of?6
CAHOLINA!
1012
Vol. VI.—No. 44.
RALEIGH. N. C. NOVEMBER 7, 1912.
One Dollar a Year.
Agriculture in Hungary
H. C. Price.
On May 16th I left Hale, Germany,
^ith a party of thirty, made up of
students and teachers from the agri
cultural college of the University of
Halle for a three weeks’ agricultural
^cur through Austria and Hungary.
The trip had been carefully planned
as to have opportunity to study
Agricultural conditions in the differ-
®At sections of these countries. I
^As the only one in the party who
spoke English, and during the en-
trip met only hree persons who
spoke my native tongue. We went
through territory seldom visited by
^Piericans, but a land in which
^hierica is known to all, even to the
^Aiublest laborer, who regards it as
^ Paradise in which he would soon
^Ake his fortune if he could only get
th
ere.
Hungary is about twice the size of
jAA State of Iowa, and is the Corn
pH of Europe. It is by far the most
®^Iile agricultural land in the Old
jy^^rld. As one rides through central
Hungary he can easily imagine that
p is in central Iowa or Illinois so
p as the land itself is concerned.
P far as the eye can see stretches
the - -
flo
black, fertile soil, level as the
. typical corn land. But the con-
■ j'Ast comes in the people who own
Ae land, the agricultural methods
Ad the conditions of the farm labor
ers
j
j the first place, Hungary is a
Aud of extremes—on the one hand
extreme poverty, on the other
A^treme riches; on one hand ex-
^enaely small farms; on the other
^Ary large farms, often containing
®veral thousand acres. Land is high
price, I should say at least one-
Alf more than in the Corn Belt in
^Ae United States—$200 to $300 per
being no unusual price for av-
good land.
Wages for farm labor are very
to^’ Aud will not average over forty
Hty cents.per day, and where em-
ubo^^^ by the year, hands receive
At $20 per year in cash, and es-
su everything they receive,
an^ AS a place to live, fuel, allow-
gyAe of grain, etc., at their full mon-
j./Alue, the total wage is only about
per year.
agj., A uiost distressing feature of the
tgrrfi^^^A^e of this fertile land is the
thei ''^uste of human energy in
system of farming. American
have been condemned, and
Hrc/ wasting the fertility of
ant 'Ands because land was abund-
gj.g Aud cheap, but hero is even a
beca Ariine—wasting human lives
I labor is abundant and cheap.
Worki ^Aequently how long is the
variam^ ^Ay, and the answer was in-
in ^ ^be same; “The hands are
Which from sunrise to sunset,”
Of A this country at this season
A year means from 4:30 In the
morning till 7:30 in the evening,
with an hour’s pause at noon and a
pause of fifteen minutes to half an
hour in the middle of the forenoon
and afternoon,
I saw hundreds of acres of corn be
ing worked by hand entirely, not
even with a one-horse cultivator, but
simply being hoed. Fields of twenty
to thirty acres in size were being
worked in this way—sometimes thir
ty to forty hands in one field hoeing,
and usually more women than men,
and practically all barefooted. In
some sections the cultivator seemed
to be almost unknown, and all the
work is done by hand. Such condi
tions show very forcibly how much
more effective brains are than brawn
in modern agriculture.
In reply to the inquiry why labor-
saving machinery was not used, they„
replied that they had the labor and
must keep it employed, never think
ing or giving the laborers shorter
working days or employing them in
other ways. One of the most striking
examples of this is in the lack of
wind motor pumps. The typical Hun
garian arrangement for drawing wa
ter is probably the same kind Jacob
used when he watered Laban’s fiocks
in Biblical times. Although central
Hungary is pre-eminently a live stock
country, and herds of hundreds and
even thousands have to be watered
from wells, yet I did not see a single
wind motor pump in the country. The
shepherds they said needed some
thing to do, and had enough time to
draw the water.
The lack of labor-saving machin
ery was not so evident in all sections.
On the large farms modern American
harvesting machinery is used for
small grain. But it is almost beyond
belief the extent to which the hay
crop is cut by hand. I saw hun
dreds of acres, principally alfalfa,that
had been cut with scythes, and in one
alfalfa field I counted fifty men mow
ing. Even though labor is cheap, it
costs just as much to do the work
with such primitive methods as with
modern labor-saving machinery and
at the prices paid for farm labor in
America.
The prices of agricultural prod
ucts in Hungary are higher than in
America. Corn is one dollar per
bushel, fat cattle and hogs ten cents
per pound live weight, so that with
the low wage the farm laborer gets,
he must live in poverty.
