206 RURAL DENMARK 



Further, he or his servant will generally require re- 

 freshment before returning home, for which he must 



Pay- 

 Again, the market may prove overstocked or buyers 



may be lacking, in which case the unsold beast must 



again be brought to it in the following week. Or it may 



have suffered on the journey and fetch a much smaller 



sum than its real value, which the vendor makes up his 



mind to accept rather than take it home. Or possibly 



he may find that he is the victim of a " knock-out." 



Who then is the better off? The Danish farmer 

 with his co-operative factory, or the British farmer with 

 his dealer, his butcher, or his market ? 



In the case of milk it is the same story. Either 

 the producer must peddle it out locally, whole, or at 

 considerable trouble in the form of butter, or he must 

 send it by rail to a distributing firm of middlemen, 

 who are naturally careful that they get a good share of 

 such profits as may attach to its production and sale. 

 Further, unless he makes butter, a most laborious and 

 uncertain business when carried out on a small scale, 

 the British producer does not get the advantage of the 

 return of his skim and butter milk at a very low figure 

 wherewith to feed his pigs or calves. On the other 

 hand, notwithstanding these drawbacks, he realises 

 a somewhat higher price for his milk, even after the 

 payment of carriage. 



Thus when the average price of Danish butter 

 (what is called the "butter quotation") is is. per lb., 

 I believe that the great Trifolium dairy which I have 

 described pays its members about 6Jd per gallon for 

 fresh milk. Now personally I send milk to London 

 to the value of about ^iooo a year, for which I receive 

 an average price of is. 5d. per barn gallon, that is for 



