214 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



student costs the government about 125 florins, but the balance 

 is made up from the public treasury. 



The young men are certainly not liable to acquire luxurious 

 habits here. I visited them, by invitation of Professor Anselm, 

 teacher of agriculture, while they were at supper, and had 

 various opportunities for conversation with several of them. 

 Their fare appeared to be what, in our reformatory and correc- 

 tional institutions, would be called " very hard," and yet they 

 seemed to be quite contented and happy. 



I should think the institution well calculated to send out a 

 hardy, frugal, intelligent, industrious class of young men, who 

 might testify with regard to their training as Socrates did with 

 regard to Xantippe, " being firmly convinced that in case I 

 should be able to endure her, I should be able to endure all 

 others." 



There is nothing imposing in the buildings or their arrange- 

 ment. They are substantially built of stone, in low, long 

 ranges surrounding a large yard or open space. There is a 

 blacksmith's and a wheelwright's shop in a part of the range, 

 and many agricultural implements are turned out here by the 

 slow processes of hand labor, some of them excellent, but all 

 rather more remarkable for strength than elegance. 



Brown Hay, — They prepare here, and in many other parts 

 of Germany, what is called brown-hay. When the grass is 

 partially wilted, it is collected and spread in layers, and firmly 

 trodden down. It is dried by the heat which is generated in 

 the mow. If the wilted grass is to be thus made into hay, it 

 must be taken when neither too juicy nor too dry. Leaves, 

 heads, and blossoms must remain firmly on the stalk. 



In good hay weather, the grass may be cut in the morning, 

 and after being wilted^.and turned, and after lying six or seven 

 hours, carted in and trodden down. The mow or stack'may be 

 from ten to twenty-five feet high. If not high enough, the 

 grass does not generate sufficient heat, and moulds and injures. 

 But if the stack is too high, the weight too great, the hay may 

 become black and mildewed, because the warmth becoming too 

 great, does not find its way off sufficiently fast. If the stack 

 is put up outside the barn, vmder a straw-thatched roof resting 

 on poles, they round it up very much in the shape of our 

 stacks, not less than ten feet in diameter. 



