Danish Co-operative Bacon-curing Industry. 247 



society in 1889 not a single member has voluntarily seceded 

 from it. 



In the Danish factories the only skilled hands employed are 

 the butchers, one of whom is sufficient in all the smaller con- 

 cerns ; but as many as three or four are employed in the larger 

 ones. The salary paid to a foreman butcher in Denmark is 

 generally about ,£100 per year, and there was apparently no 

 difficulty whatever in finding plenty of really competent men at 

 this salary. The regular staff employed in most factories are 

 paid at from fourteen to thirty kroners (about 15s. to 33s.) per 

 week, according to efficiency. The Bacon Curers' Association 

 at Copenhagen have made elaborate arrangements to prevent 

 the dislocation of business at any particular factory through 

 strikes, and at a meeting which took place at Copenhagen during 

 the visit, it was arranged that in case the employes of any 

 factory should strike, men would be immediately sent from the 

 other factories to enable the business to be carried on. So 

 perfect is the organisation, and so clear is the value of mutual 

 help understood among all the factories that on the occasion of 

 a dock labourers' strike last year at Esbjerg a wire from the 

 central office at Copenhagen immediately secured 103 volunteers 

 from the different factories to work at the transhipping of the 

 bacon at this port, and in this way the strike was effectively 

 broken down. The employes of all factories are insured against 

 accidents. 



All the factories have federated together for the purpose of 

 insuring their bacon during transit to England, and about ore 

 per pig killed is contributed to the funds of this federation. The 

 bacon is insured at the rate of 24 kroner, or £1 6s. 8d., for each 

 ;£i,8oo sterling in value. In the case of officials having charge 

 of money the premium of insurance, which is almost always paid 

 by themselves, varies from 1 to 2 per cent. 



The report concludes with a reference to the system adopted 

 for the improvement of Danish swine, and observes that the 

 principal expert in the pig-raising industry in Denmark has 

 taken as the ideal of his work the substance of a report issued 

 by the Irish bacon curers five years ago. The Irish curers 

 describe the Danish bacon industry as having achieved per- 

 fection in ten years, and argue that this happy state of affairs 



