CHEMICO-AGRICULTURAL TOUR. 137 



country as far as Augsberg is undulating, and in some places 

 highly wooded ; but after passing that town it becomes exceeding- 

 ly flat and uninteresting, diminishing at the same time in fertility ; 

 and the want of trees gives the country a very monotonous and 

 dreary appearance. At one or two places along the line I passed 

 bogs of peat, the cutting and preparation of which for fuel, re- 

 minded me of the turf-bogs of Ireland. 



The country about Munich is exceedingly flat, it being situated 

 in the midst of a very extended plain, so that for many miles before 

 reaching that city, the cupolas and spires of its numerous churches 

 are visible in the distance. 



On reaching this very fine city, I took the earliest opportunity 

 to call on Baron Liebig, of world-wide celebrity, to whom I had 

 some letters of introduction. He received me courteously, and 

 conversed with me for a considerable time on difierent subjects 

 connected with the chemistry of agriculture, and told me of seve- 

 ral interesting experiments he was then carrying on relative to the 

 food and nutrition of plants. 



I gave him to understand the object of my continental tour, and 

 that I was desirous of working for a short time as a pupil in his 

 laboratory, if he would permit me to do so. He informed me how- 

 ever, that, since he came to Munich, he had given up the instruc- 

 tion of laboratory pupils ; and he directed Dr. Koeller, one of his 

 assisting chemists, to show me his laboratory and chemical apart- 

 ments, where I saw various objects interesting to the chemist. He 

 also showed me some experiments which Baron Liebig was then 

 carrying on in the botanic garden adjacent to his laboratory, rela- 

 tive to the food and nutrition of vegetables, and the effects of dif- 

 ferent saline and earthy salts on plants growing under various 

 circumstances. Dr. Koeller also pointed out to me some experi- 

 ments Baron Liebig was making to ascertain the amount of nitric 

 acid and ammonia which was absorbed from the atmosphere, and 

 received by the rain falling on certain quantities of clay placed in 

 square metallic boxes, which were exposed to the air for a given 

 time, and then the amount of nitric acid and ammonia absorbed 

 was determined. These and other experiments, having some im- 

 portant practical bearings on agriculture, were by certain ingen- 

 ious contrivances being very carefully carried out. 



While at Munich, I paid a visit to the Royal Bavarian Central 

 Agricultural School or College, at Weyhenstephan, which is near the 



