80 FORAGE CROPS IN DENMARK 



to Pajbjerg he bought a cartload of swedes from a farmer on 

 whose farm he had noticed a particularly fine crop. After they 

 had been carted for nine miles in a sharp frost most of the roots 

 were found to be frozen, and only about thirty roots grew to 

 seed. From these roots descend the Pajbjerg swedes which 

 were entered at the Comparative Cultivations in 1900. They 

 came out in Class L, and at every competition since then this 

 strain has maintained its position as a first-class swede. 1 

 Another strain of Hvidberg's is a Yellow Tankard turnip, 

 originally evolved from seed from P. Lawson and from Mark- 

 fr0kontoret (now Trifolium), Copenhagen. This strain obtained 

 a Class I. certificate in 1902 and has since maintained that 

 position, and other Yellow Tankard strains in Class I. have 

 been derived from the Pajbjerg strain. 2 Some years ago the 

 firm, which owns several farms and branches in various parts 

 of the country, with large warehouses, was converted into a 

 joint stock company, " Pajbjerg, Ltd.," with J. Hvidberg as 

 its chairman and its headquarters in Copenhagen. 



In olden time the Danish seed trade had been* characterised 

 by Chr. P. Jacobsen as " the lawlessness of ignorance." 

 E. M011er Hoist founded his seed testing office in 1871, and the 

 next year Jacobsen and others invited farmers to participate 

 in the joint purchase of analysed seed, and so formed the 

 Markfr0kontor, the first firm to deal in analysed seed, and now 

 known as Trifolium. Since then the control of the trade in 

 seed has been developed considerably. When in 1891 the 

 Seed Testing Station was taken over by the State only 1600 

 samples were tested annually, and during the next twelve years 

 the number increased very slowly. Seed merchants and farmers 

 then began to see the necessity of giving or of obtaining some 

 guarantee as to the quality of the seed, its purity and germina- 

 tion, and more samples were sent in for analysis. By 1907 the 

 number had increased to 4200, by 1911-12 to 11,500, and in 

 1918-19 the number was about 24,400. This large increase is 

 due partly to the largely increased acreage under seed crops, 

 seed merchants, seed growers and their associations sending in 



1 L. Helweg, Report, Tidsskrift for Planleavl, 17 vol., 1910, p. 2G2. 



2 Vor Frtyavl, January, 1919. These strains have been mentioned several 

 times in the second chapter. 



