THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS 



During my stay in Copenhagen I was most kindly 

 conducted, as the guest of the Department of Agri- 

 culture, on a tour of investigation of the State small- 

 holdings in the neighbourhood of Roskilde. We 

 went by motor, as this was practically the only way to 

 reach them, my companions being Mr. Vall6e, Mr. 

 Waage, and Mr. Niels Mortensen, himself a successful 

 small-holder, who is the chairman of the Small-holding 

 Commission in that district. His Excellency the 

 Minister for Agriculture was coming also, but un- 

 fortunately a Council of State prevented him. This 

 I much regret, as I should like to have heard more of 

 his views upon the question generally. 



I now propose to give some account of the men 

 I visited, as long experience in this kind of investiga- 

 tion has taught me that the only way to get at the 

 truth as to the prosperity or otherwise of any branch 

 of agriculture anywhere, is to examine into it with 

 one's own eyes. Learned treatises and the views of 

 official gentlemen or experts are very well and a great 

 help, but to understand things it is necessary to see 

 the farms or holdings and the actual men who work 

 them. 



Before I went to Denmark I was informed in one 

 or two agricultural papers that my visit was unneces- 

 sary, as everything about that country is quite well 

 known already. It may be so, but at any rate it was 



not known to me, who had read everything on the 



63 



