DANISH EXAMPLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1923, Page 15

DANISH EXAMPLE.

CO-OPERATION IN FARMING. LESSONS FOR THE FARMER. "It is an old story notr, the very different fashion in which the Briton •nd Dane met that fall in the price of corn, due to cheap production overseas by which the working classes of Great Britain, Holland, and Denmark, the three countries which have no duties on agricultural produce, have so immensely benefited." The success of the Danish farmers is acknowledged, gnd Mr. J. VV. Robertson Scott tells the reason of this in a striking article in this month's "World's Work." The Briton, he Says, tried to balance bis accounts by saving labour, as he now once more threatens to do. Because fewer hands are needed to mind cattle I tb»n to grow crops he proceeded to devote areas of ploughed land to grass. On his grass he endeavoured to carry as many cattle and sheep as possible. On his remaining arable land—and because he had a larger farm than the Dane, he had still a good deal of arable left he went on steadily growing corn in competition with roughly worked prairie. And he was quite sure, as he Tβ now, that what he ought to have was protection. The Dane had not perhaps euch good land at his disposal. In any case, he could no longer see any prospect of making money by corn growing against cheap oversea production. He decided to do just the opposite of the Briton. He kept every bit of his ploughed land under the plough. Further, in order to get more of it, he began to plough pp grass and to get rid of his sheep. He was minded to market, not a raw material like corn, but finished articles. He would make his farming a factory, in which to produce milk for butter and pigs for bacon. If he grew corn it should be fed at first cost to his stock. He would also grow for his cattle and pigs large quantities of roots and green fodder. This provender he would supplement by buying foreign corn, foreign bran, and foreign cake, as much ac ever he could scrape together money for. And because he wanted these ' foreign, products at the lowest possible price he took care that there should be no duties on them at his ports. AN OUT-OF-DATE OUTLOOK. To-day the problem for the Danieft fanner is not at all whether it pays to grow corn fijr sale at present prices. Such an inquiry seems to him to be the mark of an out-of-date farming outlook. He is intent, not on selling off his crops, but -on' feeding them as fast as he can to hie stock, and in buying in as much -more food as ever he can. Denmark, fr.om being a. grain exporter, has becqme a grain importer. All the grain she can lay her;hands on, home and foreign she buys, anj turns into butter and bacon. Tjhese finished products she exports at. prices'which; brin| a return she could never have obtained from the raw material. ■' ' As I have said, the labour Mil .■which Giles frantically cut down, Hansen increased. Aβ he was producing more milk, and woulS be handling more pigs, he needfd more labour. You have only to lobTf'-aftout you from the train in Denmark to ccc Bow seriously the Dane takes his cow-keeping. He blanketa Wβ cows in the field, as a hunting man might valuable mounte. Because it is good ft* the wwb and the ground, and a saving of feed, he often tethers hie stock. You constantly see 40 or 60 cows, and perhaps a couple of sheep— ■kept for the lam<bs and the wool—tied , out in a row. The animals have to be - shifted four or five times a day—more labour. The milk-paife and a Water ( trough lave to be ibrought to the cows —laibour again. The cows are milked thrice a day, they are groomed, and sometimes they have their udders massaged—still more, labour. Yet it all seems to pay. ROMANCE OP 00-OPBRAtION. All the world has heard of the Danish creameries. Before the Danes started them the dairies of the large estates, or, as I have heard them called "gentlemen fanne," made the best butter. Peasants' butter could be bought for three-quarters of the price of estate butter. Now both butters fetch the same price, for the farmers have their creameries, which produce a uniform quality. Everywhere about tie country one sees the tall chimney-etacke and the - cool whitewashed walls and roofs of the perfectly equipped co-operative creameries. 00-operation is doing other things ' than making butter. Three-quarters of the bacon made in Denmark comes from the fanners' bacon factories. Everybody knows the Danish co-opera- . tive egg. Here is its history as it was related to mc: —"Our eggs were very bad. All the wives on the farms have the eggs lying in hens' nesta many days. One time, in a week the wives take the eggs and put them in boxes, and after that we export the eggs to England. The buyers in England they cay, TTour eggs are not good.' After that time we make the co-operative egg export. Every day. shall the eggs be taken from the nests in winter, and two times in summer. And eggs shall ibe freeh arid good. And these eggs shall have the stamp of the farmer and the local society. If .the society shall sell bad £gg it shall pay five kroner penalty. If Bad egg come the stamp will show the stamp of the man and hie society number, and hie society ehall say, 'It is Niel whoee hens have done that egg; he shall pay the penalty.' Now we have very good eggs; you shall see that our prices have risen every year, much more than other countries." The remarkable thing about the immense capital represented iby the farmers' creameries, bacon-factories, stores and so forth, is that the farmers have Sot themselves subscribed it. It is no surprise to find that the milk is collected for the creameries co-operatively. The cans are cent back full of the scalding hot separated milk. By the time the foung pigs get it it is ac warm ai it can be drunk. Naturally the little animals thrive on this warm milk. The milk is hot because the law forbids the supply of non-paeteurised milk to young Pige and calves. Having to be killed an< exported, they must be protected against tuberculosis. Jfeedless to cay, no butter may be exported from Denmark -which is hot made from pasteurised cream. Every bit of taeon which is exported bears a Government stamp in red.