16 BULLETIN 1266, U. S. DEPARTMENT CF AGRICULTURE. 
farmers in the neighborhood of Hjedding held a meeting to further 
the interests of dairying. A young dairy specialist. Stilling Ander- 
sen, demonstrated the making of the best and most butter from 
milk. Interest centered around the organization of a local society 
to employ a dairy specialist to improve farm butter, which should 
be delivered to a butter-packing station, and there graded, sorted, 
and packed for export. Another meeting followed. Mr. Andersen 
enthusiastically suggested the cooperative plan as a means toward 
the manufacturing of a standardized-quality product that would 
command higher prices. Definite plans were made to form an asso- 
ciation and build a creamery, if the milk from 400 cows were sub- 
scribed by contract. Farmers representing only 300 cows agreed to 
join, but this did not deter Mr. Andersen, who was later employed 
as creamery manager. He personally engaged, on contract, the milk 
from 100 cows owned by farmers who feared to join. The first 
cooperative creamery thus became a reality and it is still in opera- 
tion. 
Fig. 6. — A typical cooperative creamery in rural Denmark. 
The Hjedding creamery filled a recognized need in the dairy in- 
dustry. It was established on a sound economic basis and per- 
formed the function of assembling and processing the products more 
efficiently than attempted by any previous plan. Where one co- 
operative plant received the entire milk production in the immediate 
vicinity, milk transportation costs were reduced to a minimum and 
t!ic plant was supplied with sufficient volume to operate at a high 
degree of economy. These factors had figured in the failure of 
private and joint-stock company plants. In the cooperative plant 
I fig. 6), the community's entire milk production was assembled and 
manufactured into a standardized-quality product which could be 
merchandized properly; and the individual producer, whether he 
milked ."> or 75 cows, derived the benefit of large-unit operations and 
belter marketing. 
News of the success and popularity of the first cooperative cream- 
ery soon spread to all sections of the country. Its economic benefits 