Every year we get thousands of
immigrants from Hungary, In the
different places in which we stopped,
I inquired in regard to the immi
grants in America, and was told ev
ery place that they sent a great deal
of money back, that as a rule they
went to America for a few years and
came back with money, and that they
did not usually stay permanently in
America, but almost invariably came
back, and generally bought a little
piece of land for a home.
The class going to America come
mostly from the country, have al
ways done agricultural labor, and
would prefer to work in the coun
try, but, when they reach America
they go into the large cities and into
the factories, into the mines, or as
day laborers on the railroads.
This immigrant labor might be
used to good advantage in furnish
ing agricultural laborers, but there
are some practical difficulties not
easy to overcome. In their home
country they are used to living to
gether in small villages, and in a
foreign country it is even more im
portant to them that they live togeth
er in colonies. To separate them and
have one or two families live alone
on an American farm is out of the
question. If they can be colonized
so that fifteen or twenty families can
live together and be given regular
work, they will make splendid farm
hands, with a natural adaptation
liking ior llv&-.atnck. In recent
years the number of immigrants to
the United States from Hungary has
varied from 100,000 to 200,000 per
year, and in 1907 it was over 200,-
000, but the next year it dropped to
less than 50,000, due to the indus
trial depression of the fall of 1907
and the spring of 1908. An immi
grant can go from middle Hungary
to New York or Philadelphia for $40
or $50, and they come and go, de
pending upon the labor conditions in
America.
Some of the most interesting feat
ures of the tour, as well as the most
instructive, were the visits to large
farms. Over thirty per cent of the
area of Hungary is owned in farms
that are over 1,500 acres in extent,
and in some cases they contain as
high as 50,000 acres in one body. In
farm management it is always a de
batable question how large a farm
can be farmed economically under
one management. On the large
farms of Hungary the question is
solved by dividing them into units
that are practically independent, so
far as the equipment, buildings and
superintendence are concerned, but
all united together under one central
management and general overseer
For example, at Kiszasz, in southern
Hungary, Count Chotek has 35,000
acres all in one body, and it is divid
ed into nine farms, each with its su
perintendent and inspectors, but
these are all organized under the
general direction of one man. The
agriculture of the place is of the
highest class, the crops splendid, the
live stock good, and the laborers bet
ter cared for than on the smaller
farms, the latter even drawing pen
sions after they are no longer able to
work. Yet it all Is the insurmount
able disadvantage that the laborer
has no opportunity of ever being an
Independent land owner. Socially
such conditions are intolerable, and
make the peasant always a peasant
The Corn Belt of Europe is fully
the equal of America so far as soil
fertility is concerned, and from an
agricultural standpoint one can not
but be charmed with the fertile
plains of Hungary. But one must
tnow its history, its traditions and
customs. The Hungarians have al
ways been a warring people; they
came down from the north, from Fin
land, nearly- a thousand years ago,
and took Hungary by conquest. For
over four hundred years they were
under the demoralizing rule of Tur
key. They have been surrounded by
enemies and almost continually at
war. Their present government, by
which they are combined with Aus
tria into the Austria-Hungary Em
pire, is one of tolerance and not of
preference. The Hungarians rasp un
der it and would gladly be entirely
free from Austria. To visit a land
where the middle class is so conspic
uous by its absence makes one doubly
glad that he is a free-born American
citizen.
WHAT THE FARMER WANTS.
The farmer today wants more per
formance and less promise.
He wants to hear about how im
portant he is to the prosperity of the
country and to see more evidence
that he has a share in the prosperity.
He wants to hear men in author
ity do less prattling about .“princi
ples” and more work that will help
him cash his labor for what it is
worth.
He wants the men who pose as far
mers’ leaders to take their eyes for a
little while off the “great victory that
lies beyond” and win some of the lit
tle battles that are confronting him
right now.
He wants a vacation from having
to listen to or read long addresses
on the “benefits of organization” and
to see some of those benefits where
he can put his hands on them.
He wants fewer definitions of what
“co-operation” is and more concrete
instances of co-operation actually at
work.
He wants a rest from “justice,
equity and the Golden Rule” for
awhile until after he has gotten fif
teen cents for his cotton.
He wants to read about fewer
“plans” and to feel more cash jing
ling in his jeans.
He wants fewer generalities and
more actual accomplishments for his
benefit; less advice and more assist
ance.
He wants a “financial arrange
ment” that will not put him deeper
in debt but will make it possible for
him to get money to pay the debts
he already has.
He wants to know how he can get
more money for what he raises be
fore being told how to raise more
and get less for it.
These wants are published for the
benefit of would-be farmers’ lead
ers and helpers. The farmer himself
doesn’t need to read them for he
knows all about them already. Isn’t
it the truth?