124 FOREIGN COMPETITION 



"The time from about 1880 until the outbreak of war in 1914 has for Danish agriculture 

 been a period of extraordinary and prosperous development. 



"Before 1880 Danish agriculture was mainly producer and seller of corn; but when 

 America's surplus production of corn in the eighties reached Europe the corn prices fell 

 rapidly and the corn producing agriculture had to work under very difficult conditions, 

 particularly in Denmark where the chief part of the soil, especially in Jutland but also in 

 parts of the islands, is of so poor a quality that it only yields comparatively small crops. 

 Instead of entering into a from the outset hopeless competition against the transatlantic 

 import of corn a happy fate led Danish agriculture in the quite opposite direction, and taking 

 advantage first of the supplies of cheap corn and later of oil cakes as raw material a produc- 

 tion of refined produces (products) of domestic animals was taken up especially butter 

 and bacon which gradually became the specialty of Danish agriculture. This p^duction 

 spelt a thorough revolution of Danish agricultural economy and opened possibilities as 

 well for rural enterprises to which the soil was better adapted than to corn growing as for 

 the extensive outparceling of land to the small freeholds that have become a social blessing 

 to the whole country . . . 



" When the farmers after 1880 at a continually increasing rate took up the production 

 of butter, bacon, and eggs, as the chief articles of export, this production was from the very 

 start adjusted so as to suit British consumers; and the English market was held mainly in 

 view from the very beginning also at the numerous new-established cooperative factories. 

 Every effort was made to produce the particular quality of butter and bacon required by the 

 great English army of consumers, and simultaneously every endeavor was made to ensure 

 a fixed quality common for the whole country all the year round and to ensure equal ship- 

 ments both summer and winter. The efforts were duly appreciated in England, and the 

 Danish agricultural products gained in the course of time a firm and secure footing on the 

 British Market." 



