102 AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



of these articles, have combined to persuade the average 

 Briton that the French and Danish farmers are very 

 clever folk, and that if farmers in this country would only 

 imitate them they would be wise. The said average 

 Briton is also persuaded that the secret of the Frenchman 

 and the Dane's success is co-operation, and consequently 

 that it is co-operation which will save British agriculture. 

 This is very simple and plausible, but it is not the whole 

 of the case. We may put aside the point that the trade 

 in Brittany butter — most of which comes from Normandy 

 — has been built up mainly by the commercial organisa- 

 tion of capitalist middlemen. In Denmark, although there 

 has been some assistance from the State, it is in the main 

 correct to say that the system of production and exporta- 

 tion is based on co-operative principles. One odd fact is 

 the concentration of public interest on butter. The 

 average Briton clamours for English butter most zealously, 

 and when he gets it frequently refuses to eat it. But why 

 this insistence upon butter-making ? Butter is only one 

 of the products which we import. We import, for example, 

 far more meat of all kinds (reckoning by value) than 

 butter, and we make nearly as much butter as we import. 

 It is necessary to protest against the idea which seems 

 prevalent that co-operation means butter-making, or 

 otherwise we cannot make much progress with co-operation. 

 The parrot cry " make butter like the Danes " becomes 

 monotonous to the dairy farmers of this country, who 

 know perfectly well that in many cases they would be 

 foolish to do so. Mr. W. J. Harris, who is a practical 

 agriculturist and also a man of business, put the case 

 clearly from a Devonshire point of view in a recent 

 address. His object was to show " why it does not suit 

 the farmers here to follow the advice of our critics, and 

 lay themselves out for butter-making on a large scale." 

 The passage is so pertinent that I quote it : — 



In the first place we have very little female labour, unless 

 we pay an exorbitant price for it. In the second place, we 



