DENMARK AND THE DANES 



147 



E. M. Newman 



A FARM-HOUSE: IN SCHLESWIG, RECENTLY RESTORED TO DENMARK 



The scientific treatment of one of the worst soils for agricultural purposes in Europe, 

 together with the cooperation of the farmers, has enabled the Danes to supply many foreign 

 tables with food. On the island of Amager, where the descendants of Dutch truck farmers, 

 brought over to Denmark at the dawn of the Reformation, raise the best cabbage and 

 cauliflower in Europe, the greenhouses are so large that the soil in them is cultivated in the 

 winter by plows drawn by two horses. 



the success of the high schools. As the 

 terms of the schools must be divided into 

 two — November to March for the men, 

 and the summer months for women and 

 girls — each period is of five months' 

 duration. 



Some schools have only ten pupils; 

 others four hundred. The attendance is 

 made up of middle-class farmers and small 

 holders of land, who may farm even as 

 few as three or four acres. 



The schools are not, as a rule, coeduca- 

 tional, though there are two or three ex- 

 ceptions. The school day is very long. 



The state or the commune has nothing 

 to do with the appointment of the teach- 

 ers. They are chosen by the principal of 

 the school, who, knowing that the success 

 of the school depends entirely on its 

 effect upon the students, can indulge in 

 no favoritism. The teacher must have 

 the power of stimulating and the gift of 

 imparting information effectively. 



Each hour is occupied, but it does not 

 follow that every student is obliged to 

 occupy himself in listening to lectures 

 which do not interest him. He may, for 

 instance, not find it necessary to consider 

 the practical subjects. There are, for ex- 

 ample, nearly fifty "folk-schools" which 

 are purely cultural and do not offer 

 courses in agriculture, cabinet-work, horti- 

 culture, or masonry. In 1914 the state 

 contributed more than $160,000 for the 

 support of these schools. 



In the agricultural schools some prepa- 

 ration must be offered for entrance. 

 These are generally attended by farmers 

 with from fifteen to fifty acres, which, 

 under the Danish system of intensive cul- 

 tivation and accurate rotation of crops, 

 is considered rather "substantial." The 

 small holders, who have from three to 

 ten acres of land — the Danish tun is more 

 than equivalent to the English acre — and 

 who add to their livelihood by laboring 

 on other holdings, have schools of their 



