140 RURAL DENMARK 



cows had been tested for tuberculosis, with the result 

 that out of the noo on the estate only two re-acted. 



Mr. Tesdorpf is making experiments as to in-breed- 

 ing on the plan that is advocated by some authorities, 

 but does not yet know whether these will succeed. 

 Ultimately, however, he hopes so to bring things 

 about that all his vast herd will be directly descended 

 from two or three famous milkers, and thus largely to 

 increase their average output. His bulls, which in 

 the sheds looked almost black in colour, are chosen 

 not so much by their appearance as by the milking 

 records of their dams. The result is that although 

 the tails of some of them may be set too high according 

 to our ideas, or they may have other defects, the 

 quantity of milk given by their progeny and the per- 

 centage of butter-fat continually rise. 



Leaving this cow-shed, where all the manure water 

 drains into a great underground tank in the middle of 

 the byre, I went to an enormous barn that contained 

 the entire harvest of the farm. In one part of this 

 barn three horses were employed in driving a chaff- 

 cutter, doubtless because it would not be safe to use 

 an engine in such a place. These buildings, or at 

 least those of them that contained animals, were lit 

 throughout by what is known as air gas. 



Mr. Tesdorpf has been a good deal troubled by 

 contagious abortion among his cows, but at the time 

 of my visit was rid of this dreadful complaint, which 

 he said the Danish veterinaries treat very cleverly. 

 Also he had suffered recently from a disease that 

 was new to him although not unknown in Denmark, 

 which killed nine of his cows. So far as I could gather 

 from his description of the symptoms, it must be very 

 similar to what, when I farmed in South Africa, we 



