32 BULLETIN 1266, r. S. DEPARTMENT of agriculture. 
Britain, which was 98 per cent of the total Danish bacon export and 
£1 per cent of the total bacon imports of Great Britain. Swine pro- 
duction was greatly curtailed during the war. especially in 1918. 
when it fell to one-fifth of normal. 24 This curtailment was caused by 
the. elimination of importation of feeds by submarine warfare and by 
the very small home-grain crop in 1917. During the last three years 
Danish swine production has increased rapidly. It was especially 
stimulated by the return of free trade with England in the spring of 
1921, by favorable bacon prices, and by lower prices during the past 
two years on corn (maize) imported from the United States. At the 
close of 1922 the Danish bacon industry was nearly back to normal 
with an export of 247.000,000 pounds. 
The two important phases of the swine industry in Denmark are 
pig breeding and the cooperative bacon factories. Pig breeding in 
Denmark supplied the home consumption in the eighteenth century 
and the first part of the nineteenth, but it was not an important part 
of Danish agriculture until the latter half of the last century. The 
swine industry was first stimulated by the rising importance of 
dairying, as the Danish farmer found the pig a profitable means of 
utilizing skim milk, buttermilk, and whey. 
THE GERMAN MARKET. 
The history of pig breeding in Denmark falls into two distinct 
periods. Each period supplied a market which demanded a hog of a 
certain type. The first period, when Germany was the principal 
market for surplus Danish pigs, ends in 1887. Since that date Great 
Britain has been the chief market for Danish bacon. 
Although a few thousand hogs were exported on hoof during the 
first half of the nineteenth century, the first important swine ex- 
ports were made in the seventies and eighties. From 1881-1885, there 
was an average yearly export of 287.100 25 live hogs, for which 
Germany was the principal market. This market demanded a hog 
of the heavy, fat, lard type. The characteristics of the early native 
hog bred in Denmark fitted this demand. 
Germany permitted the free importation of live hogs from Den- 
mark until 1879. when an import duty of 2 marks (47.6 cents) per 
hog was imposed. 20 Six years later this duty was tripled; from 1887 
to 1890 and again in 1895 Germany prohibited the importation of 
Danish live hogs. This protective-tariff policy of Germany, begin- 
ning in 1879, naturally stimulated Danish farmers to grow hogs of 
the bacon type. "When the climax was reached in 1SS7. it became a 
matter of necessity for the Danish farmers to eliminate the heavy 
fat hog and improve the breed to meet the demands of the British 
market, which meant a radical change in type. 
THE BRITISH MARKET. 
A- early as l s <>u some of the lighter-weight Danish hogs which 
reached Hamburg were slaughtered there and the bacon exported to 
Dan marks Statistlske Departemenl Statisttsk Aarbog, 1920: 
Official pig ,-,!..u> 191 \ -2. 497. ooo 
...I \ :». L918 513,012 
• Larsen, O. n . Landbrugeta Historie <>- Statistik, 1921, i». 291. 
* M'ti.i. II.. Andelsbev&gelsen i Danmtark, 1!»1T. p. 190. 
