xviii PKEFACE 



movement; most of the chairmen of committees of co-operative 

 societies, and of the dairy managers have passed through one 

 or more of them. The High School man, with his love of 

 country and his country's history, says Mr. Thornton, will 

 take an intelligent interest in pubhc affairs ; 80 per cent, of 

 the members of the Kigsdag in 1901 had been High School 

 pupils. 



A committee appointed by the Koyal Agricultural Society 

 of Denmark for the propagation of agricultural hterature, 

 wrote in September, 1913, to the Society suggesting that a 

 description of Co-operation in Danish Agriculture was very 

 much needed by those who wanted to study this movement 

 as developed in Denmark. It was needed by those who wished 

 to help to promote the further development within the country 

 and by many in other countries who came to Denmark to 

 study the movement or who wished to transplant it, partly 

 and suitably modified, into their own countries. The K.A.S.D., 

 fully approving of the suggestion, wrote to the Central Co- 

 operative Committee, feeling that the C.C.C, " holding in its 

 hand all the threads of the co-operative movement, had more 

 ample opportunities than any single person or any other 

 institution for producing a first-hand description of the co- 

 operative movement in Denmark." The C.C.C. willingly 

 undertook the task which it had had in contemplation for some 

 time, and prevailed upon Mr. H. Hertel, the secretary of the 

 K.A.S.D., an experienced writer with a wide knowledge of the 

 early history and recent development of Danish agriculture, to 

 write the book with the assistance of leading men in the different 

 co-operative undertakings. The publication of the work has 

 been much delayed by the war, but was completed in September, 

 1917. It is a book of 570 pages. 



I have to thank the C.C.C. and Mr. Hertel for the readiness 

 with which they gave their consent to the preparation of an 

 EngHsh edition of their work. Such an edition seems quite 

 necessary if the book is to meet the want mentioned by the 

 R.A.S.D. I have shortened the book by the omission of 

 considerable portions which, although of real importance and 

 interest to Danish readers, do not concern English readers. 

 On the other hand, some matters readily understood by a 



