LESSONS FROM DENMARK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143647, 15 November 1911, Page 4

LESSONS FROM DENMARK.

LAND PRODUCING THE MAXIMUM, (Sydney Morning Herald.) Measured by Australian standards Deumarii is an insigumcaiit paicli or country, ami judging by Australian values, the lana xs second and tnird rate. Buc, lorlunateiy lor Australian agriculture, many tanners are beginning to readjust tueir views on tlio question oi area, liic time is approaching when a man s social status will cease to be reckoned by Hie number of sheep he owns or Die number ox acres lie is ’’misusing/' The best farmer will be me man who grows Die best sheep, and who utilises what land he possesses to its fullest capacity. This is at once tho reason or .Denmark's greatness. It is not co-opera-tion, miik-testing. or breeding societies. These are all vital parts ox die system winch is weli-night perfect, (jin the opinion one forms after actual observation is that tho land is made to produce tho maximum. Co-operative dairying is a splendid achievement, but it cannot increase the number of cows per hundred atres. It makes tor the manufacture, but it clues not increase the 'quantity or butter produced on a given area of land. The total ai_*a of Denmark is only 144,848 square miles, as against 87,84 square nines comprised by > iciona, yet it supports a jmpuiation of more than -24 million people, about two-thirds of whom are living in rural districts, and are dependent upon the dairying industry. An Australian fanner is in for many surprises when he comes to this side of tlie world. Ho lias been so often told by “exxierts” that everything European countries are doing is right, that he unconsciously forms vivid mental pictures of the amazing fatness of Die stock, the luxuriance of the pastures, and the tremendous growth of the crops. Denmark, in his imagination, is a country where there is a very fine and a very fat cow of exceptional milking qualities every twenty or thirty yarns, standing m rich pastures, with the clover and the rye belly-high, while, perhaps, in an adjoining paddock, arc mangolds and turnips so heavy as to defy the strength of an ordinary labourer. England is te he a- land of “yellowing corn” and green fields, and so on. In England viie illusion is soon dispelled. Somewhere or other, tucked away in obscure parts of the island, there must be a fair amount of agriculture carried on, for tho newspapers chronicle “crop pros- ; poets” with tho same solemn serious- , ness as in other countries, and official statistics reveal a fairly large production. One sees none of tins activity, however, when travelling by rail across the country.

Denmark differs from England, and from most European countries, with the exception of Belgium, in tho amount and Die thoroughness of its cultivation. That is the first point that strikes the traveller. One knows Denmark as tho country which initiated and applied tho co-operative system to the manufacture of butter, and when time and observation have permitted a full appreciation of its workings, it becomes clear that Denmark stands far in front of other dairying countries. But it takes some time to obtain a good grasp of the workings of this system, whereas a few hours will suffice to show that agriculture, which is really, after all, the basis of the dairying industry, is, if not better understood, more ably practised than in other countries, and is responsible for the vast progress tho country has made within the last 20 or 30 years. I mentioned that the land, viewed from the Australian standpoint, would rate as second or third-class stuff. And this is no exaggeration. I know of large areas of Crown lands in the different Australian States whose quality is quite as good as that of thousands of acres I saw being profitably farmed, not only in Denmark, but in Germany, Holland and Belgium, and where the climatic conditions and Die. rainfall are equally satisfactory. Denmark is almost exclusively utilising this poor land to grow fodder crops, and is bothering little about supplying the English market with vegetable,> and fruits. It is obviously n country that has specialised in dairying, and all rural industry seems to be directed to its improvement and its expansion. By this it is not meant that butter and cheese are the country's only exports. Pigs, bacon, eggs, and horses are also important exports. Pigs and fowls, and the rearing of a few sheep naturally combine with the dairying business, and thus they may bo regarded merely as side Hues, the produce from these sources in the aggregate amounts to several millions oi pounds sterling, and individually it, cousidoarbly increases each farmer's annual income.

Experts will tell you Chat under Die present system of larming the land is annually becoming richer and more valuable, and, of course, that must be | so, but the improvement, though j gradual, will be slow, ami for many | years to come, tho Dane will bo compelled to work rather poor land, and to continue tho conflict against Nature. All the time he is gaining ground, and while his land, by intelligent working, is becoming more fertile, his herd, by scientific selection, is also becoming more profitable. Improvement is being effected in every branch and department of the industry. The farmer himself devotes his labour to the betterment of his holding while he contributes, through tho medium of various co-operative agencies, to the payment ot experts (who, by tho way, are real experts, and are compelled, before they receive their appointments, to qualify by passing practical and scientific tests), who advise them upon the feeding of their stock, who keep the milk records of their- herds, and attend to the specially skilled work of the farm. Every year, as tho records of these co-operative societies clearly show, more and more farmers display a willingness to combine with their neighbours to cut down the cost of production and secure uniformity of quality, and every year these societies, backed to some extent by Government patronage nucl subsidy, are exercising a more autocratic control over the farmer’s business. Instead of resenting this “interference” the farmers are welcoming it, and are cheerfully handing over the most important work of the farm to “outsiders.” They are not doing this from laziness or from indifference; they are doing it because they know it pays them, and pays them handsomely to do it. While those experts exercise their control over the affiliated farms they arc nevertheless , the servants of the farmers, and are appointed by a representative committee elected by the shareholders to the position they occupy.

Before entering on a detailed account of the workings of the many organisations that have made Danish dairying the profitable industry it now is, it is perhaps worth mentioning, from an Australian interest, that from merely travelling through the country there is practically nothing to indicate, or even suggest, that the traveller is in the most advanced dairying country in the world. Except for thick clumps of timber of a few acres in extent, planted by the landowner here and there, there is nothing to obstruct the view, so that one can take in a wide sweep of country at a glance. In a few places is Die country hilly, and never mountainous. The paddocks stretch away in gentle undulations from the carriage window, and the prospect is one of well-tilled fields and small paddorks. Chimps of fine old trees hide tho severity and cover the bareness of the homesteads, for few of them are surrounded by extensive gardens. The hind is too '’valuable for mere ornamentation, but there is always the small vegetable plot around the house. In summer the landscape, with tho white walls of the half-hidden homesteads showing through the trees, is qiuet and reposeful, but it is not' pretty; and in winter, when everything is bare, there must be little that is attractive about it. At first the absence of cattle from many of the farms seems curious, uiuU one stopped to reflect, and thou the explanation was easy. Though it was midsummer at the time of my visit the weather was fairly cold, and so most of the cattle were confined to the byres ail day as well as all night. Here and there a few cows were tethered, and were grazing either on the growing crops or in fields of red clover, but many of them, during tho cold spell, wore kept under cover.