Returning from these dim speculations to the facts set forth by Kropotkin, we find it proved in his writings that, by methods of intensive cultivation, which are already in actual operation, the amount of food produced on a given area can be increased far beyond anything that most uninformed persons suppose possible.Speaking of the market-gardeners in Great Britain, in the neighborhood of Paris, and in other places, he says:--They have created a totally new agriculture.They smile when we boast about the rotation system having permitted us to take from the field one crop every year, or four crops each three years, because their ambition is to have six and nine crops from the very same plot of land during the twelve months.They do not understand our talk about good and bad soils, because they make the soil themselves, and make it in such quantities as to be compelled yearly to sell some of it; otherwise it would raise up the level of their gardens by half an inch every year.They aim at cropping, not five or six tons of grass on the acre, as we do, but from 50 to 100 tons ofvarious vegetables on the same space; not 5 pound sworth of hay, but 100 pounds worth of vegetables, of the plainest description, cabbage and carrots.[38]
[38] Kropotkin, ``Fields, Factories and Workshops,'' p.74.
As regards cattle, he mentions that Mr.Champion at Whitby grows on each acre the food of two or three head of cattle, whereas under ordinary high farming it takes two or three acres to keep each head of cattle in Great Britain.Even more astonishing are the achievements of the Culture Maraicheres round Paris.It is impossible to summarize these achievements, but we may note the general conclusion:--There are now practical Maraichers who venture to maintain that if all the food, animal and vegetable, necessary for the 3,500,000 inhabitants of the Departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise had to be grown on their own territory (3250 square miles), it could be grown without resorting to any other methods of culture than those already in use--methods already tested on a large scale and proved successful.[39]
[39] Ib.p.81.
It must be remembered that these two departments include the whole population of Paris.
Kropotkin proceeds to point out methods by which the same result could be achieved without long hours of labor.Indeed, he contends that the great bulk of agricultural work could be carried on by people whose main occupations are sedentary, and with only such a number of hours as would serve to keep them in health and produce a pleasant diversification.He protests against the theory of exces- sive division of labor.What he wants is INTEGRATION, ``a society where each individual is a producer of both manual and intellectual work; where each able- bodied human being is a worker, and where each worker works both in the field and in the industrial workshop.''[40]
[40] Kropotkin, ``Field, Factories, and Workshops,'' p.6.
These views as to production have no essential connection with Kropotkin's advocacy of Anarchism.They would be equally possible under State Socialism, and under certain circumstances they might even be carried out in a capitalistic regime.They are important for our presentpurpose, not from any argument which they afford in favor of one economic system as against another, but from the fact that they remove the veto upon our hopes which might otherwise result from a doubt as to the productive capacity of labor.I have dwelt upon agriculture rather than industry, since it is in regard to agriculture that the difficulties are chiefly supposed to arise.Broadly speaking, industrial production tends to be cheaper when it is carried on on a large scale, and therefore there is no reason in industry why an increase in the demand should lead to an increased cost of supply.
Passing now from the purely technical and material side of the problem of production, we come to the human factor, the motives leading men to work, the possibilities of efficient organization of production, and the connection of production with distribution.Defenders of the existing system maintain that efficient work would be impossible without the economic stimulus, and that if the wage system were abolished men would cease to do enough work to keep the community in tolerable comfort.Through the alleged necessity of the economic motive, the problems of production and distribution become intertwined.The desire for a more just distribution of the world's goods is the main inspiration of most Socialism and Anarchism.We must, therefore, consider whether the system of distribution which they propose would be likely to lead to a diminished production.
