficially, only by the area under cultivation—407.)
Is there not in agriculture an analogy with the capitalist
household industry (the middle link between the handicrafts
and large-scale industry)?—In Dutch tobacco-growing, in
beetroot production (dependence on the sugar refineries,
control over their crops, etc.—408). (Consequently: much
weaker than in industry—409.)
Let us take a look at a typical specimen of the modern large-scale agricultural enterprise: an East-Elbe estate of
200-400 hectares the prevalence of isolated manual labour
and simple co-operation small division of labour not permanent (reapers and binders)
permanent (in stock raising).

V. I. LENIN

Machines*) are used sporadically (as in the industrial manufacture. Cf. Das Kapital, I3, 335, 34966 p. 410.
No system of machines (410).
Modern large-scale agricultural production should be compared with the manufacture (in the Marxian sense)
(410).
Marketing in agriculture is not so much on a world as on a local scale (411). And the size of the
N.B. unit is not big: very few with a turnover of 100,000
marks, whereas in industry this was surpassed long ago (411).
[This indication is very important!] The exception proves
the rule [Benkendorf’s estate in Saxony, 2,626 hectares, of
which 375 is cultivated by steam plough; livestock—123 draught horses & 70 pairs of oxen & 300 milch cows &
100 fattened bull-calves & 3,600 fattened lambs. A sugar
refinery and a distillery, etc., 13 employees, etc. Outlays
12- million marks a year.—Böckelmann in Atzendorf:
3,320 hectares, own steam plough & (99 horses, 610 oxen),
sugar refinery, etc.: Mitteilungen der deutschen Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft. 1899, Stück 17**)].****
On the whole, the nature of the large-scale agricultural
enterprise is not like that in industry, and it will be easily
proved that the middle peasants are not below this level.
But while the Davids and Hertzes, the Oppenheimers and
Weisengrüns predicted the early end of large-scale agricultural production, there started a technical revolution which
should apparently lead to a strengthening of the positions
of large-scale agricultural production and take it to a higher
stage of development... 412.
*) Backhaus, Agrarstatistische Untersuchungen über den preussischen Osten im Vergleich zum Western,* 1898. F. Bensing, Der Einfluss der landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen auf
Volks- und Privatwirtschaft,** 1898.
**) On Benkendorf also see Thiel’s Landwirtschaftliche
Jahrbücher, 1887 (16. Jahrgang), S. 981.***
* A Comparative Agrarian Statistical Study of East and West Prussia.—Ed.
** The Influence of Agricultural Machinery on the National and Private
Economy.—Ed.
*** Agricultural Yearbooks, 1887, 16th year of publication, p. 981.—Ed.
**** Material of the German Agricultural Society, 1899, Part 17.—Ed.


Electrical Machines advantages of electrical machines
—for milking
—farm supply railways
—threshers
—plough, etc., etc.
This means opening up the possibility of the machine system in agriculture.... What could not be
achieved by steam power will certainly be achieved by electrical
machines, namely, the advancement of agriculture from the old
manufacture stage to modern large-scale production (414).*
Electricity will sharpen the competition between the big
and small farms (the co-operatives will not make up for the
advantages of large-scale production).... Writers who, like
Hertz, in treating of competition between small- and largescale production in agriculture ignored electrical engineering, must start their investigation all over again (415).***
Growing industrialisation of the countryside. Coalescence
of industry and agriculture (cf. Mack):
—countryside drawing closer to town
—introduction of more educated workers (416)
—night work (examples in Bohemia and Saxony) (p. 417).
A reference to Russia in note (p. 417)—V. Ilyin, p. 166****
—introduction of female and child labour, etc.
“The prospects for agriculture in the 20th century are truly brilliant” (417). Max Delbrück, “Die deutsche Land-
* See present edition, Vol. 5, p. 144.—Ed.
** Sinell, Yearbook of the German Agricultural Society, Vol. 14; Benno
Martiny, Transactions of the German Agricultural Society, Part 37; Technical
Survey; Adolph Seufferheld, Report from Personal Experience on the Use of Electricity in Agricultural Production; P. Mack, Boosting, etc.—Ed.
*** See present edition, Vol. 5, p. 142.—Ed.
**** Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 235.—Ed.
Sinell, Jahrbuch der Deutschen Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft, Band 14.
Benno Martiny, Arbeiten der deutschen Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft, Heft
37.
Technische Rundschau, 1899, No. 43 (Electrical supply tracks).
Adolf Seufferheld, Die An- wendung der Elektrizität im landwirtschaftlichen
Betriebe, aus eigener Er- fahrung mitgeteilt, Stuttgart 1899.
P. Mack, Der Aufschwung
u.s.w. 1900**
PNNNNNNNMNNNNNNNQ

V. I. LENIN

wirtschaft an der Jahrhundertswende” (Preussische Jahrbü-
cher, 1900, Februar)* predicts a doubling of crop yields
in grain production, a trebling of potato crops, and an
eightfold increase in the whole of production by the end of
the 20th century over the beginning of the 19th century.
Lemström’s study of the influence of electricity on the
growth of plants also opens up unexpected prospects (418).
Written in June-September 1901
First published in 1938
Printed from the original in Lenin Miscellany XXXI
* Max Delbrück, “German Agriculture at the Turn of the Century”
(Prussian Yearbooks, 1900, February).—Ed.