Karl Nikolas Fraas

Carl Nikolaus Fraas ( born September 6, 1810 in Rattelsdorf in Bamberg, † November 10, 1875 in Neufreimann in Munich) was a German agronomist. As a universal scholar in the field of agriculture, he was one of the most prolific literary and technical writers of his time. Since 1847, he taught at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University of Munich. He developed a new teaching on soil fertility and wrote a seminal handbook on the history of farming and forestry. Also, as a botanist, he made a name for himself. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Fraas ".

Journey

Carl Nikolaus Fraas, son of a bursary man, graduated from the University of Bamberg in philosophy and botany, since 1830 medicine at the University of Munich, where he became in 1834 a doctorate to the Dr. med. In 1835 he traveled as tutor to the Greek Court Marshal Friedrich von Saporta to Athens. In 1837 he became director of the Royal courtyard gardens and the state tree nursery and at the same time professor of botany at the newly established University of Athens. In the same year he married his time is visiting Athens Adelheid Voigt (1819-1889), daughter of Oldenburg Hofschneidermeisters.

In Athens Fraas was a dedicated botanist. The lectures at the University he held in modern Greek. He developed systematic overviews of the plants described in the classical writings of the Greeks and Romans. He also collected live plants in selected regions of Greece and put on a herbarium. In this work, he also discovered plant species not yet described. Later, according to him the way Achillea fraasii Sch. Bip. been named.

For health reasons Fraas returned to Bavaria in 1842 and took a teaching job for agriculture and natural history at the trade school in Freising. Its brought from Greece Herbariumsblätter now preserved in the herbarium Zuccarini and in the Herbarium of the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Munich.

1845 went Fraas as an inspector and a teacher of chemistry and technology at the Royal Central Agricultural School after Schleißheim. In 1847 he accepted an appointment as associate professor of agriculture at the Political Science Faculty of the University of Munich. 1851 he was appointed full professor. In 1852 the Directorate of the Royal Central Veterinary School in Munich, he was also transferred. Nearly two decades belonged Fraas of the outstanding figures in the Bavarian agriculture. He was the last professor of agricultural economics at the University of Munich. From 1872, this field was continued by the Technical University of Munich. His last years were spent Fraas on his estate in Neufreimann near Munich.

Life performance

At the University and the School of Veterinary Medicine in Munich Fraas represented the Department of Agriculture teaching in overall width. He has lectured in the areas of plant and animal production. Botanical exercises for determining native plants among his required courses. At the University he also had a teaching of economics. Decisive for his successful work in Bavaria, however, was his close contact with the agricultural practice.

Already in 1847 Fraas had taken over the office of the Secretary of the Agricultural Association in Bavaria. In this role, he was also the lead editor of the widespread Central sheet of this association. Some innovations in the Bavarian agriculture based on its initiatives. He reorganized the guidelines for the granting of loans to farmers who campaigned for artificial fish farming and promoted the production of silk. In addition, it was his idea to establish an independent state institution for brewing at Weihenstephan.

As an experimenter to Fraas operated mainly in the field of agricultural chemistry. 1855 Agricultural Association had set up in Bavaria, with the support of Justus von Liebig in Munich agrikulturchemische experimental station. Fraas, entrusted with the management of this station, undertook several years of fertilization experiments with the aim to obtain a better understanding of nutrient movement in soils. He improved the methods of investigation and the first to use a suitable for field trials lysimeters.

Together with Justus von Liebig and other shareholders Fraas was in 1857 at the founding of the first major Bavarian fertilizer factory in Heufeld involved (now Süd-Chemie, based in Munich). However, the professional relationship between Fraas and Liebig was very excited from the beginning. Since the own experimental test results on the effect of nitrogen fertilizer and also experimental data of other agricultural chemist partially disagreed with the argument advanced by Liebig Fertilizer theory to Fraas sat critically with Liebig's teaching. It came to a publicly -run personal dispute between two scientists.

As part of this partially emotionally charged debate Fraas laid in 1864 from his position as Secretary General of the Agricultural Association in Bavaria down and drew largely from the public gaze. On his retirement home, his estate in Neufreimann in Munich, he wrote several weighty books. However, his professor of agricultural education at the State School of the University of Munich he held until his death in 1875.

