i68 AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL 



curing factories, the success of which has been, if 

 possible, even more rapid,'* There were in 1902 

 twenty-seven such co-operative factories, dealing with 

 777,232 pigs of the total value of ^^2, 500,000. The 

 significance of these figures will be realized when 

 it is remembered that the population of Denmark is 

 2,200,000 — that is to say, not more than the population 

 of two good-sized Indian districts. Other branches 

 of co-operative agriculture which have been equally 

 successful in Denmark are connected with the egg 

 industry, with bee-keeping and the purchase of agri- 

 cultural machinery, manures, and feeding-stuffs. So 

 numerous and various are the co-operative societies 

 in Denmark that * it is no unusual occurrence for a 

 Danish farmer to belong to ten local co-operative 

 societies besides other bodies formed for the advance- 

 ment of the agricultural interests of the country.' 



A network of co-operative agricultural societies is 

 spreading over almost every country of Europe, t and 

 by association the small farmers are providing them- 

 selves with the use of capital which would be far 

 beyond the means of any of them individually. The 

 consequence has been to give an enormous impetus 

 to agriculture. The case of Belgium may be regarded 

 as typical. ' It was not until about the year 1890 that 

 Belgium began seriously to bestir herself with the 

 view of affecting the improvement, or rather the recon- 

 struction, of her agricultural position. Yet the claim 

 is made for her that, relatively to her size, more associa- 

 tions have been established in Belgium in the interests 

 of agriculture than in any other country in Europe ; 



* ' The Organization of Agriculture,' by E. A. Pratt : a fascinating 

 work which should be read by every Indian student, for it contains 

 invakiable lessons of what can be done by self-help to improve an 

 industry which is in most countries conducted, as in India, by men 

 with small holdings. 



f England, in spite of the efforts of the Agricultural Organization 

 Society (Dacre House, Victoria Street, London, S.W.), still lags in 

 this respect behind the continent of Europe. 



