POSITION OF DANISH AGRICULTURE 177 



indicates. Obviously also they dress well and can 

 afford to travel a great deal on the railways. Further, 

 those whom I saw, and I think that I talked with 

 representatives of most classes of land-holders in 

 Denmark, not confining myself to men who owned 

 fine farms, almost without exception told me that 

 they were satisfied with their lot and looked to the 

 future without fear. This evidence in its sum without 

 doubt suggests prosperity. I may add that in Den- 

 mark there is a remarkable absence of the usual evi- 

 dences of destitution. Thus during all my journeyings 

 there I saw but one beggar a very half-hearted 

 member of his tribe, whom I met in the less fashion- 

 able quarter of Copenhagen. The roads, too, so far 

 as I observed, were quite free from tramps. Also, 

 although spirits can be bought for about sixpence a 

 bottle, there is practically no visible drunkenness, 

 except occasionally among foreign sailors at the ports. 



On the other side of the account, however, must 

 be set the fact that these freeholders for I believe that 

 over 90 per cent, of the Danish farmers own the land 

 they work are considerably mortgaged. Probably it 

 would not be too much to say that on an average they 

 have borrowed up to half the value of their estates, 

 which, if my memory serves me, is almost the limit to 

 which the Credit Unions will advance. (I am not 

 speaking here of the State small-holders, whose case 

 must be treated separately.) As I have remarked, 

 most Danish landowners, rich or poor, seem to obtain 

 working capital on the security of their land, en- 

 couraged thereto doubtless by the comparatively cheap 

 rate at which such loans can be raised. 



I have no information as to the extent to which 

 real property is mortgaged in Great Britain, and doubt 



M 



