1920.] 



Impressions of a Visit to Denmark. 



173 



holder showed us a family group in which she and her husband 

 were seen seated amongst ten fine stalwart sons and daughters, 

 who had all been born and bred on the holding. 



The questions that were of greatest interest to me, during our 

 brief stay, were : How is it that these men and women are con- 

 tented and happy ? How is it that, though there are nowhere 

 signs of great luxury on the one hand, there are nowhere signs 

 of poverty or destitution on the other ? 



The answer is not to be found in the richness of the soil. 

 In the most fertile parts of Denmark there is nothing to compare 

 with the land in the Vale of Clwyd and other Welsh valleys — 

 indeed, there are large tracts that have only been reclaimed from 

 barren heath or sand-dunes by the pluck and industry of the 

 people. The climate of the country is rather worse than our 

 own. Nor, do I think, is the answer to be found in the natural 

 cleverness of the individual Danish farmer. Possibly the 

 fact that agriculture is the chief industry of the country may 

 partly account for its comparatively prosperous state, there 

 being few manufacturing centres to which men are attracted 

 by high wages. Still, such populous centres supply farmers 

 in South Wales with a ready market for their produce at their 

 very doors, whilst Denmark has to look across the North 

 Sea for her market. 



Causes of the Success of Danish Agrriculture. — From what I 

 could gather there are three outstanding factors which have 

 made for rural development in Denmark, and have helped the 

 Danes to realise the true meaning of Back to the Land." 



I. The most obvious factor is their system of land tenure — 

 90 per cent, of the Danish farmers and small holders owning 

 the land they farm. There is in most cases a mortgage, which 

 is being paid off in yearly instalments over a long period,* but 

 the owners feel a sense of security that the land is their own to 

 make the best of, and to pass it on to their sons in better 

 condition than they received it. They are free from the dread 

 which has haunted many a Welsh farmer, that the rent may be 

 raised on the tenant's improvements, or that the old home may 

 be sold over his head. 



The history of the dawn of land reform in Denmark, at the 

 end of the i8th century, at the time when our common lands were 

 being enclosed, and the struggle of the people for the freeing 

 of the land during the latter half of the 19th century, would 

 be interesting reading side by side with the history of Wales 

 during the same period. The Danes, however, have 

 travelled further than we have in many directions. They told 

 * See the iss\ie of this Joum<il for February, 1020, p. 1061. 



