108 The Bulletin, 



prodiiotiou. The cow tester may save the farmer many a dolhir in this way, 

 by advising the right kind of feed and feeding it to the right Ivind of cow, 

 preventing the overfeeding of a cow that has not the dairy capacity, and at 

 the same time feeding the dairy cow enough to develop her capacity. 



That is one of the great opportunities for the cow tester to help the farmer, 

 if he works intelligently to get the best results. He would have a table for 

 each cow, giving the amount of milk and butter-fat she produces, and the 

 amount of grain she ought to have to keep up her yield. On many dairy 

 farms all the cows are fed alike. The good cows do not get enough and the 

 poor ones get too much. So the cow tester can help the farmer save feed. 



The chairman has asked me to say a few words about cooperation in 

 Denmark. The Danish farmer, previous to 1S48, was a serf. He did not 

 have the right to move from his community into the next community, but 

 was obliged to stay in his own community. I presume that in days gone by, 

 when they had nobility, they passed a law and fixed it so that the laborer 

 could not move from one place to another. They wanted to keep him in one 

 place so that they could have the use of him. The Danish farmer was a 

 peasant farmer, renting the laud ; and the farming class was about the lowest 

 class in the country. But it came to the point where he began to bestir him- 

 self, began to be educated. They would not admit him to the ct)mmon schools, 

 so the farmers organized schools of their own, coiiporative schools, where they 

 could go and receive instruction on their particular work, on history, on 

 arithmetic, and all school subjects. In the course of a few years they had 

 become more educated and l)egau to see the injustice of things and to feel 

 more independent. Finally they organized and threw off that restriction 

 about not moving from place to place, and that made them feel still more 

 independent. Still there wei-e wonderful odds against them — the nobility, 

 the industries, the capital, even the church. But while they had no friends, 

 they found that, if one man could not get ahead, still by organizing, by 

 cooperation, in small communities of 20. 80, 50, or 100, they could make an 

 impression on the Government, lofal or State, and could get what they wished. 

 So there sprang up in Denmark little coiiperativc societies, and these societies 

 established themselves as stores, as building clubs, as cow-testing associations, 

 as creameries, as bull clubs, as loan associations. Everything in Denmark 

 to-day is cooperative. 



In 1870 the Danish nation was practically bankrupt. Money for the Danish 

 nation cost 12 per cent on the English bourse in 1870. Last year Denmark 

 was the second richest nation in the world. The richest nation is England, 

 with a per capita wealth of $15.80; next Denmark, with $15.34; next France, 

 with $15; then this country, with pretty close to $15. This is the fourth nation 

 in Iter capita wealth; but Denmark is the second in wealth, in spite of being 

 bankrui)t forty years ago. 



The reason Denmark has come to the front is the peasant farmer, who less 

 than one hundred years ago was a serf. He has come to the front by coopera- 

 tion, in spite of great odds. The otids really bring out the best in a man. If 

 we have smooth sailing right along we do not develop into the right sort of 

 men. Rich men's sons have smooth sailing all the way, and they do not 

 generally amount to much. The Danish peasant farmer has had great odds 

 against him, but he learned to fight, got into the habit, and won out at last. 



They have over there the cooperative creamery, something like 1,200 

 creameries in a territory about half as large as the State of North Carolina. 

 The eggs are marketed in a cooperative way, and if any one delivers a bad egg 

 he is fined $5. The birthday is marked on every egg, and the name of the 

 person delivering it. If the English find any bad eggs, they write back to the 

 egg club, and the member who delivered the bad egg is fined. The eggs are 

 guaranteed, and they bring more on the English market than any other eggs. 



It is the same way with bacon. England is the market for Danish butter, 

 eggs, and bacon. There are 38 or 40 cooperative packing plants in Denmark 

 where the hogs are killed and made ready for the market. They find a 

 ready sale, and the money comes back in a few days. They started in with 

 one packing plant ; now they have close to 40. 



They have cooperative stores, they buy fertilizers in a cooperative way, and 

 buy seed that way. Everything in Denmark is cooperative; cooperation has 



