Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 12. (1996)

Király István Szabolcs: Fejezetek a magyar mezőgazdaság gépesítésének történetéből.

FEJEZETEK A MAGYAR MEZŐGAZDASÁG GÉPESÍTÉSÉNEK TÖRTÉNETÉBŐL 379 ISTVÁN SZABOLCS KIRÁLY: CHAPTERS FROM THE HISTORY OF THE MECHANIZATION OF HUNGARIAN AGRICULTURE (CULTIVATION OF GRAIN CROPS) Resume Agricultural historians analyze the technical development of the mechanization of Hungarian agriculture, the degree of motorization with the help of agricultural statistics of 1871., 1895 and 1935. The change of the technical level can be followed with attention by the aid of the foreign trade statistics available from 1882. The author examines the exports and imports -within 1883-1938 - of the machines of corn cultivation. He analyzes briefly the machanization of the main processes of corn cultivation - ploughing, sowing, havesting, threshing - and the technical antecendents of those. The author describes the effects of the developed western countries in the technical development of Hungarian agriculture relying upon English (A. Young, Fussel, Beaumont), American (J. W. Oliver, NSB. Gras) and German (A. Thaer. E. Klein, G. Franz, G. Fischer, M. Eyth) sources. Though domestic mechanical engineering-machine production started from 1840, we had to wait for the real upspring for 40 years. The intensive period of mechanization was between 1880 and 1914. Local mechanical engineering colud not satisfy the growing demands because of the low standards of machine production and of its market conditions in the Monarchy. By this time the imports were quadruple - quintruple of the exports - mainly from Austria and Germany - Hungary had imported the most agricultural machines from the USA for a decade (1906-1916) after the turn of the centrury. This period was the intensive phase of capitalisation of the latifundium, which came to a sudden standstill, concerning import and export as well, after World War II. The rat of export had increased. Local agricultural machine production was marked mainly by the Kühne factory of Moson and the HSCS factory of Kispest. The machanization of corn cultivation, though development is obvious between 1871-1935, shows great deviation in categories of land property. Moreover, ploughing with tractors, sowing with horse-drawn vehicles and the threshing with treadmill can be found in the same latifundium. The chart, illustrating the rate of manual, mechanical jobs and that of done with horse-drawn vahicles (Vö.: chart 1.) well describes the development and the degree of motorized machines. In 1935 about 70% of ploughing and 100% of sowing devolved on draught power, 85% of harvesting was done manually and with scythe. Only the mechanization of threshing was beyond 85%. It is not by chance that the manufacturing of steam-thresher was the most significant in the surveyed period. After World War II. Hungary inherited a technically low level agriculture.