DENMARK 



1758 



DENMARK 



cattle. Eighty per cent of the area of Denmark 

 is productive; six per. cent is beech-covered 

 forest land. Nearly forty per cent of the 

 population lives directly by agriculture, and as 

 the law forbids the forming of large estates 

 the number of peasant farmers is large. The 

 progressive Danes believe in cooperation, so 

 expensive machinery and improved methods 

 have been installed through the united efforts 

 of the farmers, and the dairying industry has 

 grown to wonderful proportions. Danish but- 

 ter is famous even outside of Denmark; more 

 than $50,000,000 worth of butter and almost 

 $12,000,000 worth of eggs are sent each year 

 to England alone. About 30,000 horses and 

 153,000 heads of cattle are exported yearly. 



Although manufacturing industries are grow- 

 ing, the lack of coal has been a handicap to 

 their development. The principal manufac- 

 tures are furniture, porcelain and wearing 

 apparel. Yet much of the latter is not de- 

 pendent on power produced by fuel, but comes 

 from the knitting needles of the female pop- 

 ulation, from tiny girls to their grandmothers. 

 Many peasants also spin and weave in the 

 old-fashioned way. 



The royal porcelain works at Copenhagen 

 have a large yearly output of gracefully-de- 

 signed pottery. Other manufactures include 

 over 160,000 tons of beet sugar and various 

 kinds of machinery. Denmark is the poorest 

 of European countries in mineral resources, 

 no metallic ores being found; the peat bogs 

 of Northern and Western Jutland furnish the 

 most valuable yield. 



Fishing is an important industry, herring, 

 turbot, salmon, oysters and seals being the 

 most profitable. The yearly value of Den- 

 mark's fisheries is about $5,000,000. 



Transportation, Communication and Com- 

 merce. The internal traffic of the kingdom is 

 handled over 2,390 miles of railway, more than 

 half of which belongs to the state. There are 

 more than 4,200 miles of good roads and 22,500 

 miles of by-ways. Plying back and forth be- 

 tween the islands and the mainland, steamers 

 keep up constant intercourse among the various 

 cities, most of which are located on the coast 

 or on navigable waters. There are over 1,000 

 post offices, nearly 9,000 miles of telegraph 

 wires and about 350,000 miles of telephone 

 wires. 



The commerce of Denmark and its colonies, 

 conducted chiefly with Great Britain, Ger- 

 many, United States, Sweden, Norway and 

 Russia, is handled by over 32,000 vessels. The 



chief articles of export are animal and dairy 

 products, and the imports include cereals, cot- 

 ton, iron and textiles. 



Education. Provisions for public elementary 

 education were made in the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century and in 1814 school attend- 

 ance for children between the ages of seven and 

 fourteen was made compulsory. The per- 

 centage of uneducated people is very low. In 

 over 3,500 public elementary schools and over 

 150 private schools almost 450,000 children are 

 taught every year. For higher education, be- 

 sides the University of Copenhagen, which is 

 for both men and women, there are high 

 schools, veterinary, agricultural and art schools, 

 as well as a college of pharmacy and a Poly- 

 technic Institution. 



Literature and Art. The earliest literary 

 contributions from Denmark were in Latin, 

 the oldest books dating back to the second 

 half of the twelfth century. The first really 

 literary writings were ballads about heroes, 

 love and historical events, which for centuries 

 had been told and retold before being placed 

 in writing. 



The first Danish printing press was set up in 

 1490, and in 1550 Christian Pedersen printed a 

 translation of the Bible in Danish, thereby 

 doing for the Danish language what Luther did 

 for the German. Although Hans Christian 

 Andersen (1805-1875) is the only Danish writer 

 who has gained a world-wide reputation, a 

 number of others have contributed works whose 

 beauty and strength are acknowledged by 

 those who read and understand the language. 

 Ludwig Holberg (1684-1754) is considered the 

 founder of Danish literature and of the Danish 

 drama. Johannes Ewald (1743-17-81) is Den- 

 mark's greatest lyric poet, and the influence 

 of the works of the poet and dramatist Adam 

 Oehlenschlager (1779-1850) is felt to this day. 

 Georg Brandes (1842- ), critic and literary 

 historian, has introduced into Danish thought 

 and letters more modern European ideals and 

 tendencies than any other man. Among other 

 writers of the nineteenth century are Herman 

 Bang (born 1858) and Edward Brandes (born 

 1847), the dramatist brother of Georg Brandes. 

 The greatest sculptor of Denmark was Bertel 

 Thorwaldsen, or Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), the 

 results of whose genius are displayed in the 

 Thorwaldsen Museum at Copenhagen. Among 

 later artists are the painters Marstrand, Carl 

 Block and Otto Bache. Hartmann, Code and 

 Heiss are the chief Danish composers of music. 

 Cities. The chief cities of Denmark, with 



