184 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



not enlightened then as now, and so long as the needs of the 

 body were met he was satisfied. It was gratifying to learn 

 that England was in advance of any country in the world 

 in the matter of agricultural conditions, and the workers' 

 representatives were to be congratulated on this position. 



The last paper read before the Club was the only one 

 which professed to deal explicitly with another country. 

 This dealt with " Rural Life in Denmark," and was read by 

 Mr. Nugent Harris. That part of it which described the 

 Danish system of rural education has already been referred 

 to. 1 The paper was embellished by a number of lantern 

 slides, showing various scenes illustrative of the diverse 

 activities of Danish Agriculture and rural life. Mr. Harris 

 insisted, however, that though there were varied departments 

 of enterprise reclamation, afforestation, housing, dairying, 

 rural industries, etc. they were all inter-dependent and 

 that the story of Denmark's progress must be studied as a 

 whole. It was necessary to consider : 



1. How the co-operative movement was not started by the 

 philanthropically disposed, but how it grew up locally, gradually, 

 among the peasants in the villages, with its roots deep in the 

 feeling of solidarity, and a sense of the benefits of mutual help 

 among the peasants, which can be traced back to remote cen- 

 turies. Therefore, no date can be given as in other European 

 countries as to when it began. 



2. How the Danish system of Agriculture was changed from 

 corn production to dairying, with far-reaching effects, while 

 the English farmer stuck to meat production. Events prove 

 that the Danish choice was a right one, because dairy farming 

 produces more food per acre of ground than meat production, 

 and it allows full scope for, indeed, as Dr. Russell of Rothamsted 

 has stated necessitates, those co-operative methods of business 

 and production which have since dominated Danish Agriculture. 

 The Dane Segelcke who played a prominent part in bringing 

 about the change, it is interesting to note, first spent a year at 

 Rothamsted, and then went straight to Denmark to take up 

 his work. The striking testimony to the wisdom of the Danish 

 choice came in the eighties and nineties, when Europe was flooded 

 with cheap agricultural produce. Wheat fell to nearly half 

 the price it had commanded in the sixties. English Agriculture 

 suffered a terrible set-back, and did not begin to recover until 



1 Chapter VII. 



