330 Re]port on the Agriculture of Denmark, with a Note on 
acre as his circumstances will permit ; or that if he prefers to 
utilise his green-crops and straw in the production of milk, then 
the same reasoning will hold good, because " what is true in 
regard to meat, is equally so in regard to milk ; experiments 
and experience have shown us that they bear a certain known 
ratio to each other." 
Unfortunately, however, for this argument, it gives no weight 
to the variation in the quality of the produce of the milk — i. e. 
butter — which is due in great measure to the nature of the food 
given to the cows ; and when we consider that the price which a 
Danish farmer can obtain for his butter varies from 9rf. to Is. 6c?. 
per Danish lb., on the farm, according to its quality, it is not 
difficult to understand that he prefers to produce a somewhat 
restricted quantity if it will realise a much higher price. At 
the same time, there can be no doubt that an extended growth 
of roots would enable the Danish farmer to produce a consider- 
able quantity of meat, in addition to his present production of 
butter, to which end he now devotes not only his green-crops and 
straw, but also, on an average, two-thirds of his home-grown corn. 
It will be interesting here to quote M. Tisserand's opinion in 
reference to Danish agricultural practice, if only to show how 
the same modes of procedure, viewed at nearly the same time 
(M. Tisserand's Report was based on a journey made in 1863, 
and was published in 1865), may suggest different conclusions 
to experienced men who regard them from opposite stand-points. 
It is again the old story of the colour of the shield. M. Tisserand 
observes : — 
" With the semi-pastoral rotation of from eight to eleven years the farmers 
can keep nearly one head of cattle per hectare (25 acres), that is to say, a 
proportion nearly double that which is possible under the triennial rotation. 
But it must be remembered that to render the former rotation possible, the 
country must already be in a certain state of prosperity. In fact, it requires 
much more capital, say from 8Z. to 10?. per acre, and its conditions resemble 
those of the most intensive forage-culture (_A7iglice, meat-making) to which iu 
fact it must tend. 
" With the Norfolk rotation, an arable farm of the same extent in England 
will employ a working capital of from 111. to 14?. per acre ; while in the North 
of Great Britain, where the semi-pastoral agriculture predominates, the capital 
engaged is a little less than that of Denmark, being only about 61. 10s. per 
acre. But if in the four-years' shift of Norfolk the cost of labour amounts to 
30s. per acre, in the Danish rotation it does not attain 18s., and in the semi- 
pastoral rotation of Scotland it is reduced to 13s. or 14s. per acre. 
" The semi-pastoral agriculture of England cannot therefore be declared 
better than the semi-pastoral agriculture of Denmark. AVhen the Danish 
cultivators augment their farming capital (fonds de roidement) by the utiUsa- 
tion of human manure, or the importation of commercial fertilisers, such as 
guano, bones, oilcakes, &c., by the introduction of a certain extent of cleansing 
crops in the fallow, it is beyond doubt that they will be able, thanks to the 
admirable condition of the soil and the climate in which they arc placed, some 
day to do better and more than Great Britain, and to extract a higher profit 
from their land." 
