ON AGRICULTURE TO DENMARK 37 



proprietor's farm, the work on which had to be attended to before 

 that on their own holdings, much to the detriment of the hitter. 

 Gradually, however, laws came into operation providing security of 

 tenure and defining the work to be done by the labourer for his 

 master. Systems were also introduced under State supervision 

 for providing money on easy terms to peasants to enable them to 

 become proprietors of their own holdings. Acts were passed by 

 which entailed lands held by State institutions and other public 

 bodies might be sold to the peasants, and as an inducement to the 

 private owner to sell his peasant lands, he was permitted when he 

 had sold nine farms to his tenants to incorporate into his own 

 home farm as much as one -ninth of the total area which he had 

 sold, which he was by an Act of 1769 prohibited from doing. 

 This right, however, expired in 1900. 



The most important Statutes dealing with the question of 

 peasant proprietorsliip are the Act of 1899, by which for five years 

 a yearly sum of £110,000 was to be provided by the State for the 

 purpose of granting loans to agricultural labourers desirous of 

 purchasing a small holding, and the Act of 1904, which is in 

 similar terms, and by which a further sum of £166,666 is to be 

 provided for five years from the expiry of the Act of 1899. Means 

 have thus been put in the hands of any peasant, who has but little 

 capital of his own, of becoming the proprietor of a holding should 

 he so desire. 



To carry out the working of the Act, the country is arranged 

 into eighteen districts, and the money is divided among these 

 districts, chiefly in proportion to the number of applications received 

 from them. Should the number of such applications received in 

 one year exceed the amount of the sum provided under the Act for 

 that year, those who have been unsuccessful shall head the list of 

 applications to be dealt with in the year following. 



In each district a Committee is appointed consisting of three 

 persons, one nominated by the Minister of Agriculture, who acts as 

 chairman, and two by the Commune, one of whom must be a 

 cottager. The duties of the Committee are to receive applications, 

 make the necessary inquiries as to the applicants and holdings, 

 and to assist in the providing of and supervising the allotments. 



In order to obtain the benefits provided for under the Act, an 

 applicant must conform to certain requirements, which are : he 

 must be a Danish subject, be not under twenty-five and not, as a 

 rule, over fifty years of age, nor must he on his own account be able 

 to acquire a holding. He nmst be of good character, sober, in- 

 dustrious, and thrifty, and, for the five years immediately preced- 

 ing his application must have worked as an agricultural labourer. 

 In extent the allotments nmst not in any case be less than 2§ acres 

 nor exceed 10§ acres of average land, or 16 acres should the land 

 be of poor quality. The total cost of each holding, including 

 buildings, stock, implements, furniture, etc., must not exceed 

 £277, except in such districts in which the price of the land is 

 exceptionally high. When the peasant has found suitable land, 

 which the Parish Council must assist him in procuring, should that 



