IIG CO-OPEKATION IN DANISH AGEICULTURE 



in the work, and their close study of the resulting reports could 

 they derive any profit from their Society, they tired and left. 

 But a more serious trouble was the insufficient supply of suit- 

 able young men for the position of '* control assistant." As 

 the State had done but little to help the co-operative dairy 

 societies to get competent managers, so did it take little care 

 to provide the necessary education for the real workers in the 

 Control Societies, viz. the assistants, of which hundreds were 

 soon needed. And it may be added that the farmers them- 

 selves were far from liberal in the remuneration they offered, 

 thereby discouraging more experienced men from applying. 

 It was the private agricultural schools which stepped in to fill 

 up the gap. First they arranged a one-month course for these 

 assistants, which was found to be quite insufficient for pupils 

 without any previous knowledge of dairy matters. At a meet- 

 ing in 1907, the schools agreed to require that a pupil, in order 

 to gain admission to the special " Control Course " of one 

 month, should first pass a three months' agricultural course 

 at a school ; and lately they have introduced more uniform 

 and more stringent rules for testing the pupils' abiUties in 

 " Gerberising " and book-keeping. Several young women have 

 passed the test and are acting as " control assistants." In 

 1917 special control courses were held at fifteen different agri- 

 cultural schools ; some of these have several courses at different 

 times of the year, and at the schools with special instruction 

 in dairying some control courses last three months. 



A co-operation between Control Societies and Cattle Breed- 

 ing Societies began locally. The State has encouraged this in 

 various ways. By the Law of 1912, when most other grants 

 from the State were reduced by one-half or quite withdrawn, 

 the grant of not more than £6700 to the Control Societies was 

 renewed, but the grant to each society was not to exceed £1 1 . 

 To obtain the grant the societies " must have at least 10 

 members with 200 cows ; they must be aftiHated to one of the 

 federations (see below), and be recommended by the Federation 

 of Agricultural Societies of the Province, to which each society 

 must send an annual report, giving a complete record of all 

 the cows by name or number, date of birth, sire and dam, 

 yield of milk by quantity and quahty (weight and percentage 



