Kampp, Aa.H., 1976: A Simplified Agro-Geographical Division
of Denmark. Geografisk Tidsskrift 75: 45-50. København, juni
l, 1976.

Danish agro-geographical differences are still so conspicuous that a regional division is justified. A simplification from the seven regions into three districts is proposed on account of the administrative reorganisation of 1970.

Dr. Aa.H. Kampp, Cæciliavej 50, Valby, DK 2500.

An agro-geographical division of Denmark into seven soil fertility regions (fig. 1) has previously been worked out (Kampp 1959). It was based on isodones: the average yield per hectare for seven important crops (barley, wheat, rye, oats, mixed grain, mangels, and swedes) for the three-year-period 1937-39, and isodenses: the areas of barley + wheat as a percentage of the rotation area 1939.

The division has been checked on maps for 1946 and 1962 and on maps from 1907 and 1838. It has also been compared with a map showing soil conditions as far back as 1688, and an attempt was made to compare with medieval and even prehistoric days through marking out the about 1800 parishes in Denmark in 1925 by one dot per parish. This comparison was possible because the division into parishes is supposed to date back to prehistoric times. The through centuries almost unchanged size of the parishes allowed an estimate for the relative density of population which in turn may be supposed roughly to depict the quality of soil.

Up till 1970 specified statistics were available from every parish and these small statistical units were the basis of the agro-geographical division of Denmark. Since that year the parish is, however, no longer a unit of local government, and the up till then existing 1300 municipalities have been amalgamated into 273, a municipality being now the smallest unit for administrative purposes. As moreover many statistical facts which formerly could be had for the 1800 parish units are today only registered for the 14 counties, the possibility of constructing maps as detailed as those on which the seven-region-division was based is definitely ruled out.

During the last decades important changes in Danish agriculture have taken place at an accelerating speed throughout the country. This period has for one thing seen a change in the agricultural structure, the total number of holdings and farms having declined from about 200.000 in 1960 to about 129.000 in 1974 primarily due to a decline in the number of smallholdings, especially towards the east (Kampp 1971). Moreover the increasing development of mechanisation running parallel with the migration of farm labourers to urban trades has caused a rapidly growing tendency towards rationalisation.

The farming proper is today the smallest branch among the occupational sectors of agricultural production. The branches for supply to the farmers and for processing and sale of the products have grown considerably, so that each person occupied in farming provides occupation for two or three other persons. As an example the distribution of lime and fertiliser in the fields is often undertaken by the supplier just as the feedstuff business takes over the grinding, drying, mixing, fetching and bringing of grain for feeding purposes. The number and size of machine pools have been growing, there is an increasing tendency for the farmers to lease machines in stead of buying them.

Although this development to a certain degree is delayed by conservatism, a great many Danish farms and holdings have been reducing the number of crops and a rising number are approaching the fully specialised production with only few or even one single crop thus adapting the field pattern to a more profitable use of machinery. Likewise it is getting more and more common to give up or to keep only one single form of animal production, so that today more than one third of the holdings have no horned cattle. From 1962 to 1971 a reduction of more than 20% took place and a growing part of the animal husbandry is being concentrated in the larger farms.

Partly as a consequense of this development the cereal areas has increased from 1.277.000 hectars in 1950 to 1.800.000 hectars in 1974. The decrease of stocks of horned cattle up till 1972 and to a very high degree of horses together with the increase of cereal up till 1972 has in spite of the wide-spread use of shortstrawed strains, especially towards the east, caused a growing surplus of straw which is burned in the field when the harvest is over. Of course the ashes give plant nutrients to the soil but no humus, and the strong heat caused by the fire kills part of

the micro-organisms. For the moment, however, arguments have been put forward with the purpose of diminishing this form of straw destruction, partly because of the danger of fire, the reduced road safety, but also on account of the value of the straw, e.g. as fodder in deficiencyregions, as fuel, and as raw product for paper and building materials. However, it does not pay to transport straw over great distances.

The demand of an accelerating agricultural productivity could only be met by an increasing use of fertilisers and the growing control of weeds, plant diseases and vermins by means of herbicides and pesticides with the secondary effects of polluting the soil and consequently changing especially the micro-flora and fauna. For a certain amount of years the potential of the soil may be pressed beyond its natural border of capacity; but it should not be overlooked that such measures on a long view may cause unpredictable consequences.

