AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IX DENMARK. 71 
MARLING ASSOCIATIONS. 
Marling the cultivated lands is a common practice in most sec- 
tions of Denmark. Marl pits, with a fairly high percentage of lime 
carbonate are found in many communities. The farmers surround- 
ing the marling pit form a local cooperative association, which owns 
and operates the digging machine, transportation cars, and movable 
tracks for distributing the marl to the members' farms. Such local 
associations, operating independently, number over 50. The farmers 
located in communities where no local marl pits are found have 
formed large associations, which operate digging machines, trucks, 
cars, and locomotives at large marl pits, and distribute to local asso- 
ciations of farmers scattered throughout the country. The largest 
central association of this kind is the West Jutland Marling Supply 
Association (Andels Selskabet Vestjylands Mergelforsyning) estab- 
lished in 1907, which now comprises 100 local associations. 
CEMENT FACTOEY. 
Denmark claims the first and only cooperative association cement 
factory in the world. There are also six private or stock-company 
cement factories in Denmark. Four of these plants are located 
along the Limf jord, near Aalborg, where large deposits of chalk and 
clay are available for the manufacture of Portland cement. The 
normal consumption of cement in Denmark is about 1,500,000 barrels 
per year. Before the erection of the cooperative plant, the united 
cement factories in Denmark produced about 2,600,000 barrels 
yearly. 
The cement cooperative association owns a tract of 193 acres, with 
chalk pit and clay areas, together with an up-to-date cement factory 
in Norre Sunclby, northern Jutland. This achievement on the part 
of the cement users marks one of the most interesting accomplish- 
ments in Danish cooperation. Here the users of a product have har- 
nessed the cooperative idea to gain their economic freedom from 
trust organization. This freedom was attained through what is 
commonly known as the cement war in Denmark 1911-1913. The 
cement ring, comprising cement factories in the Scandinavian coun- 
tries and northern Germany, was formed in 1899 and created a situa- 
tion which resulted in trust prices to cement users. Its power 
reached the zenith in 1911, when the cement war began. 
The leaders of the Jutland Cooperative Association for the Pur- 
chase of Feedstuff's, realizing that erection of their own cooperative 
plant was the only way the cement users would free themselves from 
ring prices, sent out invitations to 2,000 local cooperative associations 
and several hundred manufacturers of cement wares and bricks to 
come together for consideration of this project. Already in No- 
vember, 1911, at the first organization meeting, nearly 300 local co- 
operative stores and purchasing associations and scores of individual 
manufacturers of cement wares had signed a 5-year contract to pur- 
chase their cement consumption from the proposed cooperative "plant. 
Special mention is clue Direktor Anders Xielsen, Svejstrups Oster- 
gaard, whose enthusiastic and capable leadership made this coop- 
erative project a reality. 
