Evening star., 1923-02-25
Are Really Uncrowned Kings in the Land of the Danes

country makes about the best butter
on earth and exports tens OF millions
of dollars worth, its farmers eat
margarine that they may have more
butter to sell. One OF the Official
tells me he ventures SO per cent OF
the dairy farmers sell all the butter
they make.
But come with me out into the coun.
try and see cooperative farming with
your own eyes We shall take a Dan
ish automobile and valdamar Hansen
who was brought UP ON a farm. WI!
be our chauffeur. We ride out OF
Copenhagen over a road paved with
brick, with a bicycle path on each
side. There is also a car line and a
way for foot passengers We pass
many beautiful villas. and on the
edge of the city see great tracts OF
truck gardens, each having a shack
put up by the municipality for the
poor people TO come out and live in
the country during the summer. Every
family has its garden and house free
and thousands are accommodated this
way.
Going on. we drive through the sub
urbs of the capital and finally reach
the country, where there are farm
steads large and small, with grain
fields and pastures covering the land
scape. The buildings are all painted
white; many of the houses and barns
are covered with a straw thatch turn
ed velvety brown by the weather The
thatched roofs are often a foot ehicI,
and they extend out over the white
walls below. The brick chimney
which come up through the thatch arr
white
The barns are all built arounf
yards They often consist of one long.
low building. with wings at each end
extending out like the heads Of =
capital 1T" On the larger farms the
buildings often surround the barns
Most of the barns are of but one
story. and they cover a great deal OF
ground Others are smaller, but an
are well kept and scientifically ar
ranged
II
IL steads. a place of forty acres
The owner keeps nine COWS in full
milk and has five calves growing UP
He has also chickens and pigs ana
is laying UP money. We go with him
first into the COW stable. 1t is like
thousands in Denmark. 1t is lighted
with large windows and most of il
is hoored with thick concrete. Tn,
COWS stand upon boards with their
heads in stanchions. and behind runs
drain that saves every bit of the
manure. The stalls are washed out
every morning and the water and dirt
go into the farm cistern, from where
the contents are pumped out and
taken directly to the fields Over each
stall is a black board about as bie
as school slate. on which we see il,
chalk the cows diary. II is a. recorl
or the amount Of milk she gave the
previous day, together with the bu,
ter fat it contained. This is kept for
every COW. and each one must earn
her living. If she falls off the farn-r
may change her feed, and if she docs
not come up she goes to the scran
heap. by which is meant she is solo
The authorities tell me that the aver
age life work of a COW in Denmark !.
only five years. She is pushed 70 th4
utmost and at the end of that tirns ;e
sold and probably goes of 70 Cor.
many. Fully 10 per cent Of all the
dairy cows are disposed Of in that
way every year
our next visit is TO the pigFery
rms is of concrete and kent 40 we,l
drained that the pigpens are drv
Like the stable and. indeed, all the
other buildings on the farmstead II
is lighted by electricity, the curreut
coming over long transmission line
from Sweden. The pigs are York
shires' clean, fat and roseate white
Looking through the silvery bristIes
their complexion is that of a newly
washed baby. They grunt at us as W..
look over the wall, and are SO well
fed that they do not squeal and rush
to the trough at the sight of then.
master.
When Denmark started in m.
dairy business and began to raise pigs
100000 pounds per annum outside
her own country. Last year her e7-
ports of bacon and ham amounted to
only 1S7.00o.000 pounds and her hogs
numbered almost 100000. Neverthe-
less, she raises no corn or other hog
food to speak of and the pigs are fat
tened on SKINNED milk and chop
We have on our farms just now
sixty or seventy millions of swine.
and We are the greatest hog food
producing country on earth. II. in
proportion TO our area, we had az
many hogs as has Denmark, the mum.
Der would be oo,ooo0 600, and "
could probably produce many more.
I EAV1NG the piggery, we go irs~.
IL the barn proper, where are stored
the grain and other produce raised
by the farmer. This building has
thick roof of gray thatch, and al
though of but one story. 1t is piled to
the roof in most parts with food o.
one kind or another. At the side Of
the door is what might be called
baby threshing machine with q port
able electric motor in a box by It's
side. The motor is run by the electric
current from Sweden, and as it is
raining the farm hand is threshing
wheat. He stands at one end OF the
machine and feeds in the sheaveS
which he has pulled down from the
loft. The electricity does the WORK
and the clean, brown wheat rolls out
Of the funnel into a sack below.
/ Before leaving 1 took a picture Of