Rationalisation penetrated earlier into farms than into

smallholdings (fig. 2 - 3) because the farmers were more in favour of innovation and could better afford big machinery. Consequently they were able to produce at a lower cost per area unit. Even if this is the general tendency there will of course be exceptions in the various size groups of holdings.

A remarkable change in crops has taken place above all as far as barley is concerned ( fig. 4-5). The barley areas have increased from 494.000 hectares in 1950 to 1.455.000 in 1974. (Today barley is in Denmark synonymous with spring barley. Since 1968 winter barley has been prohibited because it is the winter host of Mildew, Yellow Rust and Brown Rust thus diminishing the yield of spring barley). During the first half of this century barley was almost exclusively grown in East Denmark and the Limfjord-region with the main ice margin from the Weichel-ice-age as an agro-geographical borderline (Kampp 1974) which, however, has been

Forenkling af Dalmosegårds drift 1949 - 1969, idet hornkvæg, heste og høns er afskaffet. I: byg, 2: hvede, 3: havre, 4: sukkerroer til fabrik, 5: kålroer, 6: foderbederoer, 7: udlæg, 8: frø, 9: bælgplanter, 10: permanent græs.

Forenklingen på et husmandsbrug i samme landsby som Dalmosegård
kom senere, nemlig i perioden 1972 - 75. Signaturforklaring: se fig. 2.

gradually eliminated as the fertiliser-technique has been spreading over even the western part of Jylland and new strains of barley with larger yielding capacity also on sandy soils have been developed. A highly contributory cause of the increased barley areas is the growth of pig breeding the number of pigs having been doubled during the last 20 years (until 1972), a development seen all over the country not least in Jylland.

Concurrently wheat has become more and more east-oriented (fig. 6) with a continuously increasing yield per hectare. The wheat areas have increased especially in Lolland-Falster after the introduction of shorter and more stiff-strawed strains instead of the traditional ones with the drawback that in the fertile soil they had very long straws and were consequently more easily flattened by showers thus becoming more difficult to harvest.

Simplification of the Division

Simplification The original division was primarily started on the basis of an isodone map, but as the yield of the crops are now only statistically calculated for counties an isodone map only shows a rough east-west orientation (fig. 7) illustrating that the direct connection between agriculture and nature has not been reduced to a very considerable degree. It is still possible to depict it cartographically.

The isodense map of 1939 however turned out to be an equally valid basis of a regional division as the isodone map. Maps of 1946 and 1962 showed very few changes and an isodense map 1971 which can be calculated for municipalities (fig. 8) shows that the agricultural pattern has not changed to a degree that would reduce the seven-region-division into only a historical picture of a closed period of Danish agro-geographical conditions. In spite of the altered conditions of distribution of barley and wheat as described above and the much larger figures for 1971 (table 1) the isodense map can still be used as the basis of a division. Of course the larger statistical units

prevent a very detailed division and the isaritmic maps
depicting agricultural factors of today are not directly
comparable with the old isaritmic parish maps. So it

Present Distribution of some Crops and Animal Husbandry

Even if the borders of the regions/districts appear to be
still (at least nearly) unchanged there is a change in their
contents owing to the altered distribution of crops and
livestock and new strains and breeds. The alteration in
the geographical distribution of barley and wheat has
already been mentioned. The rye areas have been strongly
reduced, especially on the light soil in I where it used to be
dominating in spite of much larger yield per hectare in
111. The oat areas have been diminished by one half
because of the nearly total disappearance of work-horses
and are now mainly found in I where the climate is more
humid. The west-oriented dredge is combine-hostile and
the areas now nearly decimated (Kampp 1975).
The growth of seed, legumes, vegetables and fruit has
nearly exclusively taken place in 111. While sugar beet for
factory are only grown in 111 the fodder beets (fodder
sugar beets, sugar beets for fodder and swedes) as well as
potatoes are chiefly found in I and 11. Spraying against
weed and sowing of one-germed seed have replaced
weeding and thinning of the root fields.
The total agricultural area increased during the period
1951-1962 except in 111, the rotation area everywhere;
1962-1971 the agricultural area decreased in all three
districts, especially in 111 and 11, while the rotation area if
anything was stagnant in I but decreasing in II and chiefly
° J
in 111 (table 2).

