The Middle Peasants

The landholdings of the middle peasants (középparaszt) varied between 5 and 15 hectares, an area that can be cultivated by a family workforce, and so at most they hired shared labourers only for harvesting, which needed to be done in a hurry. They could handle the work only if the entire family laboured from dawn to dusk. But even in this way if two years of poor harvest followed one another, it was very difficult for them to extricate themselves from debt.

22. Middle peasant man
Jászalsószentgyörgy, Szolnok County

Their property, cultivated with the traditional tools and methods, generally yielded less than that of the rich peasants. Because they rarely {78.} had money to buy tools we can find in their circle commonly owned implements and machines, which they bought and used together. A few of the fortunate ones struggled up into the rich peasantry, but very frequently they slid down into the stratum beneath them.

The middle peasants hired day labourers rarely and would not themselves accept such jobs. They were therefore the most inward-turning stratum of the peasantry. They clung to tradition in furnishing their houses and in both eating and clothing themselves. Just like the rich peasants, they too strove to educate their children, and their sons’ success as teacher or priest meant for them the first step upward.