210 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
AGRICULTURAL TOUR IN GERMANY.—NO. 13. 
BY COUNT DE GOUKCY. 
Translated for the American Agriculturist from the Journal 
d’Agriculture Pratique. 
On the sixth of September I visited the sugar 
house of Saint Nicholas, recently erected by 
Baron Syna —brother of the celebrated banker 
of the same name—on a tract of 20,000 acres, 
that was sold to him by Count ZicnY. The 
sugar-house, which had commenced operations 
the previous year, having changed its director, 
has been entirely reorganized in its interior by 
the new principal M. Bratjnee, who has had 
charge of a similar concern for several years 
nearBrunn, in Moravia, and owned by the same 
person. Before entering on his new duties at 
St. Nicholas, M. Brauner visited the sugar- 
houses of France, Belgium, and Germany, 
where the arrangements are most perfect; and 
then only did he undertake the reform of such 
parts as had worked badly the previous year. 
I have it from him that five millions of francs 
have already been spent in this immense estab¬ 
lishment. The front, seen at a distance, re¬ 
sembles a magnificent palace. The main central 
building has five floors each—forming one im¬ 
mense apartment used for crystallization. The 
sugar is made by two different processes. In 
one process copper graters and close tanks are 
used. The tanks are so arranged that the juice 
can pass from one to the other even when sev¬ 
eral vats intervene between those which are to 
communicate with each other. In winter they 
bruise the fresh beets; in summer they expose 
dry beets to maceration, by means of rollers, 
located sometimes on the ground where the 
beets are raised, when it is too distant to ren¬ 
der the carriage of the fresh roots convenient. 
M. Brauner, to prevent the fermentation which 
destroys the sugar, keeps the vats at a ternpa- 
rature of 60° Reaumur. He is certain that at 
this temperature fermentation cannot take place. 
The bruising process furnishes more sugar than 
grating, but it is better to mis the result of 
both, for the purpose of exposing it equally to 
evaporation. The factory is constructed to use 
two millions of Austrian quintals of beets, or 
about 100,000 tons. The fertile land of the 
estate will produce the half of this enormous 
mass of roots; the estate of Altenburg would 
furnish the balance. The inhabitants of Wie- 
selburg and neighboring villages have large 
pastures, which would be capable in a few 
years of producing rich crops of beets, if cul¬ 
tivated. 
When the grating process is employed, fer¬ 
mentation is retarded by passing over the grater 
a thin stream of lime water. The use of lime, 
not being necessary in the crushing of the fresh 
roots, the slices of beets from which the sugar 
has been squeezed, serve as well as the pulp 
for feeding cattle. 
This factory obtains its fuel from large 
marshes, which belong to the estate on which 
which it is erected, where 800 workmen are con¬ 
stantly employed in cutting turf, and even these 
are not able fully to supply it. M. Brauner in¬ 
spected the mode of operation pursued in Hol¬ 
land, and brought home several clever workmen 
to teach t> e natives the best methods. He has 
also introduced several improved implements, 
including a Scotch seed-sower and a double 
mould-board plow. The demand for beets to 
supply the factory has increased the cultivatioi 
of these roots. The clergy of several villages ii 
this district, enjoy the pleasure of a small farn 
attached to the parsonage. They having com¬ 
menced the cultivation of beets to help suppb 
the factory, some of the peasants have already 
followed their good example, which doubtless 
will find many imitators. Arrangements havi 
been made for the delivery and storage of th« 
large quantity of roots required, and a plac< 
prepared where the temperature may be regu¬ 
lated so as not to induce heating. Nothing is 
to be feared from the frost, if it does not exceed 
40° Reaumur, (23° Fahr.,) and boards are in¬ 
serted in different parts of the heap, to carry oft 
the superfluous moisture. In the opinion of the 
director, rain, instead of being injurious, re¬ 
freshes the roots, and by the use of temporary 
chimneys to carry off the internal heat, and 
other precautions, roots are preserved sound 
from one crop to the other. By care in the 
management of the manure collected, though a 
large quantity is requisite to keep up the fertil¬ 
ity of soil so heavily cropped, it is not neces¬ 
sary to purchase any. When taken from the 
stables it is carted directly to the fields where 
wanted, and laid up in compact heaps of twenty 
loads each, and kept as moist as possible, and 
afterwards covered with a layer of several 
inches of powdered lime. The lime is sur¬ 
rounded with marly soil, or if this is not al 
hand, with common soil, well compacted. The 
latter covering is made six or eight inches 
thick. The gases produced by the fermentation 
of the manure combining with the lime, change 
it into salpetre (nitrate of lime?) The soil 
which serves as a covering to the manure be¬ 
comes by this means more fertilizing than the 
manure itself, as has been proved when used 
separately; but before spreading it is w r ell to 
mix the whole together. 
