36 FORAGE CHOPS IN DENMARK 



and the following year, and every year from 1891 onwards a 

 report was issued giving the result for two years. Every year 

 three or four samples of the best seed to be obtained from seed 

 merchants at home and abroad were sown for the sake of com- 

 parison along with the sample of the same varieties sent in by 

 Danish seed growers. 



The seeds were sown at first on various large farms, and every 

 precaution was taken to have the roots grown under favourable 

 conditions, the same for all samples. After some years' working 

 according to this plan it was found necessary to have the samples 

 grown on the Experimental Stations of the State, and from 

 1894 to 1899 the competitions were carried out on the four 

 Experimental Stations then existing. When later on three 

 more stations, besides three branch stations, were acquired 

 by the State, these new stations also took their part in the 

 work of these " Comparative Cultivations." It was considered 

 necessary to work with greater accuracy than could be obtained 

 by growing the samples on ordinary farms, because it was con- 

 templated to publish, in connection with the experiments to be 

 carried on after 1899, the names of the growers of seed of the 

 best strains. Such publication would obviously have a very 

 great influence on the trade in seed, and affect the economic 

 interest of growers and merchants to a considerable extent. 

 It was, therefore, necessary that the classification should be 

 quite reliable. The samples grown between 1894 and 1899 

 were not procured by public invitation, as had been done 

 hitherto, but certain merchants and some of the best growers 

 of seed were privately asked to send in samples. 



The chief object of the work during the first series, 1889- 

 1899, might be said to be to evolve and to develop a reliable 

 experimental technique. It was necessary to find out to what 

 degree of accuracy the relative value of various strains could 

 be estimated, for instance, on how many " parallel plots " on 

 the field of each station a sample should be grown to give a 

 reliable result, how to take a true average sample of a root crop, 

 and how to estimate the amount of total solids in the sample, 

 and so on. It was necessary that the work of preparing the 

 soil, sowing, cultivation, and harvesting of the roots should be 

 performed in exactly the same manner in each case, and this 



