4 (Q-OPEEAailON IN DANISH AGKICULTUKE 



used for the cultivation of vegetables or as an orchard, for 

 keeping bees, and for grazing the horses when they were resting 

 from work on the common field. 



All the land outside the farmvard and the toft was common 

 property, and here the peasant had no individual rights. The 

 use of the common land was arranged as follows. A small 

 part only was used as arable land, the greater part was either 

 left under permanent pasture for the cattle or else was common 

 or woodland. In some parts of the country continuous corn 

 cropping was the custom. In some parts of Jutland a kind 

 of rotation grass cropping was in use, corn (rye, barley, and 

 oats) being sown for five, occasionally for as many as ten years 

 in succession, after which the field was laid down in grass for 

 some years ; but on the islands and in the south-east of Jutland 

 the usual mode of cultivation was a three-field system, probably 

 handed down from early mediaeval times. As indicated by 

 the name it was a three years' rotation, winter corn, then 

 spring corn, and then fallow. 



The corn crops were rye, barley, and sometimes oats, but 

 frequently the oats were grown outside the proper field, on 

 the common land lying farther away. On the usual system 

 of tenure the field, called " Vang," was divided into several 

 strips, *' Aase," which each year were distributed among the 

 peasants according to the quality of the strips and their position 

 in regard to the sun. The idea was, that nobody should be 

 favoured by having his corn grown in a better part of the 

 field than the others, all should share alike in the use of the 

 good and of the inferior soil. As a consequence each peasant 

 had many, separate, often long and narrow strips in each 

 " Vang." These he was to cultivate in the same manner as 

 the other peasants. His right to graze his cattle in the meadow 

 and to use the common grass-land and wood-land was in 

 proportion to his share in the corn fields. This system of tenure 

 necessitated a kind of co-operation suitable to the conditions. 

 This co-operation in the field work led to co-operation in other 

 spheres, and to mutual aid and support. 



The system of tenure influenced the way of building the 

 villages, which were different from those of the present day. 

 The character of the Danish landscape as we see it now, with 



