No. 4.] RURAL CREDIT, ETC., IN EUROPE. 107 



Including the persons who deliver the milk the number of em- 

 ployees would be about 1,200. The branch depots have 

 about 210 push carts for delivering the milk. This immense 

 proposition began its career in 1881 with 33 members, which 

 in 1911-12 had increased to 631. The milk at the railroad 

 station is valued at 4i/'o cents per quart. Upon its arrival 

 at the plant it is strained and pasteurized. A specialty is 

 made of baby milk, prepared by special methods. Fresh 

 milk is sold in sealed glass bottles, of which from 80,000 to 

 90,000 are filled every night. This is said to be the largest 

 bottling plant in the world. 



Business Co-opebation in Denmark. 



Of all the countries visited Denmark showed the most 

 marked development of the different types of business co- 

 operation. The Danes were leaders in the organization of 

 co-operative business. Formerly a corn-producing country, 

 with Germany as its principal market, Denmark in 1879 sud- 

 denly found that market cut off by an edict issued by the 

 German Kaiser barring admission to this product. The 

 Danes then turned their attention to cattle raising and later 

 to pig raising and poultry growing. Then came the necessity 

 of disposing of their new products, first the butter, then the 

 bacon and later the eggs. Co-operation seemed the open door, 

 and they were not long in taking advantage of it. The piece- 

 meal adoption of co-operation, first for one purpose and then 

 for another, resulted in a division of the different projects, 

 into dairy societies, supply purchasing societies, bacon curing 

 societies, etc., so that one man may belong to nine or ten 

 different societies, each performing a separate function. 



The co-operative dairy societies compel their members to 

 feed only certain things, to cool their milk to a specified 

 temperature immediately and hold it at that temperature, 

 and to obey such similar regulations as will insure a uniform 

 high-grade product. Each member, however, is glad to be 

 obliged by the society to do these things, which result in 

 larger sales, a sure market and better prices. These societies 

 have meant great progress for the small dairy farmer. The 



