472 Co-operative Movement in Denmark, [sept., 



strengthened very greatly by the fact that, distances being 

 small, most members of a co-operative undertaking are 

 personally known to each other, it is difficult to imagine how 

 the co-operative movement could have grown so rapidly. 



Education. — To this innate honesty one must add an 

 excellent education, received in the first instance at the State 

 school, and later at one of the high schools, agricultural 

 colleges, or cottars' schools. These schools, by bringing 

 young men and women of the agricultural classes together, 

 are undoubtedly not without their value in preparing them 

 for working along co-operative lines. 



These observations may, perhaps, be considered beside 

 the mark, but the extraordinary success which has attended 

 the introduction of co-operation into Danish agricultural life, 

 cannot be ascribed solely to geographical formation and 

 favourable legislation. 



Co-operative Dairies. — The first co-operative dairy in 

 Denmark was founded in 1882 in Jutland, and the movement 

 almost immediately became general. So quickly, indeed, 

 did co-operative dairies spring up over the whole country 

 that in 1903, which, unless otherwise stated, will be the year 

 of all figures given in this report, there were some eleven 

 hundred such dairies. 



Extent of the Movement. — A better idea of the extent of 

 the movement will be gathered from the fact that there are 

 174,742 farms with cows in Denmark; of these 143,863, or 

 82'3 per cent., are in the hands of men who are members of 

 a co-operative dairy. (N.B. — As these figures date from 

 1903, it may safely be taken that there has been some increase 

 since that year, and it may be added that when the statistics 

 were taken, some 4,800 of the circulars sent out were returned 

 either not filled up, or unsatisfactorily filled up, so that these 

 figures represent a minimum, not a maximum.) Again, of 

 the 1,066,698 cows in Denmark, 862,986, or 80*9 per cent., 

 are owned by farmers who are members of co-operative 

 dairies, while of the remainder about 10 per cent, deliver 

 their milk to joint dairies, so that about nine-tenths of the 

 milk produced in the country is dealt with in dairies working 

 on the principle of association. 



Participation of Different Classes in the Movement. — At 



