BULLETIN 1266, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
During this agricultural reform period the Danish Government 
initiated its policy of encouraging farm laborers to become in- 
dependent owners of small holdings of sufficient area to provide 
for the home and a few acres for cultivation and livestock. This 
was the beginning of the modern small-holders (Husmand) move- 
ment in Denmark. 
Grain production was the chief aim in the system of agriculture 
practiced in Denmark until the middle of the nineteenth century. 
The main source of ready cash for the farmer was the selling of 
grain, which was exported chiefly to the large cities in Germany 
and to other continental European countries. Meat production and 
the marketing of cattle for meat on foot to Germany and Holland 
was also carried on to some extent. Especially was this practiced 
on the peninsula of Jutland. 
By the middle of the nineteenth century low grain prices combined 
with loss of soil fertility had brought this system of agriculture into 
Denmark's Three Leading Agricultural Exports. 
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Pig. 4. — In the seventies and eighties the Danish farmers abandoned grain production 
for export of animal food products. War years affected by war conditions. (Eggs 
given in cases: — 360 eggs per case.) Data gathered through Denmark's Statistiske De- 
partment. 
serious straits. It was evident there must be some change, and the 
Danes began to realize that the price of agricultural products was 
an important factor affecting their rural economy. Price statistics 
available for the previous 100 years showed that the price for animal 
products had increased with greater rapidity than that for grains. 
In fact, Danish statistics gathered from 1750 to 1913 on the prices of 
farm products 3 show that the price of butter and pork has increased 
four times, while the price of grains increased only twice during this 
same period of 163 years. 
AVlnle this was undoubtedly the underlying economic factor which 
directed the change from grain to animal production, the stimulus 
which hastened this change in the sixties and seventies was largely 
furnished by three important factors: (1) The German and Danish 
wars of 1848-1850 and 1864 affected trade relations, in that the Danes 
■Hansen, V. Falbe, Stavnsbaands-Losningen og" Landboreformerne Iste Del. pp. 1 and 
83 2den Del. pp. 18 mid 46, 1888-89. 
Larsen, 0. II., Landbrugeta Hlstorle og Statistlk, 1921. pp. <)2. 108, 139, 205, 230. 
