92 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



food of sheep : it is sown on the stubbles immediately after harvest, and in six weeks 

 furnishes a herbage of which the sheep are very fond, and which is said to be very 

 nutritious. Potatoes are a favorite crop ; and the small tubered and rather glutinous ill- 

 flavored sort, common in France and Germany, is preferred, as containing more starch 

 in proportion to bulk, than the large kinds. Thaer maintains, that beyond a certain 

 size, the encrease of the potatoe is only water and not nutriment. The produce per 

 acre is 300 bushels or five tons, which Thaer contends contains more nutriment than 

 twenty tons of turnips, because the proportion of starch in potatoes to that in turnips is 

 more than four to one. The soil is excellent for turnips, but the long series of dry 

 weather, common on the Continent in the beginning of summer, renders them one of the 

 most uncertain of crops. 



573. A brewery and distillery are the necessary accompaniments of every large farming 

 establishment in Germany. The result of many experiments in the latter, proved that 

 the saine quantity of alcoliol is produced from 100 bushels of potatoes as from twenty- 

 four bushels of wheat, or thirty-three of barley. As the products of grain, or of pota- 

 toes, are relatively greater, the distillery is regulated by that proportion. During the 

 enforcement of the continental system, many experiments were tried in making sugar 

 from native plants. Yon Thaer found, after many trials, that the most profitable 

 vegetable from which sugar could be made, was the common garden tiu"nip, (of which 

 variety Jacob did not ascertain,) and that whilst sugar was sold at arix dollar the pound, it 

 was very profitable to extract it from that root. The samples of sugar made during that 

 period from different roots, the processes, and their results, are carefully preserved in 

 the museum, but would now be tedious to describe. They are certainly equal ia 

 strength of sweetness, and those refined, in color and hardness, to any produced from the 

 sugar-cane of the tropics. 



574. The improvement of the- breed of sheep, which has been an important object 

 of this establishment, as far as regards the fineness of the wool, has admirably succeeded. 

 By various crosses from select Merinos ; by sedulously excluding from the flock every 

 ewe that had coarse wool, and, still more, by keeping them in a warm house during 

 the winter. Von Thaer has brought the wool of his sheep to great fineness, far greater 

 than any that is clipped in Spain ; but the improvement of the carcase has been neglected ; 

 so that his, like all other German mutton, is very indifferent. 



575. The various kirids of wool have been arranged by Von Thaer, with the assistance 

 of the professors of the institution, on cards; and the fineness of that produced from 

 different races of sheep, is discriminated with geometrical exactness. The finest, are 

 some specimens from Saxony, his own are the next. The fine Spanish wool from 

 Leon is inferior to his, in the proportion of eleven to sixteen. The wool from Botany 

 Bay, bf which he had specimens, is inferior to the Spanish. He had arranged, by a 

 similar mode, the relative fineness of the wools produced on the different parts of the 

 body of the sheep, so as to bring under the eye, at one view, the comparative value of 

 the difierent parts of the fleeces ; and he had, also, ascertained the proportionate weight 

 of those different parts. The application of optics and geometry,, by which the scales 

 that accompany the specimens ai'e constructed, is such as to leave no doubts on any 

 mind of the accuracy of the results. The scales, indeed, show only the fineness, and 

 not the length of the fibre ; which is, I believe, of considerable importance in the 

 process of spinning. The celebrity of the Moegelin sheep is so widely diffused, that 

 the ewes and rams are sold at enormous prices to the agriculturists in East Prussia, 

 Poland, and as far as Russia. 



576. The breeding of cows and the management of a dairy are secondary objects, as far 

 as regards the mere farming ; but it is attended to with care, for the sake of the pupils, 

 who thus have before their eyes that branch of agricultural practice, which may be bene- 

 ficial on some soils, though not adapted to this. The cows are in good order, of an 

 excellent breed ; and, considering that they are, like the sheep, fed only on potatoes and 

 chopped straw, are in good condition. They yield when in full milk, from five to six 

 pounds of butter weekly. The custom of killing the calves, when only a fortnight or 

 three weeks old, prevails here as well as elsewhere in Germany. There is no disputing 

 about taste ; but though veal is a favorite food in Germany at the tables of the rich, it 

 always seems very unpleasant to an Englishman. 



577. The ploughs at Moegelin are better constructed than in most parts of Germany. They resemble 

 our common swing-plough, but with a broader fin at the point of the share. The mould-board is con- 

 structed on a very good principle, and with great skill ; the convexity of its fore-part so gradually 

 changing into concavity at the hinder-part, as to turn the soil completely upside down. The land is 

 cleanly and straightly ploughed to the depth of six and a half or seven inches, with a pair of oxen, 

 whose usual work is about an acre and a quarter each day. 



578. A threshing-machine is rarely used, and only to show the pupils the principle on which it is con. 

 structed, and the.effect it produces ; but having neither wind nor water machinery to work it, the flail is 

 almost exclusively used, the threshers receive the sixteenth bushel for their labor. The rate of wages 

 to the laborers is four groschen a day, winter and summer, besides which, they are provided with 

 habitations and fuel. The women receive from two to three groschen, according to their strength and 



