174 
Dairying  in  Denmark. 
farmer  to  produce  a first-rate  article  ; and  fortunately  the  Danish 
farmer  is  generally  ready  enough  to  listen  to  the  representations 
made  to  him  by  those  who  are  accustomed  to  feel  the  pulse  of 
the  best  market  in  the  world — England. 
As  a rule  the  food  of  the  pigs  consists  of  equal  parts  of  barley- 
meal  and  maize-meal  mixed  with  whey,  and  either  soaked  for 
24  hours  or  steamed  or  boiled  in  the  dairy  refuse.  Maize  is,  of 
course,  by  far  the  cheaper  food,  but  its  too  exclusive  use  gives  a 
disagreeable  taste  to  the  bacon  : and  this  is  one  of  the  points  on 
which  the  curers  are  most  particular.  Some  farmers  use  a larger 
proportion  of  barley-meal,  especially  when  their  crop  of  barley 
is  light  or  discoloured,  and  therefore  not  suitable  for  brewing 
purposes.  The  quantity  of  meal  given  to  pigs  varies  from  4 lb. 
per  head  per  day,  in  their  infantile  state,  to  as  much  as  6 lbs.,  or 
else,  as  the  French  say,  a,  discretion , during  the  last  six  weeks  of 
their  existence. 
At  the  time  of  my  visit  the  top  market  price  for  good  pigs, 
about  seven  months  old,  weighing  on  the  average  about  nine  score, 
live-weight,  was  as  nearly  as  possible  21.  per  cwi.,  at  which  price 
I was  assured  that  they  paid  very  well. 
It  can  easily  be  understood  that  the  foregoing  sketch  of  the 
ordinary  methods  of  utilising  skim-milk,  butter-milk,  and 
whey,  are  subject  to  variations  owing  to  local  circumstances. 
Thus,  in  the  west  of  Jutland,  where  dairying  is  not  so  important 
a department  of  the  farm  as  on  the  east  coast  of  the  peninsula,  and 
in  the  Danish  islands,  the  small  farmers  buy  young  pigs  to 
fatten  for  their  own  requirements,  and  the  large  farmers  find  it 
more  profitable  to  keep  a large  number  of  breeding  sows,  and 
sell  their  produce  young  at  good  prices  to  their  neighbours,  than 
to  fatten  older  pigs  on  the  usual  system.  Again,  where  there  is 
a good  demand  for  calves,  either  for  rearing  on  account  of  their 
excellent  qualities — inherent  or  inherited — the  skim-milk  is 
turned  to  a more  profitable  purpose  in  that  direction  than  by 
giving  it  to  feeding  pigs.  But  it  very  rarely  happens  in  Den- 
mark that  there  is  any  market  of  importance  for  skim-milk  or 
butter-milk  as  food  for  the  people.  In  fact,  it  will  strike  most 
English  dairy- farmers  as  inexplicable,  that  small  Danish 
farmers  are  willing  to  sell  their  milk  to  their  larger  neigh- 
bours at  such  low  prices  as  I have  just  quoted,  in  describing  a 
few  of  the  dairies  which  depend  either  wholly  or  in  part  for  their 
supply  of  milk  upon  that  which  is  purchased  from  the  sur- 
rounding farms. 
Some  farmers  feed  a much  larger  number  of  pigs  up  to  the 
usual  weight  by  an  additional  expenditure  of  capital  in  feeding 
stuffs,  or  by  using  an  enormous  proportion  of  the  home-grown 
crops  for  pig-feeding.  For  instance,  at  Juellinge,  the  home- 
