ON AGRICULTURE TO DENMARK 



141 



count being in Copenhagen, which, like all great seaports, has its 

 share of the degraded and the criminal. 



Perhaps the best proof that rural life in Denmark rests upon 

 sound economic conditions, that the farmer is prosperous, that the 

 labourer's existence is provided with a hope and a horizon, will be 

 found in the comparative statistic of urban and rural population. 



From these figures we see that the land in 1901 is sustaining 

 nearly 100,000 more people than it did in 1880. The cities are 

 growing, but not at the expense of the country. Moreover, the 

 drainage by emigration to foreign parts is being reduced, only 

 8214 Danes having left Europe in 1903. 



As a last word it may be said that the dominant feature of 

 Danish agriculture is the thoroughness of its organisation. From 

 the local associations supplying the farmer with his requirements 

 and purchasing the produce of the land, to the great trading cor- 

 porations having their headquarters in Copenhagen, a network of 

 Co-operative Societies, all federated together, covers the whole 

 field of agricultural work and provides a solid union for advancing 

 the general welfare of the farming community. 



As the middleman is largely dispensed with, and most of the 

 local buying and selling is done practically for ready money, a great 

 deal of additional profit is secured to the producer, which in other 

 countries is lost. 



By the separation of the commercial from the productive side 

 of agriculture a most useful division of labour is secured. The 

 trading is carried out wholesale by specially skilled men, who are 

 fully occupied, so that the individual farmer is free to devote his 

 whole time and energy to getting as much produce as possible 

 from the land. 



The success of this complicated organisation is greatly facilitated 

 by the reasonableness and trustfulness of character of the people. 

 They have proved themselves eminently teachable, and ready to 

 consider and adopt any new method which offers a good prospect 

 of economy or profit. 



