144 RURAL DENMARK 



three cleanings, delivery, fares of girls from Poland 

 and back 40 kroner (2, 5s.) each, wages and food of 

 the said girls, &c., amounts in all to 6, 10s. per 

 English acre. The produce, averaging on this par- 

 ticular farm from 280 to 300 cwt. (14 to 15 tons), 

 sells at 1 krone 7 ore the cwt., or roughly i, 3s. 6d. 

 the ton. These, at least, were the figures given to me. 



About 100 Polish girls are imported yearly in con- 

 nection with this beet-growing industry by Mr. Tes- 

 dorpf, who employs a special collector to hire, manage, 

 and return them to their homes. They arrive on the 

 estate in April, and are sent back to Poland at the 

 end of November. They are paid by the piece and 

 can earn as much as three shillings a day, in addition 

 to which they receive lodging, 2 lbs. weight of hand- 

 skimmed milk, and 3 \ lbs. of potatoes per diem. With- 

 out the help of these women it would be impossible to 

 deal with the beet crop, which is a fact that must be 

 borne in mind in considering the possibility of estab- 

 lishing this industry in England, where in most dis- 

 tricts the women will no longer work. Only women 

 and boy Poles visit Denmark to do agricultural work ; 

 the men do not come. 



I saw them at their toil in the field, and went up 

 to two of them, for they appear to labour in pairs. 

 They were curious, monkey-like girls, apparently about 

 sixteen years of age, small, but very strong and healthy. 

 One of them I noted had a pretty face. Their cos- 

 tume was of the simplest : a rough brown robe, under 

 which I understand they wear little or nothing ; their 

 brown legs and feet were bare. They pull the beet 

 with the right hand and use the special fork with the 

 left, driving it in with the naked foot. That is, the 

 right-hand girl does this ; but the left-hand girl labour- 



