182 
Dairying  in  Denmark. 
particular  date.  Mrs.  Nielson  makes  for  sale  at  her  own  shop  in 
Copenhagen,  and  she  can  feel  the  pulse  of  her  own  market  from 
day  to  day,  and  make  accordingly.  Moreover,  she  obtains  the 
middleman’s  and  retailer’s  profits  as  well  as  the  manufacturer’s. 
What  I therefore  desired  to  know  was,  what  relation  does  the 
gross  return  from  the  sale  of  the  manufactured  article  bear  to 
the  price  of  the  raw  material?  Mrs.  Nielson  told  me,  much  to 
her  husband’s  amazement  at  her  answering  such  a question  in  his 
presence,  that,  as  a general  rule,  she  received  between  two  and 
three  times  as  much  for  the  cheese  and  butter  as  she  gave  for 
the  milk  used  in  making  them  ; but  that  with  Camembert  and 
whey-cheese  she  could  realise  about  three  and  a half  times  the 
cost  of  the  milk.  It  would  therefore  pay  her  best  to  make 
nothing  else  but  Camembert,  if  there  were  a sufficient  demand 
for  it ; but  Mrs.  Nielson  is  too  shrewd  to  glut  the  market  with 
any  one  of  her  dairy  products  ; she  rather  aims  to  keep  up  the 
demand  for  them  all,  and  thus  to  sustain  the  prices  at  a highly 
remunerative  figure. 
The  annexed  tabular  form  (p.  183)  is  a translation  of  the  one 
in  use  in  Mrs.  Nielson’s  dairy.  It  is  the  foundation  of  her 
book-keeping,  which  is  done  entirely  by  herself — the  form 
being  filled  up  in  the  dairy  by  the  pupil  in  charge  of  it  for  the 
time  being.  I mention  this  so  specially,  not  because  it  is  any- 
thing exceptional,  but  because  I have  been  so  often  twitted  with 
recommending  farmers  to  pay  clerks  to  keep  their  books,  when 
I have  referred  to  the  admirable  manner  in  which  farm-accounts 
are  kept  in  continental  countries,  generally  by  the  farmers 
wife. 
The  farm-house  and  farm-buildings  are  quite  typical  of  a 
modern  Danish  peasant-farm.  Mr.  Nielson  erected  these  build- 
ings a few  years  ago  at  a cost  which  he  estimates  at  about  2000/. 
If  he  is  correct  in  his  statement,  the  steading  is  cheap  at  the 
money,  although  the  price  is  12/.  per  acre,  which  is  too  high 
for  England,  but  not  excessive  for  Denmark,  where  the  long 
and  severe  winters  require  more  protection  to  be  provided  both 
for  crops  and  cattle  than  is  necessary  in  our  climate. 
The  farm-house  and  main  buildings  form  a hollow  square,  as 
is  generally  the  case  in  the  north  of  Europe ; with  the  single 
exception  of  the  Netherlands.  But  it  should  be  remarked  that 
on  this  farm  the  manure  is  not  kept  in  the  central  court-yard  or 
“ barton,”  but  is  stowed  in  a “ back  yard  ” outside  the  hollow 
square,  being  flanked  also  by  the  pig-sties  and  goat-house.  The 
object  of  this  arrangement  clearly  is  to  keep  all  pungent  and 
deleterious  smells  as  far  away  from  the  dairy  as  possible,  and 
the  example  thus  illustrated  may  be  commended  to  the  attention 
of  the  majority  of  dairy-farmers  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Near 