The trend of the distribution of dairy cows which has
taken place is continuing. The reduction that started in
m about 3Q s was tm • Qn tj ttm 19?2
oo
while there till recently has been an increase in I and 11.
The number of pigs has been increased especially in I and
11, but in 1973 a decrease started.
An advantage of the reduction of the seven regions into
three districts for illustrative purposes is that while the
seven regions were too detailed to be seen on small scale
maps of larger territories it is possible to illustrate the
differences of fertility of the Danish soil on maps of e.g.
Scandinavia and Northern Europe when using the threedistrict-division.

must be concluded that on account of the administrative
reorganisation a reduction of the number of regions is
inevitable.
Already in 1964 and later in 1967 and 1975 it has been
suggested that for educational purposes a reduction of the
seven regions into three districts would be reasonable and
it was proposed in such cases to join 1 + 2 into W (West
Denmark), 3 + 4 into M (Mid Denmark) and 5 + 6 + 7
into E (East Denmark). If this reduction is compared with
the isodense map of 1971 the deviations will be seen to be
very few and relatively small (fig. 9), and it seems
justifiable for general use to maintain a fusion of the
original regions as above. As the most fertile parts of the
country consist of region 7 (East Denmark) and region 6
(North-West Jylland) it is proposed to use the terms
district I, district 11, district 111 (fig. 10).

RESUME

Formålet med inddelingen af Danmark i 7 landbrugsregioner
(Kampp 1959) var at give en oversigt over landbrugets geografiske
forskelligheder i Danmark. Denne inddeling blev konstrueret
på grundlag af kort efter statistik fra 1930'erne og senere
sammenholdt med kort fra »forhistorisk tid« til 1962. At den
stadig må gælde, fremgår af en sammenligning med isodenskortet
fra 1971 (fig. 8).
Men efter den administrative ændring af Danmark 1970 gives
ikke længere så detaljeret statistik og altså heller ikke mulighed
for at tegne så detaljerede kort som før.
Der er tidligere (Kampp 1964) til undervisningsformål foreslået
en tredeling i W, M og E, som bl.a. af hensyn til det
vestlige Limfjordsområde her foreslås fremtidig kaldt I, II og
111. Med den forhåndenværende grove statistik vil man ikke
længere kunne gøre status over dansk landbrug i 7 regioner,
som dog må anses med stor sandsynlighed stadig at gælde.
Samtidig må det fremhæves, at det vil være ulige lettere at
arbejde med kun 3 distrikter, og at det utvivlsomt vil være
nødvendigt på kort i lille målestok at nøjes med en tredeling.
Regionernes (distrikternes) udbredelse er stort set uændrede,
men deres indhold forandres stadig (tabel 2), blandt andet på
erund af rationalisering. Den generelle rationaliseringstendens
grund af rationalisering. Den generelle rationaliseringstendens
har også gjort sig gældende i en forenkling af den enkelte
landbrugsbedrift, som det ses af eksemplerne fig. 2 og 3.

REFERENCES

Danmarks Statistik (1968): Statistiske Undersøgelser n0.22,
Landbrugsstatistik 1900-1965, I, Landbrugsareal og høstudbytte
samt gødningsforbrug. København.

Danmarks Statistik (1969): Statistiske Undersøgelser no. 25,
Landbrugsstatistik 1900-1965, 11, Husdyrhold og animalsk
produktion samt foderforbrug, København.

Danmarks Statistik (1973): Statistiske Meddelser, 1972: 9,
Landbrugsstatistik 1971, herunder gartneri og skovbrug,
København.

Danmarks Statistik (1973): Landbrugsstatistik på kommuner
(handwritten).

Kampp, Aa.H. (1959): Landbrugsgeografiske studier over Danmark,
Some Agro-Geographical Investigations of Denmark.
Kulturgeografiske skrifter 6, København.

Kampp, Aa.H. (1967): De levende råstoffers geografi. Gads
Geografi 11. København.

Kampp, Aa. H. (1967): The Agro-Geographical Division of Denmark
and the Time Factor. Geografisk Tidsskrift 66, p. 36-51

Kampp, Aa.H. (1970): Landbrugsgeografisk materialesamling,
DLH, København.

Kampp, Aa.H. (1971): Changes in the Distribution of Land in
Denmark, Geografisk Tidsskrift 70, p. 22-40.

Kampp, Aa.H. (1974): Kvartalets kort. Geografisk Orientering
p. 333-334 & 370-371.

Kampp, Aa.H. (1975): Kvartalets kort. Geografisk Orientering
18-22.

p.
Kampp, Aa.H. (1975): An Agricultural Geography of Denmark.
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.