The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1922-06-02
NOTE BOOK SKETCHES

HILL q CCIltuIy DGGL COllSluSICu lie HlOSJ
successful farmers of Europe. Their
products of field and herd are sought
everywhere, and they compete success
| fully in every market, capturing top
| prices.
| The reason for this success must be
/ sought IN the fact that the Danish
| farmer has built himself up intelligent
| ly at the same time that he has worked
hard to build his herd, his soil and
his agricultural organizations.
| When the Danish farmer receives
highly satisfactory prices for his pro-
/ ducts, it is the result of long line of
circumstances of which he has taken
Intelligent advantage.
/ At the bottom, and fundamental
throughout, is his educational equip
ment. The Danish farmer is broadly
trained. Denmark has number of
schools scattered over the country, the
Peoples High Schools. These schools
are located in the heart of rural COM
munities, close to the people and to
their work. They are not high schools
lin the American sense of the word;
| they are not link in chain of grades
Heading from the kindergarten to the
university, offering courses restricted
in scope and directed toward prepara-
tiOn for entrance upon the study for a
profession. They admit grown-up folks
] of any age from 18 to 80. Upon en-
trance a pupil may select any subject
that he is capable of handling, and he
may stay any number of weeks. He is
not requested to bring certificate of
graduation from any grade in order to
/ join class; he is free to do his best
wherever he finds he can learn some
thing that to him is important.
These schools are attended by the
young Danish farmer and his sister,
and sometimes the father and son,
mother and daughter are spending a
few weeks at one of these schools to-
Igether, especially during the winter
/ ter season.
i Agriculture is one of the important
subjects offered. 1t is not only taught
as an isolated craft requiring certain
Ispecific skill in order to be followed
successfully, but as part of man s
and woman's place in life. Plant chem
listry and soil chemistry, plant physiol-
ogy and meteriology, botany, animal
hnsbandry, hygiene of man and beast,
home economy, community planning,
history, politics, music, languages, me-
chanics, industrial economy, commerce
kakd sociology are offered through lee
Itures, experiments, discussions and
Ireadings, and made to touch the minds
of these men and women. Not to make
/ them masters in specialized knowledge
in any one branch, but to make them
intelligently appreciative Of the value
and use in the biggest of all industries,
life.
Out Of these schools have risen in the
Ination cultured rural population; peo-
pie who read and think and who can
appreciate the need of the other fellow.
With it has come the ability to work
| together for common ends. and sens
ling of the value of subordinating self in
terest to the common interest, and CO.
ordination of energy, making the doing
of big things in big way possible. On
the other land it has helped to remove
the bane of ignorance, suspicion, which
always stood in the way OF successful
collective endeavor.
On these broad fundamentals the
Danish farmer has reared his structure
of agricultural success at the same time
that he as class has become one of
the most intelligent, self-reliant and
progressive citizens. He understands
farming and be understands business
and books. He does not feel that he is
'tonly farmer; quite the opposite:
as farmer he is conscious of his power
and of his responsibility
In building up his soil, his herd, his
farm equipment and his labor efficiency
/ he has made quality in the article
stand out as the first requisite of profit.
The Danish farmer is intelligent enough
to understand that CO. operation in pro
duction of quality must precede CO.
operation in getting returns, to be OF
lasting benefit. The Danish farmer is
we'll organized for marketing purposes,
but above all, he is we'll organized tC
make Danish products stand forward in
the world as Incompatible IN quality.
1t is this discipline, making the Danish
farmers furnish from the barn, the
field, the dairy, the orchard a product
which makes it desirable to the con-
sumer, that has captured the markets
for him, and given him the top returns
He is not trying to combine for the
purpose of forcing big return upor
an inferior article.
The endeavor of farmers co-opera.
tive associations in Denmark is first arc
formost directed at making it advan.
tageous, to the least as well as the big
gest among them, to raise the STANDARD
of quality In their products. The Other
end of it is comparatively easy.
/. ***
i In sketching the above outline o.
modern agricultural efficiency in Den
mark, The Reporter has had in mine
the efforts among American farmers a.
cooperative undertakings. The sad
ness of agricultural cooperative meas
ures in the United States has been the
IA lack of sustained and permanent bene
fit attending them. So many of the
t farmers cooperative organizations
have gone by the board, and at loss
to the farmers. Some say it is due K
politics entering the organizations; 9th
| ers say it was due to Encouragement
others again, that it was due to the in
} ability of the farmers to stick together
We are inclined to believe that none o.
these causes explains the failures. L
looks rather as if the real cause is fail
,1re TO start where the Danes started