THE STATE SMALL-HOLDINGS IN DENMARK 



By Sir Rider Haggard 



(Reprinted from " Rural Denmark and its Lessons." Longmans, 

 Green, & Co., 1911) 



DURING my stay in Copenhagen I was most kindly con- 

 ducted, as the guest of the Department of Agriculture, 

 on a tour of investigation of the State small-holdings in the 

 neighbourhood of Roskilde. We went by motor, as this was 

 practically the only way to reach them, my companions being 

 Mr, Valloe, Mr. Waage, and Mr. Niels Mortensen, himself a 

 successful small-holder, who is the chairman of the Small- 

 holdings Commission in that district. His Excellency the Minis- 

 ter for Agriculture was coming also, but unfortunately a Council 

 of State prevented him. This I much regret, as I should like 

 to have heard more of his views upon the question generally. 



I now propose to give some account of the men I visited, 

 as long experience in this kind of investigation has taught me 

 that the only way to get at the truth as to the prosperity or 

 otherwise of any branch of agriculture anywhere is to examine 

 into it with one's own eyes. Learned treatises and the views 

 of official gentlemen or experts are very well and a great help, 

 but to understand things it is necessary to see the farms or 

 holdings and the actual men who work them. 



Before I went to Denmark I was informed in one or two 

 agricultural papers that my visit was unnecessary, as everything 

 about that country is quite well known already. It may be so, 

 but at any rate it was not known to me, who had read every- 

 thing on the subject upon which I could lay hands. From such 

 reading I gathered, it is true, certain general ideas ; for in- 

 stance, that co-operation was largely practised in Denmark, and 



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