But he always went with the farmer to take the milk and cream to the factories. Over those buildings he saw a word that he asked the farmer about. The word was the Danish word that means “Co-operative.” The farmer told Christian the “co-operative” means that the farmers are working together for the good of all. So instead of each farmer making cheese and butter on his own farm and selling it at whatever price he wishes, a group of farmers take their milk and cream to factories where cheese and butter are made for them. There the milk and cream are tested and each farmer is paid a fair price for his cans.
In the cheese factory were cheese balls marked with the word “Danish” in the oval just as the eggs were marked. The man at the cheese factory said, “We put the name ‘Danish’ upon good cheese only. Anybody in any country may be sure that cheese marked ‘Danish’ has been tested before it is sold.”
AN OLD TOWN IN DENMARK
Christian began to feel that it was a splendid idea to have the name “Danish” put upon only good products. In that way people everywhere would come to trust their country. The farmer told him that the idea was the same for each person. He said that Christian could make his own name stand only for good things. He said, “See to it always that the work upon which you write your name is the very best work that you can do.”
A CO-OPERATIVE DAIRY FARM
One day Christian went to visit a farm that had eight hundred acres. Eight hundred acres is a large farm even in America where there is much land, and is, of course, a very large farm in a small country like Denmark. On that farm Christian learned more about the word “co-operation” which means “working together for the good of all.”
On that big farm the farmer works with a college which teaches young people how to run a farm. The young men who do the work on the farm for the farmer are studying with the college teachers how to farm. The young women who cook the meals and take care of the house are also studying with college teachers how to cook and care for a house.
Christian had already decided that he wanted to be a farmer when he was old enough. Now he thought he wanted to study how to be a good farmer on that large farm which worked with the college.