Anita Kildebęk Nielsen
Danish Butter Export from a Scientific Perspective.
The Role of the Agricultural Research Laboratory.

The re-structuring of Danish agriculture in the second half of the nineteenth century culminated in the establishment of a strong, well-organized dairy industry that by the turn of the twentieth century produced export butter of high quality. The industry depended on the development of technological innovations such as the installation of steam engines and new apparatuses in the creameries and on scientific innovations. The research and experimental work done at the Agricultural Research Laboratory (put into service 1883) played an essential role in this part and as mediator between the men of science and the men of practice. The paper exemplifies this function and focuses on the research of the laboratory in the context of a growing scientific approach to agriculture that was closely associated with the agrarian re-structuring.