22 



very actual on account of the before.mentioned abolition of the Joint 

 cultivation of the fields. He also mentions barberry, stating C1804J, ^ke 

 Begtrup, that in England it has been proved that a strange antipathy 

 between barberry and the cereals exists. This observation was noticed 

 by^ean Hbibhko. and in a succeeding number of the "Oeconomiske 

 Annaler" (1805) he recounts how his fields at Kirkesaaby near Hoi. 

 b^ek, in 1795, were divided into lots surrounded by earthen wails on 

 which various fencing plants were planted; the fields, however, next 

 to a wall with 300 barberry bushes had been spoiled every year while 

 the cereals of the fields surrounded by the other fences had been a 



success. 



With this the famous "Barberry War" began which lasted for 30 years 

 setting in motion several pens in the newspapers and the agricultural 

 economical magazines; the following men may for instance be men. 

 tioned: the clergymen Skovboe, Hyphoff, Heiberg, Junge, K0nne, 

 AssENS and Hansen, the schoolmasters Sch0ler and Hans Holck, 

 the professors Begtrup and Hornemann, and the bailiffs Lemvigh 

 and Tommesen; it has been described in detail by P. Nielsen (74 b 

 a 77 b ^'-'') and quoted by Eriksson (E 6. H 96 '') and by Kle. 

 bahn (04 ""■}. 



The principal person in the Barberry War was Niels Pedersen 

 SCH0LER, born 1772 at 0sby near Haderslev, pupil of the Blaagaard 

 Training School 1794-1797, schoolmaster and sexton at Hammel in 

 Jutland from 1799 until he died on May 21. 1851. (For his biography 

 see Andreas Madsen in "Ugeskrift f. Landmaend" 1904, Nr. 12-14). 

 He was an interested phytopathologist, who dealt with the diseases 

 of the cereals, examining them by means of the microscope, trying 

 several remedies against them, and making comparative cultivating 

 experiments with them which must needs astonish us at the present 

 time, by the correct manner in which they were made and the co;n. 

 pletely correct conclusions he drew from them, and we must highly 

 regret that the indefatigable and unselfish endeavours he made to 

 make his useful observations known, were so little appreciated and 

 remained misunderstood by most people. 



He planted barberry in his garden and grew oats and rye 

 around it, and for several years (1813—1817) he planted larger and 

 smaller barberry bushes in the middle of cornfields to prove how they 

 caused damage to the surrounding corn; he invited through the news* 

 papers everybody to see the experiments. In 1816 Sch0ler made the 

 experiment of carrying branches of Berberis vulgaris, severely infected 

 by aecidies and well wrapped up, into a ryesfield wet with dew ; there 

 he touched the dewy leaves of the rye with the leaves of barberry 

 and marked the infected plants; only five days later rust appeared 



