GO-OPERATION

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 16

GO-OPERATION

HOW DANISH FARMER SUCCEEDS _j — Denmark is beautiful (writes Agu'Cs Macphail, in the 4 Christian Science Monitor ’). The coziness of the thicklypopulated and well-tilled countryside can scarcely be exaggerated. The gleaming \™ite of the farm buildings, with their contrasting roofs of red tile, set close together in a rectangle, are protected and beautified by tree plantings. They look like homes where many happy and contented people dwell. Many visits to many farms hear out this passing 'judgment. Whether the farmer is a small, medium, or large holder, he is deeply interested in scientific agriculture, and, in the majority of cases, a co-operator with his fellowfarmers, in all cases the proud owner of a homestead. Ho is building for the future as well as for the present, and knows that his work will, be inherited and appreciated by his children. Conversations with Danish farmers reveal their interest in intellectual subjects. They read widely; almost every home has its library shelf. Possibly not more than a dozen books, but good ones. He is on familiar terms with international trade agreements, tariffs, and quotas. Ho probably speaks a little English, and apologises that he is not more proficient. It would be misleading, however, if one did not stress the industry ami frugality of the Danish fanner. The whole family works long hours and lives an economical, though comfortable life. The farmer is a courteous host. He is willing and even eager to tell_ the visitor all he can about the business management of his farm. He gets his farm ledger down and from it verifies the statements that he makes. COMFORTABLE HOMES. He is even willing to show his foreign guests through his house, with its comfortable sitting rooms in addition to kitchen, scullery, and bedrooms. He is obviously pleased when you praise its comfort and beauty. ,And why shouidn t he be? . , , How is it that the Danish farmer can live comfortably when his brother in other lands is in despair? The answer is romance—the romance of a small, discouraged, poor, and almost defeated nation being awakened by high'leadership and noble words to a belief in themselves, and incidentally contentment and prosperity. Bishop Grundtvig, now called the < Prophet of the North,” was the great Danish leader of the nineteenth century. Ho was a poet and a thinker, but in addition a man of great dynamic energy. In his desire to build a new Denmark Grundtvig turned to education as a means. He condemned the dry, dead classical books of his day and talked much of schools for the people. rhese ? , he thought, should gather in young adults after they had spent some years in active life on farms or in workshops. It is he said, between the ages of 18 and 25 that the mind is full of questions. The schools should find an answer to the questions. After much struggle, schools based on Grundtvig’s philosophy came into being. There are to-day 60 of these, and they are known the world over as the Folk High Schools of Denmark. Between one-quarter and one-third of all Danish farmers have attended such a school at least once in their lives. While co-operation as a subject plays no part, nevertheless these schools awakened the Danish peasant to various activities in common, and stirred in him a desire for knowledge. The Folk Schools, then, are the unseen but solid foundation on which the co-operative movement of Denmark rests • Eighty per cent, of the cultivated Danish soil is in the possession of farmers with small or medium-sized holdings. Experience has shown 15 hectares (37i acres) to he the ideal unit. It was such farmers as these that set up the first co-operative dairy as early as 1882 By their joint effort , they set a standard for quality for butter that captured the British market and set them ■ above all competitors. Co-operation has been the shock absorber which has saved tho-farnier from the worst .effects of the world depression. Instead of processors reaping Tuge profits while the_ farmers were impoverished, they, being their own orocessors, got whatever profits there were in the packing and dairying industries. Not only that, hut being their own wholesalers and manufacturers, they paid less for the necessities of life and assured themselves of high quality goods. . To-day the farmer lives in a maze or jo-operation He gets his working -apital from a co-operative credit so--iety; he sells his products through :he great producers’ organisations; 86 >er cent, of all milk is processed in i ,400 co-operative dairies, and 80 per cut. of all pigs are slaughtered and he meat cured in co-cperative slaughter houses. He buys a large part of ils imported feed and fertilisers lirough co-operative purchasing socieies, and 70 per cent, of all household lecessities are purchased through conumers’ co-operatives. In addition to all that, seed for the Aids and stock for the farms me purbased through co-operative seed and reeding associations Co-operatives themselves co-operate o purchase or manufacture the machinery and supplies required. For example, the co-operative dairies have a purchasing and manufacturing society if 22 branches, which supplies its members with the necessary implements, machine, and materials of goqd_ quality and as cheaply as possible by joint pur--hase or from its cwn factory. It is no exaggeration to say that agricultural Denmark is a co-operative commonwealth.