54 GETTING THE MOST OUT OF AN ACRE 



meal from the United States, through the co-operative 

 society. He never kills his own hogs — though there are 

 500 hogs to every 1,000 persons in Denmark — but sends 

 them to the co-operative bacon factories, which were 

 founded some time in the 8o's, when Germany refused 

 the Danish hog because of an outbreak of swine fever. 

 The Danes instantly founded, with the assistance of the 

 Government, large co-operative bacon factories. In order 

 to make dairying possible, the Dane had to regenerate the 

 land exhausted by the lack of scientific treatment. 



"Being an educated man, he was an open-minded man, 

 and he induced his Government to furnish scientific 

 experts who could finally answer any question he might 

 ask. As an example, let us take the small farmer, with 

 three cows, three hogs, four head of cattle, and a horse 

 or two. He farms perhaps twelve acres. Now, it is a 

 question with him as to the rotation of his crops; it is 

 a question as to the amount of butter fat that each 

 cow should produce. He has, through the co-operative 

 society, the use of a scientific expert, who visits his farm 

 every eighteen days and answers all these questions, after 

 consultation with him. 



"Furthermore, he keeps a duplicate set of books for the 

 farmer, so that the farmer knows exactly the amount of 

 butter fat each cow yields every week, when the cows are 

 expected to calve, the value of the service of every bull 

 in use, and the exact position of the farmer, economically 

 and agriculturally. For this service the farmer pays the 

 expert 30 cents yearly per cow, the Government paying 

 the rest of the expert's salary, the expert being attached 

 to the Royal Danish Co-operative Society." 



These little farms of ten or twelve acres in Denmark 

 commonly return the owner $800 to $1,200 profit in addi- 

 tion to family expenses and all costs of operating. It is 

 not unusual for tracts of vegetables and flowers to pay 

 $300 to $500 per acre. 



