328 Report on the Agriculture of Denmark, loith a Note on 
climate approaches more nearly to that of Denmark), by the 
growth of fallowing crops, to doubt the soundness of this criti- 
cism, unless, as Professor Wilson puts it, " some special reasons 
can be adduced in support of a practice which it is clearly con- 
trary to the interest of the individual, as Avell as of the general 
community, should continue." Both he and I were often told 
that the bare fallow was necessary to clean the land ; but the 
growth of root-crops would be a much more effectual means of 
obtaining that result ; and in some cases, as at Mr. Trohldahl's, 
I have seen better crops of wheat (in this particular case 
Hallett's Pedigree) after roots than after bare fallow, although 
the instances were rare in which such a comparison of the two 
systems could be made. 
The true reasons for the small acreage of turnips grown in 
the Danish islands and in South Jutland are (1) the scarcity of 
labour, and the ignorance of both farmers and labourers on the 
subject ; and (2) root-crops are not esteemed as a food for dairy 
cows, whose milk is used for the manufacture of the finest 
butter. With regard to the first point, I may mention that 
Mr. Westenholz, who farms nearly GOO acres near Horsens, 
assured me that, owing to want of labour, he had not hitherto 
been able to grow more than 5 acres of turnips per annum. 
But for this he would prefer to grow roots on the whole of his 
fallow-course, as he was convinced that the exposure of his land 
to the sun during the whole summer did a great deal of harm 
to it ; but men were very scarce, and neither women nor children 
could be got to work in the fields. Mr. Heide, whose property 
is in the same district, and who farms rather more than 300 
acres, grows turnips on his light land ; but he had great trouble 
in teaching his labourers how to ridge and clean them ; and 
were he not so great an enthusiast in agricultural progress, it 
is probable that he would not have succeeded. By means of 
his roots he is enabled to fatten 20 Jutland oxen every year, in 
addition to his cast-cows. 
This leads to the second point, namely, the disinclination to 
use roots as a food for dairy cows. When farmers get very high 
prices for butter, provided only that the butter is of the finest 
quality, in a country where every other kind of farm-produce 
is relatively cheap, it is natural that they should be jealous 
not to give their cows any food that is known to be injurious to 
the quality of their staple product ; and it is well known that 
a slight difference in the flavour of a dairy product has a large 
influence upon its price. Therefore in the dairy districts every- 
thing is s<Ticrificed to the production of the largest quantity of the 
best (juality butter. For this reason calves are systematically 
killed as soon as they are dropped, because the mother's milk 
