AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IN DENMARK. 3 
{Landboforeninger and Husmandsforeninger), which promote the 
technical, scientific, and educational interests of agriculture and en- 
roll approximately 90 per cent of the Danish farmers; (2) the coop- 
erative associations, which deal more particularly with the business 
of marketing agricultural products, purchasing farm supplies, and 
providing agricultural credit. More than 85 per cent of the farmers 
are members of cooperative creamery and bacon-factory associations. 
The number of cooperative associations has increased from 250 in 
1885 to over 5,000 in 1920. The volume of business handled during 
the same period has grown from 10,000,000 kroner to nearly 1,500,000,- 
000 kroner. (See fig. 3.) Since 1900, when the numerical growth of 
the associations reached its present limits, the average volume of busi- 
ness done by each association has continually increased. 
Fig. 2. — A farm home in rural Denmark. 
Space does not permit in the following pages an adequate state- 
ment of the peaceful economic and social adjustments, which have 
had such an important part in preserving the independence of the 
Danish peasants and raising to a high level their economic and intel- 
lectual life. A study of the land reforms and policy of Denmark is 
an integral part of a study of her agricultural development. So, too, 
is a study of her schools — her people's colleges and agricultural 
schools in particular — essential to an understanding of the rapidity 
and extensiveness of the growth of her agricultural efficiency and 
cooperative organization. Attention is called to these factors, but 
the main purpose of this bulletin is to present, as accurately as pos- 
sible, the results of a thorough, first-hand study and investigation of 
the whole field of agricultural cooperation in Denmark — its his- 
tory, development, and form of organization, and its bearing upon 
the nation's agricultural progress. 