Workmen are brought from all parts; from 
Silesia, Moravia, Bohemia, Wallachia, and many 
other provinces, and sixty houses have already 
been erected for their accommodation. Before 
M. Brauner assumed the direction of the con¬ 
cern, these poor workmen were paid in money; 
they kept themselves very badly, and perished 
in great numbers. Now a better system is 
adopted, and proper food insured at a cheap 
rate. Since this change very few have died. 
About 2000 persons are engaged in the cultiva¬ 
tion of this estate. Bones are said to be as 
dear here as in the north of France. Eleven 
horses are kept at the factory for the use of the 
director and the employees. I have been in¬ 
formed that the total number of workmen em¬ 
ployed on the establishment amounts to nearly 
5000. 
A letter that I had written for my passport 
remaining unanswered, I was obliged to return 
to Presburg. The following morning I em¬ 
barked on the steamboat and returned to Pesth, 
where we did not arrive till night. I made dur¬ 
ing the trip, the acquaintance of M. Kherndel, 
the manager of two important estates of the 
Countess Esterhazy, as T afterwards learned 
from himself. He occupies the estate of Zelir, 
about thirty miles from the town of Gran, on 
the opposite bank of the Danube. This estate 
is upwards of 20,000 acres in extent; that 
which he has charge of, on the same side as 
Pesth, is not more than one-third this size, but 
it produces excellent wine. A large portion of 
he land at a distance from the farm buildings 
s never manured; this is the reason for the 
idoption of the rotation followed out in its cul- 
dvation, which is, first year, bare fallow; sec- 
>nd, wheat; third, oats; fourth, fifth, and 
-ixth, pasturage. A mixture of seeds of infe¬ 
rior quality, is used for the pasture ground, 
■omprising lucerne, clover, meadow-grass, and 
-aintfoin. An the end of three years pasturage, 
he rotation commences again. The land for 
which manure can be obtained, receives about 
wventy-five tons per acre, and a different rota¬ 
tion is selected, in which saintfoin is included, 
'asting three years, or lucern lasting five years, 
md with which neither lime nor plaster is ap¬ 
plied. The land is fertile, the active portion 
ibout four feet in depth. Clover is renewed 
every twelve, and lucerne every fifteen years. 
The produce of wheat in grain, taking the 
average of manured and unmanured land, is 
ibout 30 bushels per acre. There is no manure 
applied with the potato crop, from a fear of in¬ 
creasing the disease. The yield per acre is 275 
bushels, and the average value per bushel ten 
cents. A number of large fields are appro¬ 
priated to this root, the produce of which sup¬ 
plies a fine distillery w T hich can use 125 bushels 
daily. This distillery, including the entire 
buildings, has cost upwards of 30,000 francs, of 
which the interest should be calculated at 12 
per cent. A measure of spirits worth from 30 
to 35 francs, is produced by the distillation of 
thirty bushels of potatoes and three of barley. 
Twelve men and two horses are employed in 
this establishment. There is no rape cultivated 
on this property. The cows kept here are of 
the Berne breed; the best of them give from 
20 to 24 quarts of milk daily ; the best of the 
Hungarian breed give as much, but first-class 
cows are not so common among them, and their 
milk turns sour much sooner; though to com¬ 
pensate for this it is richer. M. Kherndel says 
that the beef of fat cattle of the Hungarian 
breed, is preferable to that of the Berne. Good 
Hungarian oxen, well fatted, give from 750 to 
900 pounds meat, and 125 pounds fat. The 
Zelir estate has a flock of Merino sheep. Fat 
animals.give on an average 60 pounds of meat, 
the common ones give from 35 to 40. The ave¬ 
rage weight of a fleece, taking the different 
kinds of sheep into account, is about 2^ pounds 
washed, in some instances it amounts to 2£ 
pounds. Two hundred pounds of this wool are 
worth $140, and for the wool of 1851, $145 was 
refused for the same quantity. The number of 
sheep usually is about 4000, of which 400 are 
disposed of as lambs for killing. Every five or 
six years M. Kherndel goes to Saxony to the 
Royal fold, where he selects two rams, for which 
he pays from 1000 to 2000 francs each. In the 
choice of these his attention is directed chiefly 
to the equality of the weight of the fleece. 
Fat sheep are sold at from four to five years 
old, for about two and a half dollars each, and 
common ones at half that price. Young lambs 
at eight months old sell for $1.25. He also 
raises horses for sale, some of which are very 
valuable. 
At Pesth the wages of men per day is one 
franc, and of women two-thirds of that sum. 
A house capable of accommodating six or eight 
families, can be built of brick for $275. 
M. Kherndel took leave of us at Gran, an 
important town on an elevated site on the right 
