THE ECONOMIC POSITION OF 

 DANISH AGRICULTURE 



What is the real position of agriculture in Den- 

 mark ? Or to put the question in another way, What 

 is the position of Denmark economically, since that 

 land depends upon its agriculture? In her case 

 agriculture is not a side issue or a plaything ; it is 

 the breath of her nostrils. If in Denmark it were 

 reduced to the relative position which it holds in the 

 national life of Great Britain, for all practical pur- 

 poses she would die. Therefore to her, at any rate, 

 the real answer to the query is of vital importance. 

 Before such an answer is attempted, let us briefly 

 consider the underlying facts. 



Denmark is a very small country, with an area 

 of under io, 000,000 acres I believe less than half 

 that of Scotland and a population of a little over 

 2,590,000, or about half that of London. Of this 

 population one moiety lives entirely by agriculture, 

 while of the remaining half a large proportion, I can- 

 not say how large, lives indirectly out of the land 

 or on those by whom it is cultivated. x 



This land, so far as I am a judge, is, I should 

 say, after travelling through it from the north to the 

 south, on the whole indifferent in quality. 



Indeed for great blocks of it an English tenant- 

 farmer would scarcely pay a rent of 7s. 6d. an acre. 

 Much of what the thrifty Danish agriculturist points 



out with pride as good soil we should call poor, sand- 



173 