Extraordinary services to the science and practice of agriculture Fraas acquired as a technical writer. He worked through a variety of books and writings with his ideas far beyond the borders of Bavaria. His early major works include the books " climate and vegetation " (1847 ), "The nature of agriculture " ( 1857) and the " book of nature for agriculturists " (1860 ). Particularly noteworthy is his, with the support of the Agricultural Association given out in Bavaria and four new aufgelegtes book " The school of agriculture " ( 1851), which has been the authoritative textbook of Bavarian agricultural schools for over two decades.

Three books devoted Fraas his new doctrine on the soil fertility, which he described as " power culture". Core of this teaching is to create a high soil fertility by a regulated nutrient replacement economy and by supplying the greatest amounts of organic matter from the plant and animal production. The titles of these three late works are: "Bavaria rediviva! A contribution to the theory of the nations downfall by soil exhaustion " (1865 )," The agricultural crisis and its remedies. A contribution to the husbandry of the crop protection policy " (1866 ) and" The Life of the root crops and yield increase " (1870 ). The latter book is also an innovative plant for the root ecology. Fraas grouped here first crops after force ( Aufschließungsvermögen for nutrients ) of their root systems.

In the field of history of science Fraas has emerged with two major works: a winning prize essay on the "History of agriculture in the last 100 years " (1852 ) and almost a 700 pressure -page "History of Agriculture and Forestry Science " (1865 ). Both works, often criticized, yet in its unique wealth of information, yet are still considered overweight documentation sources for historical research.

His close relationship with the peasantry reveals Fraas in two bands under the title "village stories ". In serene form he tries to inspire the rural youth for the profession of farmer here with stories.

Major works

• Synopsis plantarum florae or classicae: About Clear Datstellung occurring in the classical writings of the Greeks and Romans plants. Fleischmann, Munich 1845; 2nd edition Calvary, Berlin, 1870.
• Climate and plant life in time. A contribution to the history of both. Wölfle, Landshut 1847.
• Historical- encyklopädischer plan of agriculture teaching. Franckh, Stuttgart 1848.
• The school of agriculture or leichtfaßlicher instruction in agriculture for agriculture schools, village schools and for self- instruction. Literary and artistic house, Stuttgart 1851; 2nd edition 1852; 3rd edition, 1858; 4th Edition, 1862; 5th edition, 1871.
• History of agriculture or historical review of progress landwirthschaftlicher findings in the last 100 years. Winning prize essay. Calve, Prague 1852.
• Bavaria 's cattle breeds, blows and strains. The XVI. Assembly of German agricultural and forestry keepers to Nuremberg dedicated as hard album. Possenbacher, Munich 1853.
• The artificial fish production after the experience of the artificial fish farm of the General Comité des agricultural association to Bavaria at the Central k - animal medical school in Munich. Literary and artistic institution Munich in 1854; 2nd edition 1854 ibid.; 3rd edition, ibid, 1856.
• The nature of agriculture. Contribution to a theory of the same.. Literary- artistic Institute, Munich, 2 volumes, 1857, Vol 1: Main features of country wirth economic plant cultivation according to the results of scientific research scientifically arranged; Vol 2: Broad agricultural wirth economic animal production according to the results of scientific research scientifically classified.
• Book of nature for agriculturists or landwirthschaftliche Natural History. Literary and artistic institution, Munich 1860.
• Bavaria rediviva! A contribution to the theory of the nations downfall by soil exhaustion. Munich 1865.
• History of Agriculture and Forestry. Since the sixteenth century to the present. Literary and artistic institution, Munich 1865 = history of science in Germany. More recent time, third band.
• The agricultural crisis and its remedies. A contribution to the husbandry of the crop protection policy. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1866.
• Village stories. A reading book for landwirthschaftliche training schools. Fleischmann, Munich 1869: Vol II, ibid, 1870.
• The root of life of crops and yield increase. Paul Kormann, Leipzig 1870; 2nd edition ibid. 1872.