PREFACE 



THE growing of forage crops has been developed in Denmark 

 during the last twenty or thirty years more than any other 

 branch of agriculture. From 1888 to 1919 the acreage under 

 roots increased sevenfold, from 95,000 to 678,000 acres. In 

 attempting to show how this development has been brought 

 about, I begin with the classical feeding experiments of 

 N. J. Fjord, because they first proved to Danish farmers that 

 it paid to grow roots. Fjord devised an original method of 

 ascertaining the relative value of corn, cakes, roots, milk and 

 whey, as food for cows and pigs, and proved that one pound of 

 dry matter or solids in roots was equal in feeding value to one 

 pound of corn. Since two-and-a-half times as much dry food- 

 stuff can be produced on an acre by growing roots as by growing 

 barley, farmers took to growing roots largely. The next two 

 chapters deal with a system of Comparative Cultivation Tests 

 with strains of roots and of grasses, carried out on behalf of the 

 State Committee on Plant Culture by L. Helweg and E. Lind- 

 hard, on the Experimental Stations of the State. The object 

 of these tests is to find the strains of roots which give the 

 highest yield of foodstuff, or dry matter, per acre, and the 

 strains of grasses which give the highest yield of hay. By 

 the published results of these competitions farmers learnt to 

 buy seed of the most productive strains, and the trade in seed 

 changed its character. The last chapter deals with the 

 guarantee of seed not only as to purity, germination and 

 other data of analysis, but also as to genuineness of strain. 

 To guarantee the genuineness of strain is a totally new depar- 

 ture in the trade, which necessitates the co-operation of official 

 institutions. It is undertaken voluntarily by seed merchants 

 and exporters. 



