Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/269

AGRICULTURE. the large land-holders. In Sicily, the first province, and in the others successively, the ownership of the land was vested in the Roman people. From these provinces came the tribute of grain that made grain-raising unprofitable in Italy. Hence, the large estates were gradually given over to the keeping of flocks and the raising of cattle. Among the Roman writers upon agriculture were Varro, Columella, and Pliny. Earlier than these in time and more celebrated was Cato the Censor (died 149 ), who gives us not only the most minute parliculars regarding the management of the slaves on his large Sabine farm, but also all the details of husbandry, from plowing to the reaping and thrashing of the crop.

Horses, asses, mules, cattle, sheep, and swine were raised by the Roman farmers, and much attention was given to the breeding of animals for special purposes. Castration was customary, and oxen were the principal work animals used on the farm. Mules were extensively used, especially as beasts of burden. The milk of sheep and goats was generally used for drink, and also for making cheese. Columella describes a method of making and preserving cheese, and says that the milk used in cheese-making was curdled in various ways, but commonly with a lamb's or kid's rennet. Poultry culture was an elaborate industry, and included the raising of hens, geese, ducks, teals, pigeons, turtle-doves, swans, and peacocks. Much attention was also given to fish culture, and such animals as hares, snails, and dormice were raised in considerable numbers. Wheat was the most important cereal crop cultivated by the Romans, and both smooth and bearded varieties were raised. Six-rowed and two-rowed barley, too, was grown to a considerable extent. Millet was grown to some extent. Oats and rye were introduced in comparatively late times. Land given to grain was fallowed for the whole of every alternate year. One-third of the fallow was manured and sown with some green crop, as cattle food. Fallow received from four to five furrowings before the wheat was sown in the fall. The crop of wheat ripened about the middle of June, but the summers were too dry for the raising, with certainty, of millet and other summer crops. Alfalfa (lucerne), common vetch (Vicia sativa), chickling vetch, and chick pea were grown for fodder. Hemp, flax, beans, turnips, and lupines also are mentioned as occasionally cultivated. To the list of fruits and vegetables produced in ancient Egypt and Greece the Romans added apricots, peaches, melons, and celery. Meadows were carefully prepared, and rotation of crops was practiced to a certain extent. The soil was thoroughly cultivated with the plow and harrow or the hoe and rake; blind and open drains were used; in some regions irrigation was employed. Manures of different kinds were abundantly used, and various methods for their preservation and distribution were elaborated. Wheat and barley were usually reaped with a sickle, but sometimes they were pulled up by the roots, or the heads were cut off with shears. They were thrashed with flails or with a board studded with iron spikes or sharp flints, which was drawn over the straw, or by trampling with cattle or horses. The Romans carried their agriculture into the ruder countries conquered by them. The vine growing wild in Sicily was carried into Gaul, where it was acclimated with difficulty. To the

rude Britons the Romans taught agriculture so successfully that before the period of occupation was over they were exporting large quantities of grain.

. The deterioration of Roman agriculture was accelerated by the overthrow of the Roman Empire. The conquering nations had advanced but little beyond the pastoral stage. During the following period of the Dark Ages the two influences working for the benefit of agriculture in Western Europe were the Saracen in Spain and the religious houses in the other countries. The Saracens irrigated and tilled with untiring industry. They introduced the plants of Asia and Africa; cultivated rice, cotton, and sugar, and covered the rocks of Southern Spain with fruitful vines. In general, throughout Western Europe, land was cheap, and many worthless tracts were given to the Church. In some of the religious orders labor with the hands was imposed upon the members. They studied the works of the Roman writers upon agriculture, and soon had the best cultivated lands in those countries through which their influence extended. Charlemagne encouraged the planting of vineyards and orchards. On the whole, the Crusades helped the agriculture of Western Europe. In the latter part of the Middle Ages the people of the low countries of Western Europe came to be as distinguished for their agriculture as for their commerce and manufactures. They plowed in green crops; the people of Holland developed dairying; the Flemings gained the reputation of being the oldest practical farmers. Also in the plain of Northern Italy, watered by the Po, agriculture was in an advanced condition. A large part of it, of great natural fertility, drew forth the praises of Polybius, who visited it about fifty years after it came into the hands of the Romans. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, under the influence of irrigation, the region became a garden, supporting a large population and exporting grain. In the England of the same period the agriculture showed alternations of indolence and bustle, of feasting and semi-starvation. In August, 1317, wheat was twelve times as high in price as in the following September. Rye was the breadstuff of the peasantry. Little manure was used. Oxen, not horses, were used for teams. In the fourteenth century serfdom disappeared from England, and the tenant farmer became established. “Between 1389 and 1444 the wages of agricultural laborers doubled; harvests were plentiful; beef, mutton, pork became their food; sumptuary laws against extravagance of dress and diet attest their prosperity” (Prothero). Laborers without food could earn a bushel of wheat in two days and a half; of rye in a day and a half.

By the beginning of modern history, the fruitful lands of Western Asia and Southeastern Europe, swept by wars and desolated by conquest, had been placed under the ban of the Turk. The conquest of the Moors in Spain and their subsequent expulsion caused an injury to the agriculture of the peninsula which has not been repaired. The discovery of the New World showed two grades of agriculture carried on by those who had never seen the horse and were practically without domestic animals. Even the careful tillage of the ancient Peruvian had no influence upon Europe and little upon the