138 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



not conform to the ideas obtaining amongst our authorities at 

 home, but in every case the animals were comfortable, and the 

 premises well kept. Of the people themselves it is impossible 

 to speak too highly. We saw amongst these humble small 

 holders some fine specimens of manhood and womanhood, bear- 

 ing eloquent testimony to that splendid system of education and 

 training which has for some time been placed within the reach 

 of the peasant population. Everywhere we saw evidence of careful 

 management, backed up by prudence and thrift. Indeed some 

 Danes, in anxiety to save, are said to sell the best of everything, 

 and to use secondary or foreign stuff for their own households. The 

 arrangeinents for saving labour, in some cases by using electrical 

 power, the care taken of implements and utensils of husbandry, 

 the trig, clean cottages, each with its neat, well-kept front garden, 

 carefully painted gates and doors, all unmistakably point to the 

 influence of the People's High Schools. 



The Commission were at Askov compelled to admire the 

 initiative of the Dane in the application of electricity to farm 

 work. There we found a generating station with the windmill 

 for the motive power, supplemented by a petrol engine in periods 

 of quiet weather. As the station had a storage capacity of four 

 or five days, the petrol engine was not in use for more than thirty 

 days in the year. By an ingenious arrangement, the invention of 

 Professor La Cour, the variations of speed arising from variations 

 of wind force were regulated and controlled at the dynamo. From 

 this station the village was lighted ; the circular saw and lathes in 

 the carpenter's shop were actuated by the current ; and at least 

 one small farm was on the system. At another farm of about 80 

 acres close by, the owner had a private electric installation, the 

 current also being generated from a windmill. The farm machinery 

 was driven by this power. The farmer's dwelling, a beautiful 

 suite of rooms, was fitted with 25 lamps. Moreover, the electric 

 light was carried throughout the farm buildings, even to the 

 pig-sty. It was worth visiting Denmark to find the wind harnessed 

 and made to generate electricity for the illumination of a pig-sty. 



The interior of a farmer's house on a holding of 10 to 20 acres 

 is certain to contain two little reception rooms, with brightly 

 polished wood floors, a few articles of furniture, among them often 

 a bureau, excellent prints upon the wall, the whole eff'ect being 

 rather formal and precise, but expressing a love of cleanliness and 

 modest comfort, as well as a certain measure of refinement. In 

 every case, whether our visit was, as often happened, a surprise one, 

 or whether prearranged, we met the same kindly courtesy and 

 hospitality. What struck us forcibly was the evident contentment 

 of the people with their lot. We never heard a grumble, or saw 

 any evidence of jealousy or striving between individuals, but rather 

 a harmonious working together towards a common cause. 



Many rural pictures fixed themselves in the memory. The 

 fields showing up fresh in the sunshine after rain ; well-kept 

 hedges and rows of trees ; here a neat holding with white walls 

 and low-thatched roof; there a bigger farm surrounded by its 



