Ayricniture of Denmark. 
295 
sickle; this savinjr of labour is of the more importance from the 
necessity of fjatherino; the ripe corn before the storms, so Irequent 
in this country, destroy it. In Jutland, as soon as the corn is 
cut, it is tied up in sheayes and placed in heaps, but on the 
islands it is usually allowed to lie some days before it is sheaved ; 
the first method is, however, rapidly superseding the latter. As 
earlier stated, the corn is generally placed in barns, and only in 
very fruitful years is recourse had to stacking. During autumn, 
but especially in winter, the corn is thrashed ; on many of the 
larger estates this is done by the assistance of machinery, but on 
the smaller farms the flail is invariably used, and with it a man 
can generally thrash from 5 bushels to 1 quarter a day ; machinery 
is objected to because the straw is injured by it. Barley is usually 
thrashed with the flail, or horses nre used to tread it out ; the 
hummelling machine is scarcely known here, but of late the 
thrashing machine has been used for barley. The corn is 
cleaned by the assistance of either machinery or sieves. 
During the last twenty or thirty years much has been done in 
Denmark in the way of agricultural improvements. The land 
has been cleared of stones found imbedded in large quantities in 
the earth, the fields levelled, and deep ditches cut at a distance 
of from twenty-eight to thirty feet from each other (in lieu of drain- 
ing), — a system by which, however, more than ten per cent, of 
land is lost. Three other improvements deserve special notice,, 
viz., the clearing and cultivation of heath and bog land, irriga- 
tion of meadows, and drainage. 
Clearing of Waste Land. — I have stated earlier that the 
Danish monarchy has 3256 English square miles of heaths and 
1606 square miles of mosses and bog-meadows, of which the 
greatest area is found in Jutland, namely, 2618 square miles 
(about 1,675,520 acres) of heaths, or about one-fifth of the area 
of that province. The cultivation of these heaths and bogs is a 
question all-important to the government and to private indivi- 
duals; that of the bog-meadows has generally been undertaken 
by the latter, whereas the government has paid special attention 
to that of the heaths. For the purpose of colonizing them, many 
peasants from Phalzel (the Palatinate) were, at great expense, 
induced to settle in Jutland in 1759, where they continued for 
a long period to receive support from the government. 
The mode of cultivation varies of course much, but the first 
step taken is to burn the surface of the turf, as, when this has 
been done, the soil is easier to work, and the burnt ashes prove 
valuable as manure. Rye, buck-wheat, or tares and oats mixed, 
are generally sown first on heaths, or, where the soil is of a better 
class, oats. The first crop on the reclaimed bog-meadows is 
generally barley, to render the soil more friable ; then rapeseed. 
