276 RURAL DENMARK 



Thus things stand, and, after all, every community 

 has a right to choose its own path to success or failure. 

 So far as the land is concerned we seem to have 

 chosen ours ; and if so, what more is there to be 

 said ? We might change our system if we wished. 

 The will is lacking, not the way. Perhaps, after all, 

 this feudal system of landlords who do not farm their 

 estates but let them out to others is that which suits 

 us best. Perhaps, too, I am wrong in my conviction 

 that it would be to the great benefit of the Country, 

 and, for reasons that I have given, even of the Empire, 

 that British land, a very limited commodity after all, 

 should be popularised like Consols. 



Only one consolation remains to such of us as may 

 think our policy unwise, or at any rate to this writer. 

 Were we to take another course which would enable 

 British farmers to adopt and grow rich on the Danish 

 methods of ownership and co-operation, we could with 

 ease or so he holds without lessening our present 

 agricultural output, produce in addition to it every 

 pound of butter, every side of bacon, and every egg 

 that the Danes now deliver on our shores yes, and 

 twice as much. 



But if this happened, that intelligent, industrious, 

 and charming people might lose their best, if not their 

 only market. 



