ON AGRICULTURE TO DENMARK 73 



most effectual nianure for maintaining the fertility, as it not only 

 supplies the necessary manurial material, but provides substance 

 and ability to retain moisture so essential in a country with a warm 

 dry summer. 



Manure 



The Danish farmer fully realises that the manure is a very 

 important asset, and a considerable amount of capital is often 

 expended in order to conserve and keep it. The liquid manure is 

 conveyed from the channel behind the cows, where it collects, 

 through traps, to a pipe which flows into a liquid manure tank. 

 These tanks are made with the object of storing the liquid 

 manure of a whole winter season, so that it may be applied to the 

 grass land in spring. Similarly the summer accumulation is kept 

 and applied in autumn. This is accomplished by using very large 

 underground tanks, which are built of brick and cement, and 

 which are usually circular in shape. If the farm is situated on 

 sloping ground the tank is placed at the highest possible point 

 which will admit of it taking the urine from the byre. A pipe is 

 then run underground from the bottom of the tank till it comes 

 out on the surface of the lower ground, and the earth is cut 

 away at that point so as to admit of a cart being placed underneath 

 the tap. Where, however, no fall in the ground can be utilised to 

 save labour in this way, a pump has to be erected over the tank 

 and the manure pumped into the cart. The liquid manure is 

 applied in no haphazard fashion, but is used to cover a definite 

 part of the farm every year just in the same way as a farmer in 

 this country applies his farmyard manure regularly to certain of 

 his crops. The dung is collected carefully in another pit which 

 has sides and bottom so sloped that any liquid collects in a sump, 

 and can be pumped out and used as required. These manure 

 pits are often covered with a roof to prevent the manure being 

 wasted and diluted by rain. The usual method of applying the 

 dung is to spread it over the land during the early months of the 

 year and carefully plough it in. It may be added that there is 

 always available locally considerable quantities of creamery and 

 bacon factory sewage which are readily purchased by the farmers 

 for manure, the ready removal of the sewage in this way being a 

 great advantage to these institutions. 



Implements of Husbandry 



With implements of husbandry the Danish farmer is well 

 supplied. At agricultural shows and elsewhere a great variety of 

 both home and imported machines of all sorts were seen. The most 

 striking feature of this display is the way the small holder is 

 catered for, the demand having evidently fostered ingenuity and 

 enterprise to produce a great variety of implements on a scale 

 never seen in this country. The most noteworthy of these are 

 the one-horse implements, especially the ploughs. The Danish 



