4 INTRODUCTION 



stands on artificial foundations which the least 

 upheaval might easily displace. The environ- 

 ment, the atmosphere, and the strain of town 

 life and town work tend to demoralize the 

 brain and weaken the physique of a people 

 given to an industrial occupation. Imagina- 

 tions become warped and unproductive, bodies 

 cramped and sterile. Three or four genera- 

 tions are sufficient to have a marked and 

 serious effect. The large industrial centres 

 which have become a necessary factor to 

 modern civilization, however well planned, 

 must in the course of time have an adverse 

 effect on their inhabitants. A country can 

 only insure that this influence does not become 

 a destroying canker to the whole community 

 by possessing a large and healthy rural popula- 

 tion, which can supply fresh blood to our 

 urban districts, displacing those weakened by 

 the enervating strain of commerce, who can in 

 their turn rebuild and harden their constitu- 

 tions by returning to the strenuous but healthy 

 life of their rural forefathers. 



Fortune has presented us with every natural 

 advantage in agriculture. We have watched 

 the ingenuity of the Danes evolve from an 



