366 



Forage Crops of Denmark. 



[JULY, 



yield per acre. " Dry matter per acre " is their criterion, and 

 there is not an agriculturist in Denmark who quarrels with this 

 standard of valuation. Not only has this principle since held 

 its own in the great test of time, but it is gaining supporters 

 daily beyond the confines of Denmark. Sweden has adopted 

 it to the full, and Germany is already deciding in its favour. 



And now, the contrast. The British farmer, if he has ever 

 even heard of the Cambridge experiments, has forgotten them. 

 He still continues in the old path of growing for looks and 

 total yield ; nor does it trouble him that quite an inordinate 

 amount of that yield consists of water. When will he wake 

 up ? It is he, and he alone, who sets the standard, and it is in 

 the nature of things that the seed merchants, as becomes good 

 business men, supply him with what he demands. 



In addition to the more obvious benefits resulting from 

 Helweg's work, it has performed another great office ; it has 

 done away completely with that tiresome system, particularly 

 prevalent in England, of employing an infinite number of trade 

 names of one and the same variety. The competitions have 

 actually driven out of Denmark all but five named strains of 

 m.angolds, and the number of strains of turnips and swedes has 

 been similarly decreased. 



Simultaneously with bringing down the number of strains, 

 the work of Fjord and Helweg must be considered to be directly 

 responsible for the amazing increase in acreage under roots in 

 Denmark. This increase speaks for itself when we read that 

 in 1888 it was 95,000 and, as already mentioned, had become 

 ^78,000 in 1919, an increase roughly of 600 per cent. 



Experts may have different views as to the scientific accuracy 

 of the methods employed in the Danish trials, and as to some of 

 the conclusions drawn from them, but one great cardinal fact 

 remains — they have decisively and completely fulfilled their 

 object, and have set an example which one can only hope will 

 be followed without delay in Great Britain, where there are 

 already many fervent admirers of the patience, persistence and 

 capacity which Helweg has brought to his great task. He is 

 now an old man, but when the writer lately spent an evening 

 •with him in Copenhagen, discussing his life work, his enthusiasm 

 v^^as as unabated as his natural powers are undimmed. 



For full details of how the work was performed, of the 

 method by which ever-improving races are continually re- 

 placing the older ones, and of the large profits obtained by 

 their fortunate producers, Mr. Faber's book must be directly 

 consulted. In it will also be found complete descriptions and 

 histories of the races of mangolds, turnips and swedes now 

 popular in Denmark. 



