The general introduction of scientific methods in the utilisation of the land under cultivation, were the change simply to be one of a better choice of crops, would greatly increase the yield, even though in other respects everything should continue as before.
But the many-field system can only be introduced by the adoption of medium-scale or large-scale agriculture in place of petty agriculture; and of course the large-scale is more advantageous than the medium-scale. By the rotation of crops we are enabled to utilise the land far more thoroughly. To-day, our peasants, with the three-field system, leave at any given moment practically one-third of the land fallow.
For the peasants it is a practical impossibility to introduce a proper rotation of crops and the many-field system. It is impossible to the peasant who farms his land in isolation, for he has not enough land for a proper system. It is even more impossible when the communal land is cut up into strips.
In large-scale agriculture we avoid the waste of land which is inevitable, under petty culture, at the corners and edges of the fields. Our peasants waste hundreds of thousands of desyatinas in this way. According to my calculations the loss is equivalent to from 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 poods of grain.
Manuring is the principal means for maintaining the fertility of the soil. In large-scale agriculture, since a smaller number of horses will suffice for the work on any particular area of land, more horned cattle can be kept and there is therefore more manure from stall-fed beasts. In large-scale agriculture it is profitable to use artificial manures, or even artificially to make various kinds of manure, whereas these things are much less practicable in the case of petty agriculture.
Especially difficult, in small-scale agriculture, is it to arrange for ploughing at appropriate times, sufficiently deeply, and in a labour-saving