46 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



part at least, on separated milk, which the farmers of Denmark 

 have found exceedingly suitable for this purpose. At one time, 

 Danish pigs were sent to Germany, France, and elsewhere. Sub- 

 sequently, proprietary bacon-curing establishments were started in 

 different parts of Denmark, and these competed with Germany for 

 the home-reared pig. The farmer, it must be admitted, favoured the 

 foreigner, not because he had any prejudice in the matter, but 

 solely on account of the fact that the Germans took fat pigs, and 

 the bacon-curers in Denmark, finding that the taste for these was 

 diminishing, preferred the younger and leaner animal. The Dane 

 was of opinion that the profit to him was made between the age 

 of the pig when the bacon-curer wanted it and the age when the 

 less fastidious German took it, and so he had a very natural 

 preference for the German. This continued till 1887, and in that 

 year there were 232,000 pigs exported, to the value of £833,300, 

 and bacon and ham were exported to the value of £666,700. One 

 million and a half yearly was a good return from pig-rearing ; 1887, 

 however, saw the end, meantime, of the keen competition, for swine 

 fever broke out in Denmark, and the German ports were closed in 

 the face of the Danish exporter. The export of swine at once fell 

 from 232,000 to 16,000 per annum. This misfortune to the farmer 

 of Denmark put him in the way of making, if not a fortune, at 

 least a competence. He went on rearing pigs as before, only more 

 of them. In 1888, he had 770,785 ; in 1893, he had 829,131 ; and 

 between 1891 and 1895 the export trade in pork had reached 

 annually the considerable sum of £1,722,200 ; and Germany, which 

 had again thrown open her gates, was receiving live pigs to the 

 tune of £555,600 a year. But in 1896 Germany again prohibited 

 the importation of swine. Denmark, however, had made provision 

 for this. When it occurred in 1887, the Danish farmer started co- 

 operative slaughter-houses and bacon-curing factories all over the 

 country. The factories were floated in the same way as the 

 creameries had been floated. The members agreed to send their 

 pigs to the factories and to become responsible, jointly and sever- 

 ally, for the liabilities. The essence of this method is, that every 

 member is known to every other member. This was possible in 

 the case of a creamery catering for the milk of a limited district. 

 In the case of a slaughter-house and bacon- curing factory, however, 

 which had a much wider area, it was impossible that there should 

 be that personal knowledge which was so essential. To get over 

 this difficulty, the members in a parish agreed to supply a certain 

 number of pigs, and become jointly and severally liable for the sum 

 which the bank was ready to lend to that parish. Slaughter- 

 houses soon sprung up in different parts of the country, and bacon- 

 curing became one of the great trades of Denmark, and to-day 

 most of the trade is in the hands of the co-operators, for, of the fifty 

 slaughter-houses in the country, thirty are now co-operative. In 

 1901 there were 64,800 members of co-operative slaughter-houses, 

 and in 1903 the number had increased to 67,200, and the number 

 of pigs killed had risen from 651,261 in 1901 to 928,850 in 1903. 



