EW-YO  R  K  E  R  September  16,  1916. 
to  the  city  and  went  to  increase  the  labor  troubles,  or  come  to  this  country 
after  land. 
DANISH  POLICY. — Denmark  is  a  small  nation, 
and  yet  she  is  doing  more  than  tier  share  in  feeding 
England.  In  former  years  the  land  situation  of 
Denmark  was  much  the  same  as  that  in  England, 
there  being  a  few  wealthy  landlords  or  large  land- 
owners,  and  a  large  peasant  class.  Laws  were 
passed  which  provided  for  the  breaking  up  of  the 
big  estates,  so  that  the  smaller  farmers  might  have 
opportunity  to  own  land,  and  this  policy  has  resulted 
in  the  great  prosperity  of  Denmark  as  an  agricul¬ 
tural  country.  The  same  plan  carried  out,  with  some 
modifications,  in  England,  will  without  doubt  have  a 
similar  effect.  Tt  will  make  the  English  nation  less 
dependent  upon  other  nations  for  its  food,  and  will 
bring  back  more  of  the  character  of  the  old  English 
yeomen,  by  creating  a  new  race  or  class  of  small 
freeholders,  who  will  turn  the  present  ornamental 
parks  and  pastures  iuto  productive  farms. 
NEW  ENGLAND  CONDITIONS.— New  England 
went  through  something  of  this  struggle  immediately 
after  our  Civil  War.  This  corner  of  the  country  was 
rich  in  money  and  in  men,  but  for  half  a  century 
and  more  its  agriculture  had  been  neglected.  The 
money  of  New  England  was  invested  in  manufac¬ 
turing  or  in  Western  farm  lands,  and  year  by  year 
the  agriculture  of  that  section  fell  into  disrepute. 
When  the  New  England  soldiers  came  back  from 
the  war,  many  of  them  were  anxious  to  settle  down 
upon  farms,  and  had  a  different  policy  been  fol¬ 
lowed,  they  would  have  found  such  farms  in  New 
England,  settled  there,  obtained  fair  capital,  and 
developed  a  fine  farming  section.  The  spirit  of  New 
England,  however,  was  opposed  to  investing  money 
in  improved  farm  lands.  Her  money  went  to  the 
factory  towns,  or  for  Western  investments,  and  so 
thousands  of  those  returning  soldiers,  instead  of 
settling  down  in  their  old  homes,  went  to  the  West, 
bought  government  lands,  and  developed  it.  Much 
of  the  land  which  they  tlms  acquired  for  practically 
nothing,  is  now  worth  $200  or  more  per  acre.  If 
the  agricultural  policy  of  New  England  could  have 
been  different  00  years  ago,  thousands  of  those  men 
would  have  remained  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  and 
would  have  developed  New  England  agriculturally. 
The  spirit  and  policy  of  the  section,  however,  were 
against  such  development.  In  a  way  the  same  thing 
is  to  he  worked  out  in  England,  and  this  step  for  the 
breaking  up  of  the  parks,  so  that  men  may  have 
small  farms  of  their  own,  is  a  wise  plan  for  the  fu¬ 
ture  of  Great  Britain. 
1200 
operative  creameries  in  the  East  ax*e  stock  com¬ 
panies  with  farmers  as  owners  of  the  stock.  If  it 
is  desired  to  organize  such  a  company  it  is  simply 
necessary  to  secure  subscription  of  stock  to  the  right 
amount,  then  incorporate  in  accordance  with  the 
corporation  laws  of  the  State.  Personally  I  do  not 
really  like  a  stock  company  for  a  creamery,  hut 
that  is  all  we  have  in  New  York  State  so  far  as  I 
can  determine.  A  real  cooperative  is  a  different  af¬ 
fair,  and  I  favor  such,  although  I  have  never  seen 
one.  In  a  cooperative  that  is  such  iu  fact  as  well  as 
in  name  there  is  but  one  vote  for  any  man,  no  mat¬ 
ter  how  much  stock  he  may  own.  Then  lie  cannot 
sell  his  right  to  vote  to  some  other  party,  at.  least 
not  without  the  consent  of  the  other  members. 
Again,  he  must  patronize  the  cooperative,  or  if  he 
finds  that  he  can  do  enough  better  somewhere  else, 
then  he  may  sell  elsewhere  by  paying  into  the  co¬ 
operative  a  certain  percentage  equal  to  the  amount 
he  would  contribute  for  its  support  if  be  patronized 
it.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  after  the  coopera¬ 
tive  gets  started  the  condensery  will  offer  some  man 
whom  they  wish  to  buy  some  bonus  in  the  way  of 
hauling  his  milk  for  nothing,  or  giving  him  a  tost 
much  higher  than  the  cooperative  can  find,  and  so 
get  him  away.  This  may  leave  a  number  of  farmers 
in  the  section  with  no  good  way  to  send  their  milk 
or  cream  unless  they  too  send  to  the  condensery. 
In  such  ways  they  work  in  and  weaken  the  local 
creamery,  cause  bitterness  among  the  farmers  and 
finally  dissatisfaclion  and  discouragement.  After 
that  some  begin  to  sell  their  stock  and  in  a  short 
time  the  condensery  has  the  local  creamery,  and 
there  is  distrust  among  the  farmers,  and  perhaps 
the  Grange  is  disbanded  for  lack  of  harmony  among 
its  members.  The  farmer  who  took  the  graft  now 
finds  that  lie  no  longer  profits  from  the  condensery 
and  all  suffer  as  of  old.  This  is  the  history  of 
many.  It  would  be  a  fine  thing  if  a  real  coopera¬ 
tive  were  to  he  established,  everybody  kept  satisfied 
and  learned  to  be  conciliatory  with  his  neighbor.  It 
must  take  real  Christian  grace  to  do  it,  but  why 
not  try ?  It  lias  not  been  worked  out  in  the  East 
so  far  as  I  know,  hut  I  am  getting  distrustful  of 
the  old-time,  so-called  cooperatives  which  are  only 
stock  companies.  I  guess  they  are  better  than  no  co¬ 
operative  however. 
Not  far  from  my  home  there  is  a  cooperative 
creamery  that  has  continued  in  operation  for  10  or 
a  dozen  years,  and  it  looks  to  an  outsider  as  though 
it  might  continue  indefinitely.  The  manager  tells 
me  that  he  thinks  it  will  not  be  many  years  before 
the  condensery  will  undermine  them  and  get  the 
farmers  away  in  some  such  manner  as  I  have  out¬ 
lined.  This  creamery  has  been  one  of  the  most 
successful  and  has  made  its  success  largely  by  sell¬ 
ing  cream  in  the  city,  making  butter  only  when 
cream  did  not  sell.  They  have  a  test  of  about  4.5 
per  cent.,  and  there  have  been  times  when  the  milk 
brought  as  much  as  $2.50  a  hundred  pounds  for  a 
month.  Last  year  fat  averaged  40  cents  a  pound: 
the  year  before  41  cents;  and  in  1918,  the  best  year 
they  have  had.  it  averaged  48  cents.  This  creamery 
owes  its  continued  success  largely  to  two  men.  the 
New  Land  Problems  in  England 
TAXING  UNEARNED  INCREMENT.— The  Eu¬ 
ropean  war  is  working  a  social  revolution  in 
all  the  warring  nations.  In  Great  Britain  the  land 
question  has  come  to  the  front  as  a  vital  issue.  A 
few  years  ago  Lloyd  George,  the  English  statesman, 
proposed  to  tax  the  unused  land.  A  very  large  pro- 
The  Chicks’  Noonday  Meal  on  the  Roof.  Fig.  485.  See  page  1205 
