Miscellaneous, 



[Junk 1907. 



spread of an extremely practical scheme of national education, and especially 

 agricultural education, had prepared the people to take advantage of the coming 

 transformation ; while the system of land tenure in Denmark, which had done so 

 much toS'encourage both the creation of agricultural freeholders and the increase 

 of small holdings, and further strengthened the power of the agricultural com- 

 munity to benefit from the opportunities opening out to them. The immediate 

 and striking outcome of these various conditions was a resort to co-operative 

 dairies, so that the agricultural classes could get a maximum of possible benefits 

 for themselves. The first co-operative dairy in Denmark was opened in West 

 Jutland in 1882. Others followed and to such an extent has the movement spread 

 that at the present time, a co-operative dairy is to be found in almost every parish, 

 and there are now no fever than 1,050 of such dairies in Denmark, with 148,000 

 members, owning 750,000 cows out of a total of 1,067,000 milch cows in the country. 

 In 1902, this little State exported, mainly to Great Britain, 168,000,000 lb. of butter, 

 135,000,000 lb. of this total representing home produce and the remaining 33,000,000 

 lb. butter received from Sweden and Russia. The total value of the imports of 

 butter from Denmark into Great Britain in 1902 was £9,302,000. The practice 

 usually adopted is for about 150 farmers in a particular district to raise, say, 

 £1,200 by subscribing £8 each, this sum being sufficient to provide a dairy which 

 will deal with the milk of 850 cows, 



The establishment of the co-operative dairies has been followed by the 

 founding of societies for the sale of butter together with some 200 central unions 

 which employ capable men to take periodical tests of the milk on the farms of the 

 members, and see which particular cows gave the best results according to the 

 quantity and cost of food consumed. The Indian farmer, even if he does not go 

 in at once for co-operative dairy society, might at least take some useful lessons 

 from his Danish brethren in sending pure milk and pure butter to the market, 

 by which he is certain to earn a larger profit than he can by adulterating his articles. 



Next to the co-operative creameries, and now, indeed, rivalling them in 

 importance, come the Danish co-operative bacon-curing factories, the success of 

 which has been, if possible, even more rapid. It is stated that these factories were 

 the outcome of political prejudices, but whatever the cause, the success of the 

 movement was almost phenomenal. The first co-operative factory was started in 

 1888, when the number of pigs killed for curing was 23,407, valued at £57,000. By 

 1902 the number of these factories had risen to 27 with a total membership of 

 65,800, while the number of pigs killed for curing amounted to 777,232 and their 

 value to £2,500,000. In the organisation of these co-operative factories, no capital 

 is subscribed by the farmers whose joint guarantees are sufficient to enable them 

 to secure from the banking institutions for the country the loan they may require 

 to defray the cost of construction and to provide the working capital as well, the 

 loan being repaid out of the profits of* the business. The members also guarantee 

 to supply to the factories all the pigs they raise on their farms, a fine of 10s, 3d. 

 per pig being imposed in case of non-compliance, On sending his pigs, the farmer 

 is paid a certain sum, representing less than the value, but subsequently he receives 

 a share of the profits according to the number of animals he had supplied. 



Another highly successful branch of co-operative agriculture in Denmark is 

 epresented by the egg industry. Here the chief organisation is that of the Dansk 

 Andels Aeg-export which was founded in 1895 and now constitutes the central body 

 of a large number of local societies in all parts of Denmark. The members of these 

 societies pledge themselves to deliver none but freshly-laid eggs, all that are sent in 

 being so marked that the farmer supplying any single one of them can be readily 

 traced, while a plenty of 5s. 6d. is imposed for every bad egg received after a 







