Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 28

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LE NORD
and in 1916 the above-mentioned colonization society in the
U. S. A., the “Dansk Folkesamfund,« founded the Dalum settle-
ment near Standard, which has also developed satisfactorily.
Among the Danish immigrants in the Dominion there were
many dairymen, and these have contributed considerably to the
growth of dairying in the Canadian prairie Provinces. A Dane,
C. P. Marker, was for many years Dairy Commissioner for Al-
berta, and subsequently became Professor of Dairying at Edmon-
ton. A Danish-born large-scale farmer, C. W. Petersen, has been
Under-Secretary of Agriculture in Alberta, and Dominion Con-
troller of Fuel during the war of 1914—19.
Reliable statistics for Danish immigration into Canada are
only available from 1890. Since then, 29,800 Danish immigrants
have entered the Dominion, viz.:
1890—99 2,267
1900—09 3>3°7
1910—19 4>362
1920—29 18,192
1930—40 1,651
Since 1930 this immigration has almost completely ceased
(of the 1651 immigrants who entered the Dominion during the
last decade, 1307 came in during 1930), as a consequence of
restrictive legislation. In the crisis years about 1930 several
hundred returned to Denmark.
A large majority of the Danish immigrants have settled in
the Prairie Provinces (Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan),
and of the 34,100 Danish-born inhabitants of Canada registered
at the census of 1930 (a figure which includes those who came
from the United States), 25,000 lived in those provinces.
The religious communities, the societies, and the papers have
been the chief factors tending to preserve the Danish cultural
heritage among the Danish-born inhabitants of America. In addi-
tion to them there exist, since the turn of the century, a number
of institutions which in various other ways endeavour to keep
alive the connection with the old country.