Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-06-03

must be so educated as to make thei
country fit for them to live in. HI
saw that patriotism on an empty
stomach would not work, and he be
gan to form the high schools, of which
there are some 1900 i'm Denmark to
day, which fostered and made posi-
Bile the idea of cooperation.
From 184S, the year in which the
new constitution, it was possible fol
the poor Dane to own land in fee sim
ple-the constitution meaning the
breaking up of the feudal system OF
land tenures-until 1863, when Den
mark lost Schleswig Holstein to Prus
STA, the Danes struggled against ter
ribly adverse circumstances, and then
under the impetus which the high
schools had given them. tey began to
cooperate. In the high schools, which
are open only to men over the age OF
20 years. the Danish farmers learned
that with impoverished land and no
capital they could not compete there
with the great landowners who were
beginning to sell great quantities of
butter and hogs to England and Ger
! many.
"The tendency in Denmark was and
! is to the constant increase of the
small farmers, but the small farmer
| was practically nothing as an indi'
vidual. To control the British mar
ket for fresh butter and the colonial
market for canned butter it was ne
hok $h11 hovo nonitoJ. II
was necessary that their product be
the same in quantity all the year and
always the same in quality. To stan.
dardize any product one must lave
an enormous quantity of that pro.
duct and the power of controlling its
quality. The Danish farmers, in or
der to do this, began to form cooper.
alive societies.
"This movement, fostered, as | said
by Bishop Grundtwig's high schools.
began by the organization of small
societies of farmers of various dist
riots. In these each man was allowed
one vote, but he guaranteed that he
would supply to the cooperative
creamery just so many pounds Of but
ter fat-butter fat being the commod-
ity in which he dealt-and make him
self liable independently, plus the un-
limited liability of the cooperative So
ciety to the Government bank for the
amount of the capital borrowed. The
province of the bank in this transac-
ton is not the main thing to be con-
sidered. The bank must make fair
profit, but the bank really exists for
the benefit of the farmers through
the cooperative societies, which they
themselves formed and which they
themselves govern.
"Today the Danish farmer buys no.
thing Individually. He uses no seeds
till they have been tested by the ex-
perts furnished by the cooperative So
ciety. He buys his fertilizers, soSa
beans from Manchuria, cotton and
meal from the United States. through
the cooperative society. He never
kills his own hogs, though there are
500 hogs to every 1000 persons in
Denmark, but sends them to the CO.
operative bacon factories. which were
founded some time in the sos when
Germany refused the Danish hog be-
cause of an outbreak of swine fever.
The Danes instantly founded, with
the assistance of the Government,
large cooperative bacon factories. In
order to make dairying possible the
Danes had to regenerate the land ex-
hausted by the lack of scientific
treatment.
denmark is not a good grazing
country. The climate for grazing
purposes is probably the worst in the
world. There are only IA weeks in
the year when cattle can Craze in the
open. In the COS and 70's the Dane
lately in possession Of his land
found that he must root or die, or be.
come an exile, as the Irish were. for
the lack of assistance from an in TEL
iigent government. He rooted. That
is. he saw the roots--the turnip, the
carrot. and, above all, the great sug
ar-beet root-coUld be used not alone
for feeding his dairy cattle, but could
be made most useful in restoring his
exhausted soil; but he did nothing at
haphazard.
Being an educated man, he was
an open minded man and he induced
his Government to furnish experts
who could finally answer any ques.
tion he might ask. AS an example,
let us take the small farmer with
three cows three hogs, four head of
small cattle, and horse or two. He
farms perhaps II acres. Now. it is a
question with him as to the rotation
of his crops; it is a question as to
the amount Of butter fat that COW
should produce. He has, through the
cooperative society, the use of a sci.
entif1c expert, who visits his farm
every 1S days and answers all these
questions after consultation with
him. Furthermore. he keeps a dupli-
cate set Of books for the farmer, so
that the farmer knows exactly the
amount Of butter fat each COW Yields
every week, w1en the COWS are ex-
pected to calve. the value of the serv-
ice Of every bull in use, and the ex-
act position of the farmer economf-
cally and agriculturally. For this SER
vice the farmer pays the expert 30
cents yearly per COW, the Govern
ment paying the rest of the experts
salary-the expert being attached to
the Royal Danish Cooperative Socie.
ty.
Denmark is a country which com
prises $4,000 square miles, which is,