far only for climatological and agricultural but not for re- 
mote sensing purposes yet. 
Because these crop-calendar tables have been compiled from 
statistical averages, they will indicate the likelihood of 
a certain phase occuring during a certain date only. Yearly 
deviations of wheather will either accelerate or retard the 
appearance of phenological phases but will not alter their 
sequence in general. This relative sequence is most useful 
for the varying requirements of natural resources survey. 
Indicated vertically on the calendar tables are the main 
crops of a physiographic unit together with their subunits. 
The relative acreage in percent of agricultural land is 
expressed on the right side. In addition percentages of to- 
tal surface is shown of agricultural land, forests and wa- 
ter surfaces (GRUNWALDT, 1977). Horizontally is arranged 
the length of an agricultural year from August over January | 
to November of the following year. Along this abcissa, the 
agro-phenological phases in the form of bars, as indicated 
in the legend, are placed according to their chronological 
sequence for each individual crop. The middle mark of a bar 
indicates the time of most frequent observation, the mode, 
while the beginning and the end of the bar shows the extremes 
that occured during the years of observation. Crops preceding 
or following the main crop are examples out of the most 
common crop rotation system occuring in the landscape. At 
the foot of the table, mean monthly air temperature and pre- 
cipitation as well as monthly average values of daily sun- 
shine hours can be read off the curves. Temperature and pre- 
cipitation are factors of vegetation development in the 
course of the year, while sunshine hours are included to 
give a rough indication of the chances to find a cloudless 
Sky for taking images. Best times in this respect are early 
and late summer, while in winter chances are least, 
3,2 Crop Calendar of the Marsch Unit (Fig. 2) 
Farm management systems are highly dependent on the nature 
of the country. The Marsch shows a high proportion of grass- 
land (66 %) except in the youngest polders. Here the main 
crops are wheat, barley, oats, sugar beets and rape seed. A : 
favorite crop rotation sequence is rape seed, winter wheat, : 
winter barley followed by rape seed again. Or another possi- 
bility: sugar beets followed by oats, winter barley and rape 
seed. Average farm size is about 45 ha arranged in large 
rectangular parcels. 
Compared with the rest of Schleswig-Holstein, at the West 
Coast winter wheat and rape seed are sown and develop early 
in fall. Similarily, spring crops appear late in spring ex- 
cept for sugar beets. 
3.3 Crop Calendar of the Geest Unit (Fig. 3) 
The Upper and the Lower Geest do possess the same farm size 
as the West Coast, but parcelling is more irregular. The 
proportion of grassland to arable land is with 53 % somewhat 
lower than the West Coast. Main crops are rye, barley, oats, 
wheat, sugar beets and potatoes, reflecting the poorer 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
a? b? 
  
  
  
($ in ha)| 44 | 46 
Farmsize 
Fig.2