RURAL DENMARK

Evening Star, Issue 18810, 8 December 1924, Page 3

RURAL DENMARK

A RARE OBJECT LESSON. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND CO-OPERATION. The example afforded by /Denmark in farming, agricultural education, and cooperation to Australia, in _ common with other countries, is omphasiserd by Mr Talc, Director of Education, Victoria, isays the ‘Ago’), in his pamphlet, ‘Some Lessons from Rural Denmark. _ This pamphlet, which is entitled to consideration and study bv Victorian fanners, embodies the results’ of observations made by Air Tele during his visit to E.urope last year. He shows how the people of Denmark. spurred by tho disaster of Schles-wig-Holstein,.set* themselves to develop their remaining territory—to win from the soil the highest profits; and how, by the application of science, by education, by cooperation, and supremely through patriotism, they built up the prosperity of their little country. The Danes may have seemed to have too little land. They have proved that they have a sufficiency under intensive cultivation —not merely to support their people, but by their exports of high-class products to win wealth from abroad. There is no fact in Danish life, Mr Tate observes, which strikes (lie observer more than their capacity for team work. When it comes to the question of a reform about which the people have thought, and have arrived at the conclusion that they need, there is no time lost in putting it into activity. To think among Danish folk is to act. It was no doubt tho widespread practice of cooperation whirb showed the rural people how to make their influence effective in the counsels of the nation, as it was, no doubt, tho mental and moral discipline of active co-operation which fitted their leaders for public life. For at the root of all true co-operation national effort must bn the understanding of what the individual owes to tho community, the feeling of confidence and trust in others, and the will to come together in common undertakings under which the whole community. and through that the individual also, are served. The higher education of rural workers in Denmark has -been consciously directed for years towards producing tho results achieved. Danish rural education lias realised that the human element in rural industry is all-important, and that true education must he intimately related to the. whole of life, and not merely to that part of life concerned with wage-earning. To those disposed to look askance at an idealistic scheme of rural education, Mr 'Talc points out that during 1921 tho value of daily produce exported J>y Denmark to Great Britain alone was £07,469,982; and this from a conntry less than one-fifth tho size of Victoria, with a population of about 3,000,000. Denmark is unprotected from (he chilly winds from the north-west in the long winter reasaon. The soil is, on tho whole, light, and in many parts distinctly poor. Moors, swamps, and pent bogs cover about 600 square miles of the little kingdom, and tho climate is raw and inhospitable for n great part of the. year. The wonderful record of Denmark in farm production is not due to lertilitv of soil or genialitv of climate, but is due rather to the line qu.aiity of her human material. Her people have shown what, can be done bv steadv industry, reinforced by developed intelligence and patriotism, and directed bv scientific and business capacitv. W ren, in U!6t, Germany wrested from her the two rich southern provinces of .Schleswig-Hol-stein Denmark gamely sot about recovering more territory from her sand dunes, heath lands, and bogs. Soon she had reclaimed an area, comparable with what she had lost to her victorious enemy. In the arrangements for providing rum] education. Denmark affords the greatest interest to tho educational inquirer. There is no doubt in the minds of the Danes that their agricultural prosperity has been assisted by the work of their rural schools, and chiefly by the adult, schools known as (he People's High Schools and the People’s Agricultural' Schools. Education in Denmark is compulsory for all children between seven and fourteen years of age, and the course of -Indy in rural schools is similar in subjects to that prescribed in Victoria.

'Die agricultural population in Donnmrk numbers about 500.090 heads of households, of whom 172.000 are employers. Ihcro are about. 70,000 fanners and peasants, and about 100,COO small holders, mid there are a large number of agricultural laborers with small holdings or allotments. Tile tanners, peasants, and small holders are members of the cooperative societies, except in the cases of the co-operative supply stores, of which many servants and in borers are also members, and the co-operative dairy societies, in which many agricultural la borers with .small holdings and with one or two cows arc also intcicsled. The genius of the Danes for wise and profitable co-operation is shown admirably in the organisation of the egg industry, one of Denmark's great staples. In this organisation, as in general improvements in the agricultural and dairying work of the people, Mr Tote finds that schoolmasters played an important part. The value of the eggs exported from Denmark to the United Kingdom in 1921 was £5,465,375, The number of fowls kept on July 16, 1925, was 20,000,000. In building up this export trade, two fundamental principles were. kept steadily in view—the maintenance of an excellent standard in the quality and appearance of the eggs, and full provision for continuous forwardings, so that the market once made should not be Jost, even temporarily. These two requirements necessitated complete organisation among the producers, and linn handling of careless and dishonest suppliers. Mr Tate observes that Denmark has every year a small excess of trained agricultural laborers. The movement of these migrants is invariably towards America, lio urges their attraction to Australia, for he cannot imagine a better class of immigrant for our rural districts, especially our dairying districts, than these practically trained, industrious, and thrifty Danes.