FOBEWOKD vii 



isolated. It is enough to say here that outstanding success 

 rewarded the investigators, and growers of strains of the first 

 class are able to obtain as much as 2 to 3 per pound for their 

 accredited seed. One of the encouraging features of these 

 trials is the continual striving after still greater success. The 

 strain of mangels which is to-day incomparable may become, 

 in a few years' time, second or third rate. Other strains may 

 come to the front and be demonstrated to be of greater value. 

 One result of these trials is to show that the Danish seed pro- 

 duced in Denmark is superior to the seed imported from 

 abroad, and whereas Denmark was formerly a large user of 

 British and of foreign grown seeds the tables have been turned 

 and Denmark is now an exporter of seed to other countries. 



Work of selection and improvement has been done by 

 seedsmen and private firms in this country, and to them we 

 are, as agriculturists and food producers, very greatly indebted. 

 No comprehensive and State aided attempt has yet been made, 

 however, on the lines of this Danish experiment, and there is 

 no doubt that a valuable and fertile field for such research lies 

 open to the Agricultural Departments and Agricultural Eesearch 

 Stations of the United Kingdom. 



Another section of Mr. Faber's book is devoted to the 

 improvement of grasses by selection. In grass farming as in 

 root growing Denmark was capable of great improvement up 

 to about 1875. A great change then took place through the 

 exertions of one man who began life as an agricultural labourer 

 at the age of ten. Later on, he became a schoolmaster, and 

 his name P. Nielsen is now well known to all agricultural 

 improvers of arable crops. It was Nielsen who introduced the 

 system of small " parallel " plots for experimental purposes in 

 place of large fields, and this method of small plots in duplicate 

 or triplicate has been almost universally adopted by other 

 experimenters. The grass seed of Denmark in those days was 

 exceedingly bad. Good samples would germinate only about 

 25 per cent., and it was difficult to discover where good samples 

 could be obtained. Most grass seed was such as the farmers 

 saved from 'heir own fields. The great advance was made 

 when a socie for the cultivation and sale of Danish grass seed 

 was formed. This and other affiliated societies have aroused 



