ii4 RURAL DENMARK 



(i, 2s.) a week. I quote this to show what a man in 

 his position with a family of three, including a servant, 

 spends in Denmark. Of course it is more than an 

 English agricultural labourer can afford, perhaps double 

 as much, but it must be remembered that his position 

 is widely different from that of a Danish small-holder. 

 Still I confess that I do not understand how a man 

 like Mr. Schmidt can pay interest on a debt of ^885 

 and still earn enough out of 19 acres of land to 

 enable him to spend 22s. a week upon his household 

 expenses, to say nothing of those of clothing. More- 

 over, in this instance 450 kroner (about ^25) had 

 been expended not long before in the erection of a 

 Dutch barn, and he hoped to build a large manure 

 tank during the following year. Possibly he had other 

 resources that brought him income, only then one 

 might think that he would have used them to reduce 

 his mortgage debt. 



On this point, however, I must again emphasise 

 the fact that owing to the advantageous conditions on 

 which money can be borrowed upon land in Denmark 

 under the credit-union system that I have explained, 

 even rich folk seem to take up loans upon their real 

 property in order to provide themselves with working 

 capital. If this is so in their case, doubtless those who 

 are less well off follow the example. Also, however it 

 may be done, it remains true that all classes of farmers 

 in Denmark seem to carry more stock on and to get 

 more out of the land than we do here. Personally I 

 presume that this circumstance is to be explained by 

 the universal custom of co-operation, since there is 

 nothing in the soil itself, at any rate in most parts 

 of the country, to account for the remarkable success 

 of those by whom it is tilled. 



