26 ORGANIZATION IN DENMARK 



the manufacture of butter, as related by Mr. 

 Rudolf Schou, in his book Om Landbrugct i 

 Denmark, was only of secondary importance, 

 the cows being inferior, the yield of milk small, 

 and the butter, made in ill-equipped dairies, very 

 indifferent in quality. In 1860 Professor T. R. 

 Segelcke began his efforts to place the industry 

 on a rational and scientific basis ; but close upon 

 this followed the disastrous war with Prussia 

 and Austria, as the result of which Denmark 

 lost two of the fairest and most fertile of her 

 provinces, and was thus reduced to the narrow 

 limits of the islands and Jutland. Even of this 

 area a substantial proportion consisted of moor, 

 marsh, and dune land, fit, apparently, for nothing 

 but for the wind and the storms to blow over. 

 On the top of all this came the fall in the price 

 of corn, which had hitherto been the staple pro- 

 duct of Denmark, but the cultivation of which 

 was found to be no longer remunerative. 



Comparing the position of Denmark and of 

 Great Britain respectively in the era of agricul- 

 tural depression brought about at this period, it 

 is evident from the circumstances narrated above 

 that the former country found herself in much 

 worse circumstances than the latter ; but this 

 very fact, perhaps, had a good deal to do with 

 the greater degree of vigour shown by the Dan- 



