Dairy Suggestions from Europe. 



217 



of growth, calling for different management. It should be kept in mind 

 that the country contains less than 15,000 square miles, or only one- 

 fourth the area of Illinois. On the whole, the land is naturally poor 

 and the climate not congenial. The country lies low and is either flat or 

 undulating. The summers are comfortable, l)ut so short and dry that 

 oats have only time to mature and, 

 of course, Indian corn cannot be 

 raised. The cows have to be kept 

 indoors more than half the year. 

 The two significant and impor- 

 tant factors in Danish agriculture 

 are that ninety per cent, of the 

 land is owned by the men operat- 

 ing it and the greater part of the 

 country is under cultivation. 

 The British farmer has sought 



A large windmill for grinding grain. 



economy in putting more land 



to grass and thus saving labor, wliile the Danish farmer has 

 found success in the opposite direction. About the only resource of the 

 Danes is their land, and although it is in many places poor by nature, 

 they have made the most of it. Improved land laws and systems of 

 land tenure, with education and co-operation, have gradually changed 

 the agricultural conditions of Denmark from distress to prosperity. 

 Large estates have been divided into smaU farms that are now tilled by 

 their owners. The careless methods of former days have given place 

 to an intensive and skillful dairying. The beef producing cattle have 

 been displayed by dairy cows until they hold full sway on almost every 

 farm and have brought success and prosperity to Denmark. 



The farms vary in size from ten to three hundred acres, the aver- 

 age being about fifty acres. The whole country is given up to the most 



Danish farm cottages. 



intensive methods of agriculture, about seventy per cent, of the farm 

 land being under cultivation, and the thirty per cent., that is in grass, 

 is not pastured. A seven year rotation is in general practice, as follows : 



