--------------+---------------------+------------------------------------ | Dessiatines. | Average yields. +-------+-------+-----+-------------+---------------------- | | | |Regardless of|With regard to | | | |class of |class of property. | | | |property. | | | | +-------------+-------+-------+------ Wheat planted.| | | |Chetverts[171] from 1| |Compa- | | | | dessiatine. | |rative | | | +-----+-------+-------+ |per- | |Yields | |Manured. |Regard-|Bushels|cent- |Yields | not | Per | | Not |less of| per |age |stated.|stated.|cent.| manured.|manure.| acre. |rates. --------------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------+------ By noblemen | 3609 | 166 | | | 5.4 | 5.3 | 11.7 | 97 By capitalists| 768 | 30 | | 8.4 | | 8.1 | 17.8 | 148 +-------+-------+-----+ | | | | | 4377 | 196 | 4 | | | | | U.S. | | | | | | | 12.0 | 100 1880-89[172] | | | | | | | | --------------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-------+-------+-------+------ It appears from these figures-- 1. That on the estates of the nobility the average yield of wheat amounts to what can be got from the soil without the application of manure, while on capitalistic farms the average is nearly on a par with that which is raised from fertilized land. 2. That the average yield of wheat per acre on a capitalistic farm in the district of Voronezh outruns by about one-half the American average, while the noble landlord is barely able to keep on a level with the American producer. Taking into consideration that the farm laborer of middle Russia, with his 50 kopeks a day (25 cents in gold) in the summer, is well fitted to underbid the Chinese cooly, so large an advance in productivity seems to justify the prediction of Mr. Paul Lafargue, viz., that Russia will soon become a successful competitor of America on the international grain market.[173] The rise of the income from agriculture, as above shown, goes hand in hand with the development of stock breeding. Thus where the nobleman would have all his land tilled with peasant live stock, the capitalist draws a benefit from cultivating a part of his estate with his own stock, and this part is relatively greater than on the largest estates owned by the nobility. The evidence is presented in the following table: