^oyS Land Settlement in Denmark. [feb.^ 



pine as in the light land districts of Norfolk. The health and 

 vigour of these conifers, even where scarcely a green blade 

 was visible, and w^here the land was red with sorrel, greatly 

 impressed the onlooker. 



A visit was paid to the plantations of Hjortsballehoeje in 

 central Jutland. On this bleak and barren stretch of hght 

 sandy moorland the Danish Heath Society started planting in 

 1866. The land was ploughed over roughly in furrows 12 in. 

 wide by 6 in. deep, and left for a season. Afterwards it was 

 knocked about and finally thrown up in 5 -ft. " stitches " and 

 planted with spruce (Picia excelsa). This did not flourish and 

 trials were made with Mountain Pine {Pinus montana), which 

 is more of the nature of a shrub than a tree, stooling out into 

 four or six main stems and reaching a height of 10 ft. or so. 

 The spruce and pine grow well in mixture, and the method now 

 adopted is to cut out the pines at from 20 to 40 years' growth, 

 by which time the spruce is thoroughly established. The latter 

 remains and makes quite useful timber. The pine is used 

 mainly for firewood and in the production of charcoal and tar. 

 There seems little doubt that much of our own " heath " 

 country could be similarly afforested, providing useful employ- 

 ment lor large numbers of men or women and helping out by 

 means of casual work the small holder located on the borders 

 of the forest. 



9. Remarks. — To sum up, a small holder in the Islands of 

 Denmark is able to make a comfortable living with no great 

 exertion from about 11 acres, provided, of course, he emploj^s 

 no extra labour. It was suggested to us by one of the most 

 capable small holders we met that 16 acres would be a more 

 economic unit and that one man would still be able to undertake 

 all of the work. In the Hghter districts of Jutland an economic 

 unit is rather larger than in the Islands (from 20 to 30 acres 

 or more according to the soil) ; in these districts the land is 

 worked in much the same way as in the Islands, and sometimes 

 the smaller men eke out their living by cutting and seUing peat 

 and by w^ork in the woods. Rye and potatoes are the most 

 reliable crops on the lightest soils, the latter being grown more 

 extensively in Jutland than in the Islands, where a small holder 

 rarely grows more than is sufficient for his own household. 



The sale ol milk, the price of which in June last was about 

 the same as in this country, brings an assured and regular 

 income. The cows, especially the Red Danish, are uniformly 

 good milkers and would appear to require rather less food than 

 ours. During the War the small holder's cow has suffered 



