DENMARK: AN EXPERIMENT STATION 107 



and agricultural economics of all kinds. Round 

 about the schools are experimental farms. The stu- 

 dent learns about agriculture and the conduct of the 

 thousands of co-operative societies which are to be 

 found all over Denmark. He acquires a love for 

 farming and a scientific appreciation of its possibil- 

 ities and its joys. About 10,000 pupils attend these 

 schools every year. 



The Danish fanner is the most intelligent farmer 

 in the world. And he has a culture of his own, 

 gained from the emphasis which has been put upon 

 farming by the nation. For not only education 

 but legislation and the politics of the state are con- 

 centrated on agriculture as the predominant inter- 

 est of the people. And as a result of education, a 

 widely read press, and endless political organizations 

 the famier has become the ruling class in the state. 

 He dominates parliament. Members of the min- 

 istry are chosen almost exclusively from among the 

 peasants, and the railroads, taxation, and social 

 legislation are directed to the intelligent upbuild- 

 ing of agriculture. 



And back of everything else, and in a sense ex- 

 plaining it, is the relation of the people to the land. 

 Fifty years ago Denmark was divided into great 

 estates as still is a great part of Europe. The 

 feudal system had survived. The great landown- 

 ers, the titled nobility of the country, ruled parlia- 

 ment in their own interests. They shifted the taxes 



