72 FOKAGE CEOPS IN DENMAEK 



the inferior strains. Two different objects might be aimed at, 

 either to find those strains which produced the largest amount 

 of seed, or to find those which produced the greatest quantity 

 of hay. The first might seem at the first glance to offer the 

 greatest advantage to seed growers and seed merchants, while 

 evidently the production of hay was what the farmers were 

 interested in. As, however, the seed grower will find it his best 

 policy in the long run to study the interest of his customers, it 

 was decided that the aim of these competitions should be to 

 find those strains which produce the largest quantity of hay. 

 An invitation was issued by the State Committee in 1908 

 through the agricultural press to enter samples ; these were to 

 be grown on at least four of the six Experimental Stations, 

 the seed to be sown two years in succession, under cover of a 

 corn crop ; the plants to be left growing for one, two, or three 

 years, according to their character ; the comparison to be 

 between the yields of hay ; the results to be published at the 

 end of each series, giving names of the competitors. As far as 

 space permitted samples could be entered by every Danish 

 seed grower who had grown a strain during a series of years, 

 or who had originated a strain or acquired the ownership of 

 one, and who undertook to supply, free of cost, seed for two 

 years, and give all desired information about the origin and 

 history of his strain. At each station each sample was grown 

 on five to seven, generally six, plots in the field. The resulting 

 crops were cut, a first and a second cut each year, dried and 

 weighed, as nearly as possible under the same conditions at 

 each time and place. 



Samples were entered of cocksfoot, Italian ryegrass, meadow 

 fescue, meadow foxtail (alopecurus pratensis), tall oat grass, 

 timothy, of early and late red clover, white clover, and birds' 

 foot trefoil (lotus corniculatus), and cultivated together with 

 trade samples from the localities abroad, whence the imported 

 seed were generally derived, and also samples of many strains 

 which had been improved by several years' cultivation at the 

 Experimental Stations at Tystofte and Abed. The samples 

 were sown in 1909 and 1910, to be reported on in 1913. So 

 many requests to have other samples tested were received 

 while this first competition was still being carried out, that 



