DENMARK: AN EXPERIMENT STATION 109 



agriculture and politics as well. For as soon as the 

 Dane acquired a farm he began to have many other 

 interests. He protested against the rulership of the 

 landed aristocracy and, being in the majority, he 

 sought a more democratic form of government. 

 Year by year his control of parliament has been 

 strengthened, until to-day the peasant, with the 

 more radical groups from the towns, controls the 

 government of the country. 



And being a home-owning farmer and realizing 

 its advantages, the peasant worked out a construc- 

 tive plan for breaking up the remaining feudal es- 

 tates and for distributing the land among his sons 

 and the workers of the city. An appropriation of 

 $10,000,000 was first made, to be allotted by an 

 agricultural commission to persons who desired to 

 acquire faiTns costing in the neighborhood of $1,200. 

 The applicant needs only provide 10 per cent, of the 

 cost; the state provides 90 per cent. The would- 

 be farmer must be indorsed by other farmers and 

 have had some experience in agriculture. He pays 

 interest at the rate of 3 per cent, upon the loan 

 advanced by the state and is given from thirty to 

 forty years in which to repay the capital loan in 

 annual instalments of from 1 to 2 per cent. The 

 new farmer is aided by his neighbors. The state 

 itself sends agents, who instruct him in planting, in 

 dairying, in the rotation of crops and the care of 

 the soil. Under this law the number of peasant 



