Denmark Agriculture Commerce

Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen dairy ing and agriculture chiefly to the Cooperative System. The division of the land and of the stocks of animals is so great—nearly 60 per cent of the Danish farms consist of less than 13 acres each—that, without an organization to combine scientifically the pro- < ductive capacity of the indi- Q vidual farms, the country ■ could hardly have gained the ■ rank that it now holds in va- B rious fields. It was, in fact, S this need that originally gave g* rise to the present Cooperative Societies. Forty years ago ? Denmark’s food exports con- * sisted chiefly of wheat and grain, butter being exported for the most part from dairies of only a few large estates. The quantity of butter and provisions which the owners of small farms could produce in- dividually was not sufficient on the whole to provide any large amount for export. Moreover, the quality of the products of the small landowners varied greatly and the responsibility for impurities or defects could not be fixed on the actual pro- ducer. About the year 1880 the entrance of low-priced grain from America into European markets brought a complete change in the situation in Denmark. Being unable to com- pete with the United States in the export of grain, the Danes turned their efforts to the production of butter, bacon, pork and other meats. For the export of butter, the small farmers formed a society and contributed to the construction of a dairy. To this dairy each farmer agreed under contract to deliver all the milk from his cows. Scientific treatment of the 18