FARMING IN DENMARK 185 



shape of mortgages with which Danish agriculture is 

 burdened, as a result of the co-operative system." 



After expressing an opinion that the said co- 

 operative system, "well-used," will yet be a help 

 and an " uplifting power " to the said agriculture, 

 Jeremiah ends with the following oracular outburst : 

 ui High-schools, politics, religious parties, make people 

 imagine themselves refined ! But half-knowledge is 

 worse than none at all." 



This letter is interesting in its way. Still, it 

 invites certain criticisms. First of all, I gather from 

 internal evidence that the writer is no longer young. 

 He is our familiar friend, laudator temporis acti, one 

 who praises bygone things. Also, as the heading on 

 his paper shows, he deals in hay, and therefore may 

 have a not unnatural prejudice against artificial cattle- 

 foods, which doubtless compete with hay. Further 

 he is, I gather, an independent merchant who can 

 scarcely be expected to look upon co-operative 

 societies with a favouring eye. So it comes about 

 that circumstances have exactly shaped him to the cut 

 of Jeremiah's cloak. For this he is not to be blamed, 

 but it does, to my mind, discount the value of his 

 indictment. 



Moreover, so far as my opportunities of observa- 

 tion went, I saw nothing to indicate that the Danish 

 cows were eating more than they could digest ; and if 

 any of them were to do so, I am quite certain that the 

 wonderful " control-lady " who has charge of their 

 health would put the matter right at once. For the 

 sake of her professional reputation and for the honour 

 of the particular college in which she had been trained, 

 never would she allow any bovine milk-machine under 



