Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/95

 cultivation. In Bornholm, it should be mentioned, the flora is more like that of Sweden; not the beech, but the pine, birch, and ash are the most abundant trees.

Agriculture.—Denmark is pre-eminently a corn land, and the cereals grown are all the usual European varieties; in the light and sandy soils buckwheat takes the place of rye, wheat, barley, and oats. The potato is largely cultivated, as well as pease, clover, vetches, and turnips. The usual North European fruit-trees and bushes produce good crops, and even peaches and apricots ripen well in sheltered places. The nectarine, however, is not known as a hardy fruit. The produce of grass is not very large, the fertility of the ground tempting the farmers to use it all for grain. In relation to its size there is no country in Europe, except Belgium and England, that can compete with Denmark as a corn-producer. According to the official returns of 1871, there were in that year 11,367,310 acres under some sort of crop, fallow, or in grass, or about 65 per cent. of the total area of the country; 5,894,495 acres more were in woods and forests. The following table will fchow the distribution of the crops, in English statute acres:— Of the actual production of the above crops no estimate has been furnished by the Statistical Bureau. The land in Denmark is minutely subdivided, owing partly to the state of the law, which interdicts the union of small farms, and encourages in various ways the parcelling out of landed property. The large estates of the nobles are generally in the hands of farmers; but the greater part of the land is possessed by the peasantry, who maintain an hereditary attachment to their ancestral farms. Below these are the small peasant estates (generally capable of supporting from 10 to 15 cows); there is also a class of cottar freeholders called junsters, with land sufficient to keep one or two cows. The most remarkable feature in the Danish husbandry is, that greater value is attached to the produce of the dairy than to that of the soil, and that much of the horse power is withdrawn from the fields and employed in the work of the dairy. Independently of the stock maintained in the large dairy farms, this branch of industry has given rise to a distinct class of men, hiring cows by the year. Notwithstanding the great extent of pasture, the country produces more grain than is required for its own consumption.

The mineral products of Denmark are too unimportant to require enumeration. It is one of the poorest countries of Europe in this particular. It is rich, however, in clays, while it should be stated that in the island of Bornholm there are quarries of freestone and marble. There is but little coal yet discovered in the country.

Manufactures are not carried on to any great extent. The most notable Danish manufacture is the fabrication of porcelain. The nucleus of this important industry was a factory started in 1772, by F. H. Müller, for the making of china out of Bornholm clay. In 1779 it passed into the hands of the state, and has remained there ever since. Originally the Copenhagen potters imitated the Dresden china made at Meissen, but they are now famous for very graceful designs of their own invention, and their porcelain has a distinct character of its own. The inventions of Thorwaldsen have been very largely repeated and imitated in this charming ware. Besides the royal works,

there are private factories employing a large number of men. Terra cotta and faience are also manufactured in Copenhagen. The iron-works of Denmark have made very considerable progress since the separation of Norway, and they are largely supplied with raw material imported from England. There are many iron foundries around Copenhagen, and in that city there are small manufactories of locomotives, and of machinery of various kinds.

The woollen, linen, and cotton manufactures of Denmark are for the most part domestic, and carried on purely for local consumption. Linen is the principal article of domestic industry in Zealand. The woollen manufacture occupies about 2000 men. The sugar refineries, of which the largest are at Copenhagen, prepare most of the sugar required for domestic consumption. Cherry brandy is also prepared in that city, and largely exported. The making of paper and distillation are carried on at different parts of the country to some extent.

Commerce.—Formerly the commercial legislation of Denmark was to such a degree restrictive that imported manufactures had to be delivered to the customs, where they were sold by public auction, the proceeds of which the importer received from the custom-houses after a deduction was made for the duty. To this restriction, as regards foreign intercourse, was added a no less injurious system of inland duties impeding the commerce of the different provinces with each other. The want of roads also, and many other disadvantages, tended to keep down the development of both commerce and industry. Within the present century, however, several commercial treaties were concluded between Denmark and the other powers of Europe, which made the Danish tariff more regular and liberal.

Of no less importance were the regulations made from time to time concerning the Sound toll, a question which in the 17th century led to many hostilities between Denmark, Sweden, and Holland. Having formerly possessed both sides of the entrance to the Baltic, the Danish Crown looked upon the Sound as exclusively her own, refusing to admit any foreign vessels without payment of a certain duty, and this right was never successfully contested by the other powers. An exception, however, was made in favour of Sweden, and of late the toll has been entirely abolished.

The principal ports of Denmark are Copenhagen, Helsingör, Korsör, Aarhuus, Aalborg, and Frederikshavn.

The total value of the goods imported into Denmark in 1874 was £12,859,000; and of the goods exported, £9,574,000.

The following tables show the quantities of the principal articles imported and exported in the same year. We give them in the original figures, premising that a tönde of corn equals 3.8 imperial bushels, a tönde of coal 4.6775 bushels, and a pund 1.102 ℔ avoirdupois.

 VII. — 11