The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1910-10-21
Dairying in the United
States and Denmark

OIdlCS dIIu denmark
Dean James E. Russell, Of Column
bla University, New York. was re-
Gently a visitor at Washington State
college and during his stay there
addressed an assembly Of the teach
ers Of the Inland Empire, who were
attending the teachers institute in
Pullman. Relative to our dairy in
dustry, he said:
Thirty years ago New York was
sending butter and cheese to the
London markets. New York butter
and cheese were ruling out similar
products from Ontario, and other
parts Of the world. Just then Den
mark began to think she could make
butter and put it. in the London
market. The question was, How
could she overcome the lead that
New York already had in the Lon
don markets? She sent men to
London to study out the ground, to
find what London wanted. Then
she set about to give them the re-
Quired product.
Denmark is a country of poor
soil, which had been titled and over
worked for a thousand years. Never
theless, the Danish population an
nually sells in the markets of Lon
don $35 100000 worth of butter.
In 1903 the entire United States ex-
ported only S1,064,OOO worth Of
butter.
In addition to the vast quantity
of butter mentioned Denmark sends
out one-ffth as much pork as we do,
and just as many horses; and Ger
tainly, we should lead the world in
the breeding of horses.
I'm the meantime the Danish
nation has taught the hens how to
work. Four hundred and fifty
thousand dollars worth Of eggs
were exported by this country in
1875, and in 1903 this export had
reached a value of 5000, 900. In
tie last ten years Denmark has taken
So 900, 900 worth Of corn from Iowa
and Nebraska, via New York, which
she has fed to Danish cows and pigs,
and then placed the latter in the
European markets in successful COM
petition with similar products from
America.
Il said moment ago that twenty
years ago the competitor of Den
mark was the State of New York.
In these twenty years the Danish
people have increased their exports
from 81 100000 to 100000. In
the same twenty years farm values
in the state Of New York have de-
creased $2OC, 100000. In the last
fifteen years Ontario has outbld
New York in the same way in the
cheese market. Twenty years ago
New York companies received Cana
dian cheese and put the New York
stamp on it to get one cent more IN
the English market. Today the
New York farmers are sending their
cheese over the Canadian boundaries
and paying two cents a pound IN or
der to sell it at all.
England is so big a customer
that the Danes in fun reproach their
neighbors with eating up their but
ter, and leaving them only oleomar-
garin. "Yet, /" says F. M. Butlin, in
Among the Danes, /" 'tthey are not
all of that way Of thinking, for one
old farmer asked us if we could not
persuade our fellow countrymen to
eat butter with their cake.
IF you ask how the Danish farm
ers manage to keep pace with our
(the British) increasing appetite for
Danish eggs, butter and bacon, the
answer is, they cooperate. The but
ter which is exported is made in
their cooperative dairies. The pigs
are slain in their cooperative slaugh-
ter-houses, and the Danes are not a
little proud Of the process.
"The eggs are exported by CO
operative societies. If a Dane has
only one egg he can export it-al-
ways provided it be good egg. No
mistake must be made about that.
Before the eggs are packed for ex-
port, down in the cooperative fac
tory on the shore, they are held over
a basin filled with electric light,
when all defects can be detected
with the naked eye. It is no use
for an old egg to pose as q young
one then. Each egg is marked with
the owners number and the number
of his district; the owners Of bad
eggs are fined. No less than Is, ,0O0
Danes belong to this one society,
Here, too, butter is packed for the
English market. .
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