MEETING A CRISIS 185 



would naturally not have consented, and at first 

 it looked to the Finnish farmers as if ruin stared 

 them in the face. 



But they were men of resource, and they 

 determined that if they could not get a living 

 in one direction they would in another. They 

 saw that Denmark was opening up an important 

 trade with great Britain in regard to dairy pro- 

 ducts, and from their point of view there was 

 no reason why they should not do the same. 

 So they resolved not to attempt to struggle 

 against Russian competition, but to abandon the 

 growing of rye for themselves, and turn their 

 attention, rather, to the feeding of cattle and 

 the creation of an export trade in butter. 



In order to carry out this programme the 

 more effectually, some of the most capable of 

 the Finnish farmers went to Denmark to make 

 an exhaustive study of Danish methods, and a 

 number of Danes were engaged to go to Finland 

 and organize creameries there on the model of 

 those existing in their own country. At first 

 the creameries so established were mainly pro- 

 prietary ones ; but the pecuniary advantages of 

 combination soon began to be realized, and at 

 the present moment the proprietary dairies in 

 Finland are outnumbered by the co-operative. 

 Then to assist the farmers in opening up a 



