in Denmark, Siveden, and Russia. 411 



are made in Funen, and considerable attention is at present directed 

 to the improvement of the latter article. The refuse milk is em- 

 ployed in fattening pigs. A mixture of clover, or nettles or other 

 weeds, with water and whey, allowed to stand till it is sour, is also 

 much employed in Holstein and Sleswick in the feeding of pigs, 

 and is said to fatten wonderfully. 



In Funen there exists an agricultural society, under the name of 

 the Patriotic Societ}^ which exerts itself in the promotion of a 

 better husbandry. The principal improvements yet effected have 

 arisen by the introduction of better implements and the encourage- 

 ment of better ploughing. The preparation of composts also, 

 through their exertions, is beginning to be understood and prac- 

 tised. The meadows are dressed with town-manure and wood- 

 ashes ; but notwithstanding the Avonderful effects it produces in 

 Mecklenburg, a country so near, gypsum has not been found 

 beneficial in Funen. As the same fact has been observed also in 

 Holstein, it is probable that the soils of the boulder formation, 

 which, as I have said, covers so much of the eastern half of Den- 

 mark, are already sufficiently impregnated with gypsum or with 

 some other saline sulphates which act in a similar manner upon 

 vegetation.* If this be so, it affords an illustration of the im- 

 portant practical bearing which an elementary knowledge of the 

 geological structure of a country may have upon the operations of 

 the farmer. The future improvers of Danish agriculture have 

 probably little general benefit to anticipate from the employment 



* It may even be that this supposed richness in sulphates has been one 

 cause of the known productiveness of the rape crops in these districts, since 

 the straw of rape is so rich in sulphuric acid (see previous note, p. 409). The 

 action of the sulphates is no doubt very much owing to the acid they 

 contain ; and they all affect in a similar way the same kind of plants as the 

 clovers and other leguminous crops. Yet they act differently also on certain 

 cultivated plants. Thus Mr. Burnett of Gadgirth, near Ayr, informs me 

 that he last year (1841) dressed two parts of a field of turnips respect- 

 ively with sulphate of soda and with gypsum. The former produced no 

 apparent effect, while the latter doubled the crop. At first I fancied that the 

 land might have been destitute of lime, which the plant obtained from the 

 gypsum ; but I have since learned that the land had previously been heavily 

 limed. Liebig would say that in this experiment the gypsum had fixed the 

 ammonia of the atmosphere, which the sulphate of soda could not do. I do 

 not coincide with those who thus explain the action of gypsum, for reasons 

 which I have elsewhere stated : but the result of Mr. Burnett is so very 

 interesting, that I would gladly hear of the accurate repetition of his experi- 

 ment. 



While this sheet is going through the press I am informed by Mr. 

 Campbell, of Craigie House, near Ayr, only a few miles from Mr. Bur- 

 nett's, but nearer the sea, that he has this year (1842) dressed part of a field 

 of turnips with 2 cwt. of unburned gypsum per acre, without jjroducing any 

 apparent effect . Can the proximity to the sea explain this ? 



2e2 



