380 Report on the Agriculture of Denmark, with a Note on 
Conclusion. 
Readers of this Report who remember the previous one on 
Sweden will have noticed that the agricultural practices of the 
two countries are essentially the same in principle, but differ in the 
details which have already been pointed out. The results obtained 
in Denmark are much more favourable than those noticed in 
Sweden — a difference which the comparative mildness of the 
climate would lead one to expect. Land in Denmark has about 
three times the value it possesses in Sweden (excluding the 
province of Scane), and farmers get almost a corresponding 
increase in the yearly excess of receipts over payments, which 
represents their rent, interest of capital, and farmer's profits. 
In the Geest district of the Duchies, rents, profits, and crops are 
all lower than in the monarchy ; but in the fertile marsh districts 
large prices are paid for land, and good results are obtained. 
Agriculture is most advanced in the Danish islands, and in 
those districts may be seen some of the most approved farm- 
implements of English and American manufacture, while on 
Laaland the only steam-ploughs in the kingdom cultivate the 
land attached to a large beetroot-sugar factory. Ploughs and 
threshing-machines by all our great English firms may be seen 
on the home- farms of most large proprietors, but the favourite 
reaper appears to be the " Buckeye," an American machine of 
great repute throughout Scandinavia. Against this flattering 
picture we must put the facts as they are seen on smaller farms, 
whether owned or rented by the occupier. In the former case, 
the owner too frequently has not the means to purchase im- 
proved machinery ; and in the latter, the inventory belongs to 
the landlord, who rarely feels inclined to incur an expense that 
may be avoided, while his tenants — the Bonder — who have the 
best of the bargain in security of tenure and low rents, naturally 
follow the practices of their forefathers, in the absence of any 
inducement to the contrary. These barriers to the introduction 
of better ploughs than those of native manufacture, and of such 
implements as horse-hoes and scarifiers, which the foul condi- 
tion of the land renders almost essential to its profitable culti- 
vation, though they cannot be removed, might be ^to some 
extent surmounted. The first step is to provide that such 
implements may be purchased at a moderate cost ; but hitherto 
the Government of the country, by levying a considerable im- 
port-duty, has exerted its influence in the opposite direction. 
With regard to manures, little need be added to the remarks 
made from time to time in the body of this Report. As in 
Sweden, so in Denmark, the artificial manures employed are 
almost entirely confined to superphosphates, although dissolved 
bones and dissolved guano arc now beginning to be used. Am- 
