48 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



Federation of Bacon Factories 



The co-operative bacon factories of Denmark are also federated. 

 The headquarters are at Copenhagen, and the federation is com- 

 posed of the managers and representatives of all the co-operative 

 slaughteries in the country. The Chairman is furnished every week 

 with returns of the business transacted at the co-operative factories, 

 showing details of the cost of production, and the market returns 

 for bacon sold. This information is embodied in a private circular 

 which he sends to all the factories. The federation is a stimulus 

 and an incentive to better work, and it tends towards the more 

 successful development of the industry. 



Poultry Keeping 



Poultry keeping is a comparatively neglected department of farm 

 work in Scotland, but that is not so in Denmark. It is only less im- 

 portant there than the butter and bacon trade, while its organisation 

 on the co-operative basis is as complete and as effective to-day as the 

 organisation of any other department of Danish agriculture. The 

 headquarters of the egg trade are at Copenhagen, where the Danish 

 Co-operative Egg Export Association carries on its work. But 

 there are eight branches in other towns of Denmark. There are 

 500 Societies affiliated to the Central Society in Copenhagen, with 

 a membership of 30,000. If the operations carried on in the egg 

 trade by the different bacon-curing establishments are taken into 

 account, there are 65,000 co-operators altogether, and in 1903 

 they exported £436,000 worth of eggs. 



Societies for Improvement and Insurance of Stock 



Co-operation in Denmark, however, did not stop when it had 

 encompassed the dairy, bacon, and egg trades of the country. 

 There are co-operative societies for almost everything — for the 

 improvement of the breed of horses, cattle, pigs and poultry, and 

 for the insurance of live stock. There are four co-operative 

 societies for the insurance of stallions alone, and more than a 

 dozen for the insurance of live stock generally, all working on the 

 principle that the members are jointly and severally liable for all 

 losses by accident or death. There are sixty bee-keepers' societies 

 with a membership of 5000. There are societies for the purchase 

 and distribution of seeds, manures, and agricultural machinery. 

 And all these societies are managed by separate bodies, though 

 oftentimes composed of the same men, with the result that a 

 farmer may be a member of half-a-dozen or more. But they have 

 a working arrangement by which the debts due by a farmer to one 

 society may be paid by a balance standing at his credit in another. 

 This kind of settlement, however, does not seem to be much 

 resorted to. The societies pay cash, or arrange monthly settle- 

 ments, and the farmer, as a rule, pays cash too. The different 



