11,451 harrows
98,689 scythes
684,420 sickles
11,980 harvesting machines
For the purpose of organizing the production of scythes in the most efficient manner possible the agricultural machine section created a special Scythes Bureau, which is investigating this line of production, ascertaining the possible amount of productivity if manufactured in the machine shop manner or according to the home industry method, both in the central provinces and in the Ural region. The bureau has laid down a plan for radical change in the nature of production by means of splitting it into two fundamental processes: the metallurgical—the rolling of steel of worked out profile; and the finishing process in the mills and shops. For the purpose of rolling the metal it has been proposed to utilize the Vyxunsk mill, which has been requested to include in its program the rolling of steel for the production of scythes.
In the field of home industry production on a small scale the committee on metal products and apparatus of the Metal Department is working in close cooperation with other government institutions, having organized agencies in Pavlovsk, Tula, Murom, and Vladimir, for the purpose of financing artisans and distributing raw material among them on the one condition that they turn in their product to the government stores for organized distribution. The results of this work can be judged by the following approximate data on the cost of manufactured products, the stock on hand from previous year returned to the factories and enterprises of the Murom, Pavlovsk, Tula region, as well as to the group of cast iron foundries of the provinces of Kaluga and Ryazan.
The Murom district, manufacturing cutlery and to some extent also instruments, has turned out, during the period following the organization of the government agency, 15 million roubles’ worth of goods, while the total worth of it, including remnants returned, amounts to 25 million roubles; the Pavlovsk district engaged in the manufacture of cutlery, locks and instruments,—among others, surgical instruments—has produced since October 1st, 1918, 70 million roubles’ worth of merchandise; including the remnants, this would aggregate to 100 million roubles. The Tula district (hardware, locks, stove accessories, samovars, hunters’ rifles), has produced since May 1919, 30 million roubles’ worth of goods, which, including the remnants, amount to 60 million roubles. The cast-iron foundries of the Kaluga and Ryazan districts (manufacturing cast-iron utensils, stove accessories and various other castings) have produced since October 1st, 1918, 50 million roubles’ worth of merchandise, including the remnants.
Thus, the total amount of goods produced amounts to 165 million roubles,—or to 235 million roubles, if the value of the remnants is added,—taking 40 as the co-efficient of its value according to peace-time prices.
The central administration could not take upon itself the direct organization of home industries to the full extent. Its best assistants in this matter are the local institutions of national economy—the provincial and district metal committees, which have been brought in close contact with the central administration by the conventions of the representatives of the district and provincial metal committees. These conventions were being called at regular intervals for the purpose of working out and ratifying their programs concerning production and distribution of metals, and financial questions.
We must also mention the fact that all the measures in the domain of the metal industry are being carried out with the close and immediate cooperation of the workers’ producing association—the union of metal workers.