CO-OPERATIVE SLAUGHTER-HOUSES 



BACON FACTORIES 



Only five years had passed since the building of the first 

 cooperative dairy in 1882 when the co-operative movement 

 took a new step forward, which proved to be the beginning 

 of a very important development. The first co-operative 

 bacon factory was opened in 1887. 



Pig breeding was not a very important branch of Danish 

 agriculture during the first half of the nineteenth century. 

 In June, 1837, the total pig population numbered only 235,000 

 animals, and their quality was very indifferent. When dairy 

 farming became general the skim milk, buttermilk, and whey 

 from the dairies enabled farmers to keep more pigs, and the 

 number of these increased. From 1837 to 1881, i.e. in the 

 course of 44 years, the number of pigs rose from 235,000 to 

 527,000 ; and during the following 7 years there was a further 

 and very much more rapid increase of 243,000 to 771,000.^ 

 That was the period of the beginning of the co-operative dairies, 

 and with their development came further increases in the 

 number of pigs. In the fifties the export from Denmark, 

 exclusive of the Duchies, amounted to a few thousand pigs 

 only, and less than 1000 tons of pork. In 1883 the export 

 was 374,500 live pigs and 10,000 tons of pork and bacon. 

 Simultaneously with the increase in number there was an 

 improvement in the quality of the pigs brought about by the 

 introduction of pigs of the Berkshire and the Middle Yorkshire 

 breeds. At several places herds of these English breeds were 

 kept pure from which boars were sold all over the country, 

 so that the stock of pigs in the seventies was quite good, of 

 a quality corresponding to the condition under which they 



1 See App. II., Table 10. 

 65 



