194 RURAL DENMARK 



Now let us turn from these general figures and 

 particular instances in Great Britain to those of Den- 

 mark, which for the most part I propose to quote from 

 the Bulletin of the International Institute of Agri- 

 culture, as the statistics it publishes are the latest 

 available. First, I will give a list of the co-opera- 

 tive societies existing in Denmark in 1909. These 

 societies have for the most part arisen spontaneously 

 in that country, and flourish without the assistance of 

 the State. The State, I believe, only subsidises what 

 are called the " control " societies and those for the 

 improvement of live stock. 



Here I may state that the object of these " con- 

 trol" societies, of which 519 exist in Denmark, is to 

 keep an accurate account of the milking capacities 

 of every cow belonging to their members. The first 

 of them was founded in 1895. I n I 97 tne average 

 milk return from the cows supervised by them in 

 Denmark was 5756 lbs. Danish per head, while the 

 average return from cows not supervised was 5 1 20 lbs. 



This gives an advantage of 636 lbs. of milk to the 

 " control" cow, or, say, 23 lbs. of butter annually. In 

 other words, the controlled cows produce nearly an 

 eighth more than the uncontrolled. As I think I have 

 mentioned, these societies send out skilled women who 

 test all cows belonging to their members once a fort- 

 night, and prescribe the exact kinds and proportions 

 of food each is to receive. In 1909, 226,000 cows, 

 or over 17 per cent, of the total number in Denmark 

 were supervised by the " control " societies. To these 

 and to the societies for the improvement of live stock 

 the State granted a subsidy of over 1,000,000 kroner 

 C55>4i6). 



