RI'RAL rPLIFT ELSEWHERE 231 



The graduates of Gruntvig's Folk Schools originated 

 and promoted the many and varied co-operative societies 

 which cover practically everything connected with rural 

 Denmark's welfare. There are co-operative societies of 

 production, e.g., cattle breeders' associations. " control " 

 societies for the registration of milk-yield, butter-fat, 

 and relation of feeds to yield ; co-operative societies for 

 the manufacture of country products into finished 

 market commodities. creameries, cheese-factories, 

 bacon-curing houses ; co-operative societies for the stor- 

 age and sale of the commodities, for the promotion of 

 saving, and for the upholding of credit. The outcome 

 of a passionate sense of common adversity into which 

 religion with ^education as her handmaid came with up- 

 lifting power, has been a devoted, successful community 

 service. 



Co-operation began in 1882, in dairying first, then 

 in the bacon industry, then in egg-production. The 

 economic results soon became evident. In the next six 

 years the exports of eggs doubled, of cheese trebled, of 

 eggs quadrupled, and of bacon quintupled. The export 

 of butter is now over eight-fold what it was in 1881. of 

 eggs over twelve-fold, and of bacon fourteen-fold.* At 

 the meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science held in Winnipeg in 1909 a Danish 

 commissioner described methods by which the average 

 yearly yield of butter from Danish cows had risen from 

 80 pounds in 1864 to 220 pounds in 1908. The fertility 

 of her soil, naturally low, has increased remarkably, so 

 that she has now the largest yield of wheat per acre in 



* Monographs of International Institute of Agriculture, Vol. 

 I, p. 159. 



