238 CHEMICO-AGRICULTURAL TOUR, 



small Bavarian town of Freising, situated about twenty-three miles 

 by rail to the north-east of Munich. This agricultural school, 

 which was formerly a monastery, consists of an extensive range of 

 buildings, constructed in the form of a square, and is prettily situ- 

 ated on a hill commanding ajBne view of the surrounding country. 

 About 500 acres of ground are attached to this school for farming 

 purposes ; and they have on an average about eighty pupils, who 

 reside in the college during their studies, which extend over a 

 period of two years ; a summer and a winter session (in which the 

 pupils are obliged to attend certain prescribed courses) being em- 

 braced in each year. In connexion with the school is a very neat 

 and well-kept museum, containing a number of elegant and ingen- 

 ious agricultural models, specimens and casts of agricultural pro- 

 duce, and objects of natural history interesting to the agriculturist ; 

 as, for example, the insects that are injurious, and those that are 

 beneficial to the farmer, the birds, and some of the smaller animals 

 of the district. In addition to these, there is in the museum, a 

 collection of philosophical instruments, used by the teachers in the 

 instruction of their different classes. 



Amongst the models, I saw a very simple and ingenious machine 

 for extracting starch from potatoes, so as to save the pulp and 

 cellular portion. In this machine, the rasped or pulverized potatoes 

 are placed between two pieces of canvas, forming a kind of bag, 

 over and under which a series of rollers are made to pass backwards 

 and forwards, while at the same time a stream of water plays over 

 its surface, and by this simple contrivance the starch is completely 

 washed out, whilst the pulpy matter is retained ; and this latter, 

 being afterwards compressed and dried, is used with the best effect 

 in the feeding of cattle. This ingenious machine was the invention 

 of one of the professors of the school, who has recently, 1 was in- 

 formed, patented it. 



There is also attached to the school, a small but neatly fitted 

 up chemical laboratory, where the pupils have to work for a certain 

 period in chemical analysis. There is also a library, anatomical 

 theatre, and other apartments designed for the instruction of the 

 pupils attending the agricultural seminary. 



In addition to the usual productions of the farm, there is made at 

 the institution, on a considerable scale, cheese, starch, beer, and a 

 rough kind of spirit. The director of the college, Herr C. Helfe- 

 rick, who kindly took me over different parts of it, showed me also 



