414 Ayrlcidtural Tour 



4tli, oats^ with manure — 5th, rye — 6tli, oats — 7tli, rye-grass, after 

 which the ground remained five years in grass. This was only six 

 white crops in twelve years, but these six were taken in succession. 



Rye is the principal food of the people of all classes ; compa- 

 ratively few potatoes are used, and of these such as are small 

 and waxy are preferred in Denmark generally, as they are in 

 Sweden and in some parts of Germany. The larger potatoes are 

 given to the cattle and pigs. I observed a considerable breadth 

 of buckw^heat in some parts of Jutland, especially about Grenae. 

 This grain is much used for puddings, for feeding cattle also, and 

 for distillation. 



From the Randers district (Randers Amt) I went north to 

 Gudumlund, in the Aalborg Amt, and near the mouth of the 

 Lyme Fiord. Here also the land was chiefly in pasture, and the 

 character of the soil on the higher grounds was nearly the same 

 as farther south. But in this neighbourhood there is a consider- 

 able extent of flat, marshy or boggy land, on which the soil is a 

 deep black vegetable mould, and which, in the lower unimproved 

 and not naturally drained parts^ is covered with an open coppice 

 of birch, intermingled with hazel and oak, and on the drier places 

 with a brushwood of juniper. 



On the estate of Hostemark, at the distance of a ^ew miles 

 from Gudumlund, and which was farmed by its owner, Mr. 

 Hvass, the brother of my kind host the local judge, a considerable 

 portion of this low land had been reclaimed and improved. On 

 this farm the rotation on the sandy soils was: — 1st, buckwheat, 

 with manure — 2nd, rye — 3rd, rye — 4th, rye-grass, or woolly soft 

 grass (Holcus lanatus), and then three years' grass, the whole of 

 this sort of land being divided into seven portions to suit this rota- 

 tion. The light black earth of such of the marshy land as admitted 

 of arable culture was ploughed two or three times when broken 

 up and manured, after which it was cropped with barley, vetches 

 or oats, rye, oats, and then sown down with Holcus lanatus, and 

 left four years in pasture. There is a large quantity of this 

 marsh-land, or moss, as it is there called, which by good drainage 

 would at once be converted into excellent meadow, while that 

 which already admits of arable culture might by the same means 

 be rendered capable of bearing any crop. It all rests upon a 

 substratum of chalk and flints, so that the means of improvement 

 are at hand. It is possibly the existence of this substratum which 

 makes this marshy surface more naturally productive than the 

 peat-bogs of our own country. 



This marshy tract is all new land, gained from the waters, pro- 

 bably of an arm of the sea, within a comparatively recent period. 

 Of this, among other proofs, may be mentioned the muscle and 

 cockle shells found over it all, at a depth of 1 or 2 feet, — the 



