178 
Dairying  in  Denmark. 
A REMARKABLE  DAIRY  FARM. 
This  farm  is  remarkable  in  many  ways,  and  will  thoroughly 
well  repay  the  time  and  expenditure  necessary  to  visit  it  by  any 
landlord  or  tenant  farmer  who  wishes  to  understand  how  dairy- 
ing may  be  profitably  pursued  on  arable  land.  For  some  years,  in 
several  reports  published  in  this  ‘Journal,’  I have  over  and  over 
again  shown,  by  descriptions  of  actual  facts,  how  “ arable-land 
dairying,”  as  I have  termed  it,  is  carried  on  in  different  continental 
countries.  But  on  this  farm  the  system  thus  designated  by  me  is 
pursued  to  an  extent  that  is  almost  incredible  to  an  Englishman 
who  is  accustomed  to  associate  dairying  with  permanent  pasture, 
for  there  is  not  an  acre  of  permanent  grass  on  the  whole  farm. 
More  than  that,  the  following  description  will  show  what  can 
be  done  by  a clever  and  energetic  farmer’s  wife,  in  spite  of  all 
difficulties  incident  to  an  ignorance  of  foreign  languages,  weights, 
and  measures,  and  in  face  of  the  too  frequent  prejudice  against 
innovations  on  the  part  of  the  farmer  himself. 
The  farm,  known  as  Havartigaard,  situated  at  Overod,  near 
the  railway  station  of  Holte,  about  15  English  miles  north  of 
Copenhagen,  consists  of  nearly  170  acres  of  land,  all  arable. 
It  belongs  to  Mr.  Neilson,  who  about  thirty  years  ago  kept  about 
a dozen  cows  on  a somewhat  smaller  acreage,  and  sold  most  of 
his  produce,  straw  included,  in  Copenhagen  at  remunerative 
prices.  With  the  introduction  of  what  I have  found  it  con- 
venient to  term  “ high  dairying  ” this  system  was  changed  by 
the  energy  and  perseverance  of  his  wife.  She  visited  Sweden 
and  Germany,  and  learned  how  to  make  butter  on  the  Swartz 
system,  and  skim-cheese  and  whey-cheese  as  practised  in  those 
countries.  Then,  although  entirely  ignorant  of  any  language 
but  Danish,  except  a smattering  of  German,  she  visited 
England,  France,  Switzerland,  and  Holland  ; and  so  thoroughly 
studied  the  dairy-practices  of  those  countries,  that  to  this  day 
she  makes  butter  on  the  Norman  system,  Camembert  and  Brie 
as  the  best  representatives  of  French  cheese,  Cheddar  and 
Cheshire  cheese  as  made  in  England,  Edam  as  made  in  Holland, 
and  Gruyere  as  made  in  Switzerland.  But  her  faculties  are 
not  only  imitative,  for  she  has  the  ability  to  vary  her  processes 
so  as  to  make  her  cheeses,  when  necessary,  more  to  the  taste  of 
her  customers  than  the  actual  pure  makes  would  be.  She  is  also 
a merchant  and  a shopkeeper,  buying  her  milk  of  her  husband 
and  her  neighbours,  and  selling  her  cheese  and  butter  at  her 
shop  in  Copenhagen,  the  King  of  Denmark  himself  being  regu- 
larly supplied  by  her,  and  her  butter  being  therefore  stamped 
with  the  Royal  arms.  When  1 add  that  dairy-work  begins  at 
5 A.M.  and  is  finished  at  1 I\M.,  that  Mrs.  Nielson  is  in  her 
