AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IN DENMARK. 5 
that once covered most of the surface of the country have gone, but 
the soils remain, and these flat lowlands rising only slightly above 
the sea lend themselves to certain types of agriculture. 
The Jutland Peninsula and the group of islands which form 
Denmark comprise an area of 16,608 square miles, 1 an area equivalent 
to one-third that of New York State or about one-fifth that of 
Xebraska. Denmark occupies a geographical position north of 54^° 
north latitude. Lying between the North Sea and the Baltic, this 
small northerly country is favored with an islandic climate, com- 
paratively mild in winter and cool in summer with little, if any, ex- 
treme changes in temperature. The annual rainfall is approximately 
25 inches 2 and occurs in seasons favorable to agricultural production. 
The soils of Denmark do not compare in richness with the fertile 
agricultural centers of the United States. The greater part of the 
islands and the eastern section of the Jutland Peninsula are 
fairly fertile, but other sections have much light sandy soil. The 
productivity of the soil has been greatly increased during the last 
50 years by scientific culture and treatment and by application of 
barnyard manures. In the last two decades this improvement has 
been further accelerated by the tremendously increased use of com- 
mercial fertilizers. 
The old type of agriculture in Denmark was similar to that which 
existed in other European countries. The period from the middle 
ages to the close of the eighteenth century was characterized by the 
menace of increasing leaseholdership and concentration of smaller 
farms into the hands of large estate owners. With this transition 
came the develpment of villenage (l 7 'ornedskdb) , a system of land 
tenure which intensified the control which the landowner might ex- 
ercise over his tenants. Not only was the tenant tied to the farm, 
but his children were compelled to work the land belonging to the 
large landowners. 
Villenage was abolished in 1702, but the oppression of the peasant 
class was continued by a strict enforcement of feudal bondage 
(Stavnbacmd) enacted in 1733, a form of compulsory military service 
which gave the large landlords the power to recruit their farm 
laborers from the peasant class. This growing oppression, which 
handicapped agricultural as well as national progress, prompted the 
emancipation of the peasants. With bondage abolished in 1788, the 
peasants were no longer bound to the large estate owners. 
Under the feudal tenure system the Danish peasants were grouped 
in village communities (Landhye) . The arable land was cut into 
long, narrow strips, a large number of such strips belonging to each 
peasant in the village. Cultivation of these strips in common was 
practiced. The new agricultural reform, which marked the close of 
the eighteenth century, abolished the farming of the ground in com- 
mon. The land was parceled out into units of family-size farms, 
and the peasants moved out of the village to live on their own tracts. 
It is generally acknowledged by authorities that there is no country 
in continental Europe where the parceling out and moving onto the 
land has been carried out more completely than in Denmark. 
1 These figures include northern Slesvis, which was returned to- Denmark in 1020. 
2 A Short Survey of Uie Danish Agriculture, published by the Royal Danish Agricultural 
Society, 1913, p. 6. 
