CO-OPEEATIVE SLAUGHTEE-HOUSES 63 



house, and who feared that, by the slaughter-houses forming a 

 kind of trust, their interests might be sacrificed. For the second 

 time the plan was rejected. A third attempt was made in 



1896, because of the low prices for pigs then ruling, but again 



^ it came to nothing. 



Although undoubtedly the proposed amalgamation of the 

 co-operative and the private factories into one large concern 

 would have lessened the strong competition and brought the 

 factories many advantages, it was a great blessing that it did 

 not come about. It would have meant nothing short of the 

 sacrifice of all the advantages which co-operative action was to 

 briil^^el^mnersr The keener the competition from the side 

 of the private curers, the stronger the necessity of keeping the 

 co-operative factories as near to perfection as possible. If the 

 co-operative principle had been betrayed in the important / 

 agricultural industry of bacon curing it would have affectedi^ 

 the development of co-operation also in other directions. Time 

 has shown that the co-operative bacon factories are more than 

 able to hold their own, and with the increased stock of pigs, 

 due to the development of the dairy industry as well as of 

 the bacon industry, the number of co-operative factories has 

 increased. From 1903 onwards, some have been added every 

 year ; sometimes as many as three or four new factories have 

 been established in one year. The total number in 1916 was 

 45, while the number of private factories was 17. The number 

 of pigs in Denmark is given officially as follows : ^ 



1837 

 1871 

 1881 

 1888 

 1898 

 1909 

 1914 



235,000 

 442,421 

 527,417 



770,785 

 1,168,493 

 1,467,822 

 2,496,706 



Fairly full official statistical information about the agri- 

 cultural holdings connected with co-operative slaughter-houses 

 is available for the years 1903 and 1909. In 1903 '^ there were 

 196,800 holdings on which pigs were kept. Of these 63,359 



» See App. II., Table 10. 



2 Statist. Meddelelser, 4 Roekkc, 22 Bd. 5 Hoefte, " Landbrugets Andels- 

 virksomhed," 1906. 



