IN DESPERATE STRAITS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4860, 18 June 1936, Page 3

IN DESPERATE STRAITS.

“DANISH FARMERS ARE NOT HAPPY.”

Critical European observers are pointing out that Denmark, in concentrating on the British market, has built up a national economy on a dangerous foundation. They are losing the market they have depended upon, and now must organise for a new objective. Certainly at the present time the Danish farmer is in a bad way, that is if we are to believe a British observer with a party of Irish farmers, who recently investigated the farming position of Denma,rk. This observer, A. A. McGuckian, says in the official organ of the Pig Marketing Board of Northern Ireland:

“Danish farmers are not happy. They have built up a mighty machine to produce and distribute, and they have only succeeded in getting into debt. The average debt on Danish farms is around £6O an acre. Every pound of butter sold loses the producer about sd. They are about the largest butter producers in the world, and they cannot afford to eat butter; they use margarine. And they don’t eat bacon. Agricultural wages are low, about 18s a week and 20s at harvest. Anyone could get a farm if he would take over the interest. I asked a man who is a large farmer, and who is also chairman of a number of co-operative organisations, about the prospects for the future, and he said ‘poverty.’ ”