COMING TO HIS OWN? 5 



upon the broad back of German farm women) made 

 Germany all but self-sustaining at the time she chose 

 war for her portion. Her encouragement of small 

 farming and large families, her methods of " keeping 

 boys on the farm," her care of public health, added to 

 her system of military training, gave her the huge 

 armies that she flung into Belgium and France, into 

 Russia and the Balkans. Thus Germany, pursuing for 

 two generations a consistent agricultural policy, was en- 

 abled, on a soil originally not especially rich and from 

 an area smaller than that of the state of Texas, to pro- 

 vide perhaps nine-tenths of the food for her seventy 

 millions of people. Her attitude toward agriculture, 

 it may be said in passing, won for her militaristic policy 

 the support of the agricultural classes. Thus, while 

 we detest the spirit and method of the Germany that is 

 responsible for the horrible carnage of the world war, 

 we find in that country that the soil tiller came to a place 

 of comparative influence and power. 



Denmark, in 1866, found herself deprived of the 

 richest part of her soil by the war with Germany. She 

 had few manufactures and has not many to-day. She 

 had little capital but grit, a vision of a complete agri- 

 culture and wonderful leadership. In half a century 

 she developed probably the most fully organized and 

 generally prosperous agriculture of any political area 

 in the world. She chose a few products on which to 

 specialize, those to which she was best adapted and 

 for which a market could be found. Danish butter, 

 Danish bacon, and Danish eggs made their way against 

 all competitors and caused the Danish farmer to be- 

 come a factor not only at home but in the national 

 economy of other countries. 



For decades and even centuries Ireland was the land 



