Cultivated Area of Denmark. 



489 



Of the total area under crops, fallow, and grass in 

 1896, cereals occupied 2,986,774 acres, or 42,630 acres less 

 than in 1888. The only corn crops in which an increase of acre- 

 age is shown are rye, oats, and mixed corn, the aggregate exten- 

 sion amounting to 84,266 acres ; in all other cereals there is 

 a contraction representing a total decline of 126,896 acres, so 

 that the net decrease is 42,630 acres, as already stated. The 

 reduction of the wheat area is from 119,691 acres in 1888 to 

 84,812 acres in 1896 — this is equivalent to a decrease of 29 

 per cent. Barley was grown on 689,524 acres in 1896, a 

 decline of 45,320 acres since the last enumeration ; and buck- 

 wheat occupied 29,000 acres, or a little over half the area 

 devoted to the same crop at the earlier period. Among the 

 grains in which an increased area is recorded are rye and 

 oats. The area devoted to the former, which is the principal 

 food-staple of the country, was 716,648 acres in 1896, or only 

 24,000 acres more than in 1888; but in the acreage under 

 oats there is an expansion of 33,000 acres, the latest returns 

 giving this crop a total area of 1,083,458 acres. Mixed corn, 

 according to the recent inquiry, was grown on 360,580 acres, 

 as compared with 333,377 acres in 1888; about one-fifth ot 

 this crop is cut green for fodder. 



In the category of green and root crops potatoes alone 

 have remained practically stationary. Spergula, or spurrey, 

 is returned as occupying 18,554 acres, or 28,000 acres less 

 than in 1888, but this apparent decrease is due largely to a 

 re-classification, as spergula cut green for fodder is included 

 under "fallow" in 1896, whereas it was not separately 

 returned in 1888. Sugar-beet is credited with 31,249 acres 

 this being double the acreage similarly cultivated eight years 

 before.* In the land sown with typical fodder roots — viz. 

 beet, turnips, kohl rabi, and other roots — the present returns 

 show an increase of 70,000 acres, the returns for the two 

 periods being 183,812 acres in 1896 and 113,469 acres in 1888. 



Although fodder roots are grown to a much larger 

 extent in Denmark, the area under grass of all kinds has 

 slightly declined. The acreage of the various descrip- 



* An account of the progress made by the Beet-sugar industry in Denmark is 

 contained in Vol. III., No. i, of this Journal, June, 1896. 



