RURAL LIFE 



In the competition engaged in by Continental nations for British 

 trade it is not unusual to attribute to them the advantages of 

 cheap labour and long hours, associated with a low condition of the 

 people. This, however, is an illusion as far as Denmark is con- 

 cerned. The people show no signs of want. Indeed, everywhere 

 we were struck with the air of prosperity and contentment. The 

 people, frugal and thrifty in habit, live simple but happy lives. 

 All are neatly although inexpensively dressed, and behave with 

 great decorum. The Danes, although constant, .careful and 

 systematic at their work, do not seem to work hard. There 

 was, as far as we could judge, an entire absence of the push and 

 strenuous labour so apparent about a well-regulated Scotch farm. 

 The farm hands, where hired labour is required, are either married 

 and live on the farm in comfortable cottages which are well kept, 

 or unmarried and lodged and fed in the fann house. The food 

 provided is pretty much the same at each place, consisting of a 

 breakfast at 5.30 of porridge made of oat and barley meal, served 

 with milk, followed by a cup of coffee and rye bread. About mid- 

 forenoon, sandwiches and coffee or sometimes home-brewed beer 

 are provided. At twelve, dinner, generally consisting of soup, 

 meat and potatoes is served. Work is resumed at two o'clock. 

 Sandwiches are again served in the afternoon, and supper, con- 

 sisting of porridge, followed by coffee or sometimes tea, is served 

 about seven o'clock. The working day in the fields varies from 

 nine to ten and a-half hours. Engagements are for six months, 

 and young men get, with bed and board, £14 to £18 per annum. 

 Women similarly receive from £8 to £10, while married men get 

 from £23 to £34 per year with a cottage and various small allow- 

 ances. Cattlemen, who milk three times a day, and have a full day's 

 work on Sunday, earn £3 to £5 more ; and when married men's wives 

 milk three times a day, they earn 8d. or 9d. a day. But although 

 some idea of the rate of wages and the conditions of labour can 

 be gathered from this information, it nmst be remembered, owing 

 to the system of land tenure and the very large proportion of small 

 farms, that there is far less hired labour than in this country. It is 

 the aim of the Danish peasant to become a small holder, and he is 

 wonderfully successful in realising his ambition, with the result that 

 the large farmers are now beginning to have labour difficulties, as 

 the peasant proprietor, once he has got his holding, although it 

 may consist of not more than half-a-dozen acres, contrives by 

 intensive cultivation, cow-keeping and thriftily doing all his own 

 labour, including repairs of buildings, harness and the like, to 



