RURAL DENMARK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3252, 24 June 1911, Page 9

RURAL DENMARK.

AN INTERESTING REVIEW.

Mr H. Rider Hagard writes an interesting account of “Rural Denmark.” The .author spent- a -good part of last year seeing things for himself, and he is as careful of his fact, as he used to be of his fiction. He was struck first by tlie polite, educated appearance of the people, who, it seems, between them read 250 newspaners. They are as industrious as they are polite, and as economical as they are industrious. They tether their cattle that the beasts may not trample what they do not eat. This is . a generations old custom, and the cattle bear it with a.dignified calm. In the parts where the soil is of rather poor quality an average farm may contain about 100 acres. In a typical case about 264 members- send their milk to l a co-operative dairy. . Many dairies make little butter, but export, the cream, direct to Germany, where there is a duty on butter but none on cream. The methods employed were quite up-to-date but then it was not unusual to meet a farm lad who talked French and German, understood English, and was studying Latin. Some 10 per cent, of the population, in fact, passes through fclio high schools. Mr Haggard 1 proceeds to give an instructive account of the system of State small holdings, and credit union banks. These last are private institutions, inspected by the State, and they seem to work excellentlv. Freehold and co-operation, according to most of the farmers with whom Mr. Haggard spoke, are the secrets of success in Danish agriculture, and the general opinion was that the small holding did better than the large farm. Typical cases are quoted of men who saved money out of six or seven acres. Mr. Haggard was much struck by the air of solid comfort about the homes of most of these small holders. Incidentally lie found many of them quite familiar with his name and his works of fiction. It may be remarked that there are special schools to train the small holder in liis business. The age of the pupik is mostly 18 or so; but persons of (0 have gone through the course. Another important industry is that of egg export. All the eggs are numbered. Mr Hag-o-ard ate one branded 72,334. It was a good egg. The Egg Export Association numbers 45,000 members, belonging to 550 local supply societies. Each egg, so perfect is the system, can be traced -to the fowl that laid it. lhe supplier of a bad egg is mtihlessly hunted down, and .fined. The eggs are further carefully graded when they reach Copenhagen. After giving many typical examples of Danish. enterprise. Mr Hagagrd sums up. The land seemed to him to be mostly of poor quality, and the damp,_ cold climate called for much attention J° st °ch. Yet the population, about half that of London, exports some £20,000,000 worth of agricultural produce annually, butter, bacon, and eggs predominating. Life is, not easy or luxurious, but tne usual evidences of destitution are remarkably absent. There was no visible drunkenness, except at sea-ports. ine Dane is enormously liard-workmg. and he -gets a great deal more out of his land than the average English farmer does; the latter, says Mr Haggard, would starve on a Danish holding, lhe Dane’s prosperity is largely to be atttn-but-ed to a co-operation, a P n^P. le worked everywhere for all it is -worth. For the most part the co-operative societies are purely mutual, and receive no State aid. The first co-operative dairies were 'founded in 1882 ; now practically all Danish milk goes to them. A 'collateral growth is that of the pig industry. In 1881 tliere were 527,400 pigs ini the country. Iu 1 , were 1,466,800, and a great number of co-operative bacon factories.