64 RURAL DENMARK 



subject upon which I could lay hands. From such 

 reading I gathered, it is true, certain general ideas ; 

 for instance, that co-operation was largely practised in 

 Denmark, and that there were many small-holders in 

 the country where agriculture was strangely pros- 

 perous. But in the light of the experience that I 

 gained in the course of my investigations on the spot, 

 I can say honestly that until these were made I under- 

 stood little of the local conditions. Further, I had 

 no idea of the great lessons that are to be learned 

 from those conditions, which have, as a matter of 

 fact, shown me the answers to problems that I have 

 studied for years without being able to be sure of their 

 solution. 



On these grounds, then, I determined that I would 

 not leave the country until I had personally interviewed 

 some of these State small-holders ; had seen their land 

 and heard their stories from their own lips. Here I 

 may add that the men I visited on this particular 

 journey, as Mr. Mortensen assured me in answer to my 

 specific questions, were neither the worst nor the best 

 of the State small-holders in that part of Denmark. 

 They were, he said, a fair sample, selected for the 

 most part because their holdings lay near the road 

 and were therefore easy of access. 



The first holder whom I saw, a hard, sturdy-looking 

 man of about fifty, was Mr. Ole Larsen of Sall6v, by 

 Gadstrup, who owns five tondeland, that is about six 

 acres and a half, which he bought in 1905 with the aid 

 of a State loan of 4000 kroner (or ,221, 13s. 4d.), at a 

 cost of 500 kroner (or about 2*], 10s.) per tondeland, 

 say 25 the acre. He informed me that when he 

 entered on the holding he possessed a capital of 1100 

 kroner (about ^61), which he had saved as an agri- 



