52 Impressions of a Danish Small Holding. [april, 



A WOMAN'S IMPRESSIONS OF A 

 DANISH SMALL HOLDING.* 



Bertha M. Bayne, 



Late Chief Inspector, Women's Branch, Ministry of Agriculture and 



Fisheries. 



One of the results of the War has been a national realisation 

 of the importance of increased home food production, and an 

 awakening to the need in rural England of a healthy, contented 

 and prosperous population. The influence of women in 

 helping to secure these desired ends is being more and more 

 recognised, and this recognition found practical expression 

 in the spring of last year in the appointment of a delegation 

 of women from England and Wales by Lord Ernie (then Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries) to visit Denmark 

 to study the conditions under which agriculture is carried out 

 on the small farms in Denmark, and ascertain whether these 

 conditions might serve as an object-lesson to prospective women 

 small holders in this country. 



Denmark is pre-eminently the home of small holders. The 

 reason for this, very probably, may be traced to the disastrous 

 war between Denmark and Germany in 1863-66. The 

 Danish Government realised that if Denmark were to recover 

 from the poverty and misery to which she had been brought 

 through the war, salvation lay along the paths of agriculture, 

 and, acting in the belief that agricultural production is the 

 basis of a nation's prosperity and strength, steps v/ere taken to 

 parcel out the land in such a way as to bring within the reach 

 of all who so desired the possibility of possessing their own 

 land. To assist those desirous of settling on the land, extensive 

 credit facilities were provided by the legislature, and co- 

 operative methods of buying and selling were generally 

 adopted. It is not too much to say that as a result of this wise 

 action in the encouragement of ownership Denmark was raised 

 from bankruptcy to prosperity, and the land was peopled with 

 a happy and prosperous population. 



The population of Denmark is now about 2,600,000, and it 

 is instructive to note that about half the people live entirely 

 on the land, a great proportion of the remainder being engaged 

 in work indirectly connected with it. 



* This Report was prepared by Mrs. Bayne as a result of a visit to Denmark 

 in 1 91 9, as one of a delegation of wi men who desired to study at first hand 

 Danish conditions in relation to women's work on the land. 



