86 FORAGE CROPS IN DENMARK 



Station samples taken in the presence of both seller and buyer 

 as fully described in the bill. Should the goods be deficient 

 in quality the buyer may refuse to take delivery or may claim 

 compensation, and if the parties cannot agree, the matter may, 

 if the seller has so stipulated at the time of sale, be decided by 

 arbitration according to rules stated in the Bill. 



It was perhaps not unnatural that a very strong protest 

 against this proposed legislation should come from the part 

 of the merchants, who among other arguments objected, that 

 if all consignments were to be equally guaranteed under Law 

 there could be no incentive for buyers to purchase from the 

 more reliable firms, but that less scrupulous firms would gain 

 an advantage, and that there was no necessity whatever for 

 the legislation, as good firms already offered sufficient guarantee 

 to buyers. The Bill became Law as far as manures and feeding- 

 stuffs are concerned, 1 but the parts dealing with seed corn and 

 seed were left out. It is curious to notice that the principal 

 agricultural paper, Ugeskrift for Landmcend, 2 anticipated that 

 the cost to the State of controlling the trade and of carrying 

 out the necessary number of analyses would be very great, and 

 that the Minister of Agriculture mentioned during the delibera- 

 tions in the Rigsdag, that, presumably for the sake of economy, 

 the State could not undertake the control, but that this might 

 be done through the Agricultural Societies. In 1895 the Seed 

 Testing Station had analysed 1500 samples. The Ugeskrift 

 estimates that at least 2000 more samples must be analysed 

 annually, which it thinks would be rather costly. Compare 

 with this the fact that the Seed Testing Station last year 

 analysed 24,400 samples, and is now very nearly self- supporting ! 

 But even more gratifying is the fact, already stated, that the 

 control of the trade, which the agricultural party wished to 

 introduce by legislation, has been established without legislation, 

 and at the same time avoiding the objection raised by the 

 merchants, that the less scrupulous firms would benefit when 

 the trade of all was subjected to the same control. The 

 voluntary control now practised is a distinct advantage not 

 only to the farmers but to all high class firms. 



1 Law on the Trade in Manures and Feeding Stuffs, of 26th March, 1898. 



2 See that weekly paper, 1896, p. 635. 



