58 CO-OPEKATION IN DANISH AGEICULTUKE 



in or near Horsens ; the pigs were bought by dealers, weighed 

 at the railway station, and sent by rail. In some years as 

 many as 20,000 pigs have been weighed. Farmers had to wait 

 a long time at the station, had to pay 4d. per pig for the weigh- 

 ing, and to " tip " right and left to get attention. The Agri- 

 cultural Society apphed to the railway for an alteration in this 

 arrangement, only to meet with a refusal. A sub-committee 

 was appointed ; acting on the suggestion contained in their 

 report the committee of the Agricultural Society decided in 

 May to recommend the building of a large Co-operative Bacon 

 Factory at Horsens, and on the 27th of May circularised farmers 

 in the district. A slaughter-house or bacon factory on co- 

 operative lines would, in the opinion of the committee, offer 

 three advantages : (1) the commission paid by existing slaughter- 

 houses to the dealers who bought pigs in Horsens district 

 would be saved ; it -amounted to about £1700 annually ; (2) 

 the difficulty experienced by existing slaughter-houses in 

 disposing of the offal would be greatly reduced when the co- 

 operators became interested in its utilisation ; (3) the co- 

 operators would share between them all the profit which now 

 went to shareholders, and the farmers would receive all that 

 could be realised from the pigs delivered. The farmers of the 

 53 parishes, forming the district of the Agricultural Society, 

 would have to guarantee the necessary number of pigs of the 

 right size and quality ; a sum of about £6700 would have to 

 be raised, which it was suggested could be done by a loan from 

 a bank if the co-operators in each parish would become jointly 

 liable for a certain share in the loan. By the 1st July a sum 

 of £9400 had already been guaranteed by 1100 co-operators, 

 while 1200 had undertaken to deliver 10,500 pigs annually for 

 a period of seven years. The factory was therefore secured ; 

 P. Bojsen was elected chairman, and in August building opera- 

 tions began. 



This co-operative undertaking, contrary to the first co- 

 operative dairy, met with considerable opposition from several 

 quarters. Owners of private bacon factories and dealers who 

 used to buy pigs in the district were naturally against it. The 

 papers pubHshed letters from Hamburg to prove to farmers 

 that the production of bacon pigs did not pay. Local banks 



