32 FORAGE CROPS IN DENMARK 



the cultivation of seed by sending out stock seed and buying 

 the seed crop of growers, by carrying out experiments, by 

 issuing an annual publication, and in several other ways. It 

 was the first business in the world which offered farmers seed 

 of guaranteed analysis. In 1900 " Markfr0kontoret " was 

 turned into a joint stock company called " Trifolium," l which 

 is still among the leading seed firms in Denmark. Jacobsen's 

 endeavour to improve the cultivation of agricultural seed 

 found vent in another direction. In 1876, in conjunction with 

 M011er-Holst, Fr. Wendt, and others, he formed a " Society for 

 the Production of Home- Grown Seed," managed by a committee, 

 on which were three scientific botanists, three seed merchants, 

 and nine farmers. 2 The aims of the Society, which in 1880 

 changed its name to the " Society for Improving Cultivated 

 Plants," were to encourage the growing of seed by securing the 

 best stock seed, and by assisting the trade in approved home- 

 grown seed ; to regulate and simplify the nomenclature of roots 

 and other agricultural plants, and to do away with the many 

 trade names for practically identical plants ; to assist com- 

 parative experiments with roots and the growing of seed, 

 particularly by small-holders ; to arrange exhibitions, and 

 so on. 



An improved cultivation of roots was brought to the notice 

 of Danish farmers from outside, and in two ways. One was 

 the introduction of the growing of sugar-beet. The seed was 

 bought in Germany, and the advanced method of cultivation 

 practised there was taught the farmers who grew sugar-beet on 

 contract with the beet sugar factories. The other was the 

 experience of Danish estate owners, who visited Scotland and 

 England and studied the cultivation of roots, and even helped 

 young agricultural graduates to go there to study, in order to 

 teach the farmers what they themselves had learnt. In 1876 

 a young gardener, M. P. Andersen, had studied seed culture in 

 Scotland and England (Lincolnshire). He published his report 

 in 1879, 3 in which he explained how the large seed merchants 

 in Great Britain produced stock seed by selecting in the autumn 



1 " Dansk Fr0avls Kompagni og MarkfMkontoret Trifolium " is the full 

 title of the firm. 



a " Om Landbrugets Kulturplanter," K0benhavn, 1879. 

 * " Tidsskrift for Land0konomi," K0benhavn, 1879, p. 283. 



