Note 157 — Chapter XIII · AGRICULTURE ON A LARGE SCALE.
Reading edition
This is the comparative development of stock breeding on large estates and on peasant farms, in the district of Voronezh:
To 1 head of big cattle.Dessiatines of tillage land.
On peasant farms2.0
On estates over 50 dessiatines7.9
We know that the fields of the peasants are very insufficiently manured. The opportunities for large estates do not appear more favorable. The extent to which land is fertilized on the estates is shown by the following figures:
Arable land.Dessiatines.Per cent.
Yearly under culture61882100
Yearly manured34315.5
The fertilizing of 1 dessiatine requires 6 heads of big cattle (op. cit., p. 92.) Thus we have:
Used to manure the fields on the estates.Head of big cattle.Per cent.
Total, 3431 dessiatines × 6 heads20586100
Total stock of the landlords1101053
Stock of the peasants957647
In a word, nearly one half of the manure used on large estates is procured by the small farmers who are compelled to neglect their own fields. Quite a number of statements to this effect are produced in the Appendices to the Statistical Reports for the Gubernia of Ryazañ.