AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IN DENMARK. 81 
SWINE AND SHEEP BREEDING ASSOCIATIONS. 
Association work with pigs and sheep has been developed to some 
degree. The first pig-breeding association was formed in 1894. 
There has been no official survey since 1912 when the grants were 
withdrawn, but the last official survey in 1911 gave the number of 
such associations as 240. Through their close work with the pig- 
breeding centers (see page 34), the pig-breeding associations have 
done creditable work in placing the best type of sires with the aver- 
age farmer. 
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. 
Cooperative credit in Danish agriculture has reached its highest 
development in the associations which provide long-term mortgage 
credit. These credit associations are well adapted to the needs of 
Danish farmers and have served the agricultural industry satisfac- 
torily for nearly 75 years. Facilities for meeting the farmers' per- 
sonal credit needs have been developed to a less degree- along coop- 
erative lines and only in recent years ; .but the Danish farmer's re- 
turns from his cows, pigs, and chickens come regularly once or twice 
each month throughout the year, whereas the American crop farmer 
has seasonal farm returns. In other words, the Danish type of agri- 
culture in itself provides an important part of the operating capital. 
CREDIT ASSOCIATIONS. 
Since the abolition of serfdom in Denmark at the close of the 
eighteenth century, the national policy has been to make the farmers 
proprietors of the soil. Not only has a gradual disintegration of 
large estate holdings been the policy as well as the trend during the 
last 125 years ; but, in this parceling out of large land holdings, the 
aim has been to develop a farm population of self-owners on small 
and medium-size farms. The Danish system of long-term mortgage 
credit supplied through credit associations, has aided greatly in 
making Denmark a nation of farm proprietors. 
Among the earlier farm land-credit schemes was the " Credit In- 
stitution " (Kreditkasse) 59 established by the Government in 1786, 
to aid the peasants toward farm proprietorship, by granting long- 
term loans at low interest rates. This operated with a fair degree of 
success until 1816, when it was discontinued as a result of the war- 
time financial crisis of 1807-1818. No sooner had the agricultural 
crisis of 1818- 1823 (which followed the financial crisis) disappeared 
than serious attention was again given to new farm land mortgage- 
credit facilities. This directed their attention to the credit associa- 
tions in Germany operating along cooperative lines. A Danish 
economist, A. F. Bergscoe, who had studied the credit associations 
in Germany (Prussian Landschaften) , became an energetic advocate 
of a similar cooperative credit scheme among Danish farm owners. 
As a result of his writings and discussions at large agricultural 
meetings, a special committee on credit was appointed in 1845. On 
June 20, 1850, the Danish Parliament enacted a law, 60 which forms 
^Larsen, O. H., Landbrugets Historie og Statistik. 1921, p. 238. 
60 Lov om oprettelse of Kreditforeninger og Loanekasser for Grundejere, Landbrugs 
Ministeriet, Copenhagen. 
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