346 Report on the Agriculture of Denmark, with a Note on 
support from even large proprietors, although they acknowledge 
their greatest and increasing difficulty to be the acquisition of 
good bulls of pure lineage. 
Taking the general run of even the large proprietors, not more 
than 10 per cent, of the cows go out of the herd every year ; but 
some few of the more advanced, like Mr. Vallentiner, send out 
one-fifth or one-sixth. The cast-cows are fed off at about 12/. to 
14/. per head; and farmers who have abundance of fodder, and 
who grow a few roots, generally prefer to buy old cows from 
the surrounding peasants than to supply themselves with store 
steers from Jutland, which are considered to be sold too dear to 
leave any profit for feeding. 
Heifers are generally put to the bull at 15 months old, and 
calves begin to drop soon after the cows go into the stalls in 
October. The best farmers allow their cows to run dry for about 
six or eight weeks before calving, and afterwards feed them well 
with oats and a little barley, hay, and a small quantity of roots, 
where they are grown, especially mangolds, which are preferred 
to turnips. A little rape-cake is also considered to improve the 
flavour of the butter, but it must be given with some caution, 
and the quantity should not exceed 1 lb. per head per diem. In 
the month of May the cows are turned out on the seeds. The 
permanent grass, where there is any, is preserved for hay, and 
only the aftermath is fed. The cows are tethered in lines,* and 
on a large and well-managed farm a straight row of 150 or 200 
cows of a uniform red colour forms a striking introduction to an 
inquiry into the method of farming there pursued. The yield of 
milk, and the quantity and quality of its products, necessarily 
vary ; but on well-managed peasant-farms on the island of Falster 
I found a recorded average of more than 500 gallons of milk per 
head per annum, which, at the rate of 30 lbs. of milk to 1 lb. of 
butter, would give a produce of about 170 lbs. of butter per cow 
jier annum. The accounts kept by Mr. Consul-Gcneral Pqntop- 
pidan at his home-farm of Constantinsborg, near Aarhuus, show 
that he obtains over 180 English lbs. of the best-quality butter 
and 260 lbs. of skim-cheese per cow per annum. The butter 
letches Is. 4c/. per lb. avoirdupois, and the skim-cheese nearly 4rf., 
giving a total of, say, 16/. per cow, in addition to the sale of a 
certain quantity of buttermilk-cheese at bd., per lb., and the use of 
* The COW.S are tetliered by a tliiu iron cluiin, 20 feet long, or by an ordinary 
rope, which is fastened to a stake in the ground. The stake is either of wrought 
iron, with a ring above, or of strong bcechwood. In case the rope shouhl become 
twisted, it has a swivcl-link in the middle. On tlie head of the cow is jilaced 
a holster, generally consisting of two wooden side-pieces, with a thin cord over 
the nose and also behind the horns, the; tliick rope being drawn througli the 
hindermost ))art of tlic holstcr-pieccs. Mr. Consul-Gcneral Wcsleniiulz doesiiot 
tctlier his cows, but l(jO of them together are efficieutly herded by a man and a dog. 
