Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (4.1980/1983)

MECHANISATION

73

same in the three provinces investigated. The
distribution of implements and machinery is
accounted for in figure 3,4 and 5. Through-
out the three provinces, the possession of
implements and machines was stratified ac-
cording to farm size. The large-scale farms
possessed implements and machines to the
largest extent, during the period of introduc-
tion as well as that of spread. This impres-
sion is further confirmed by the fact that
possession of several implements/machines
of the same kind displays a positive correla-
tion with farm size.It has, moreover, been a
pervading observation that the equipment of
implements and machines was dependent on
the size of the cultivation unit: the larger the
size, the more advanced the equipment.
Areas having a small proportion of large
farms were, therefore, mechanised to a lesser
extent. However, the degree of mechanisa-
tion for larger farms in such primarily small-
holding areas also appears to have been
somewhat lower than for the corresponding
farm categories in areas where larger farms
occupied a more predominant position.
The effects of mechanisation. The agriculture
of the period was more and more split up
into two parts, one being made up of small-
holdings and the majority of smaller farms,
the other of large farms and manors. The
change that the agricultural situation under-
went during the period could not be taken
advantage of or mastered on equal terms by
the agricultural population. The larger farm-
ers had the greatest possibilities of adjusting
to the commercialisation process taking
place. The difference between the rationally
operated larger farms and the mainly self-
supporting smaller farms and holdings be-
came increasingly marked in the course of
the period, and the improvement of produc-
tivity which took place fell mostly to the
larger farms. For different reasons small-

holders and smaller farmers could not make
rationalisation profits to the same degree.
Here the production of agricultural goods
rarely attained a higher level than that of
self-support, and a considerable number of
the smaller farmers were net consumers of
agricultural products. Even though the
larger farms made up only a minor part of
the total number of cultivation units, they
yielded an essential proportion of the total
agricultural production. It is likely that the
changed agricultural situation, having effects
of a technical, economic, and social nature,
entailed considerable difficulties of adjust-
ment for the smaller farmers.
When the government Committee on
Tariffs and Treaties (Tull- och -traktatkom-
mitte) was trying to assess the effects of the
agricultural tariff, an investigation was made
of the extent to which tariff-protected grain
was produced for sale. Both the average
annual cereal crop for the five-year period
1913-17 and the average annual consumption

Fig. 6. Net crop-yield and self-consumption of
grain in south and central Sweden, in Thousands
of tons

Net
Self-con-
Surplus/
Size of farm
crop-yield sumption
deficit ,
1-2
ha
10.0
44-2
- 34-2
2-5
ha
47-3
93-9
— 46.6
5-10
ha
94.8
99-4
- 4.6
10-20
ha
150.5
92.0
+ 58.5
2O-3O
ha
92.5
39-i
+ 53-i
3°-s°
ha
99-5
36.0
+ 63.5
50-100
ha
79.2
3i-3
+ 47-9
100-
ha
112.2
49-o
+ 63.2
Total
685.7
484.5
+ 200.8

After Tull p. 40.3
Fig. 6. Netto-Ernteertrag und Eigenverbrauch an
Getreide in Slid- und Mittelschweden in tausend
Tonnen.