Land Problems and National Welfare 



Denmark is a small country, and after her 

 war with Germany she had either to organise 

 or go to pieces. Without the incentive of war 

 there is no reason why we should not or- 

 ganise our agriculture, county by county, 

 developing the resources of each county to its 

 fullest extent. 



But we must remember that the Danish land- 

 owners recognised in time that their old system 

 of land tenure, which sixty years ago much 

 resembled ours, did not meet the requirements 

 of the times. So they set about remodelling 

 it, and actively assisted every legislative effort 

 of the Government. They sold their farms to 

 the sitting tenants, often going so far as to accept 

 a mortgage in part payment, a plan which has 

 apparently been successful, for 1 met no land- 

 owner who complained of bad debts. In this 

 way the Danish landowners did their share in 

 developing Danish agriculture and making it 

 the splendid organised industry that so greatly 

 impresses the visitor to that country to-day. 



In England there are still many landowners 

 wealthy enough to disregard the consideration 

 of making a profit out of their land, and so the 

 incentive is wanting to put their estates on the 

 best economic basis; but a still larger number of 

 men lack the means to put in hand the economic 

 re-organisation of their estates, unless they have 

 the courage to devise drastic reform and to face 



14 



