Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/270

AGRICULTURE. of succeeding centuries. The great contribution of America to the world's agriculture was the three plants, the potato, tobacco, and Indian corn or maize. In the region north of Mexico the labor of planting and caring for the scanty crops was performed by the women, who broke the ground with the rudest possible implements.

. In the sixteenth century agriculture in England became more profitable, inclosures were made, and the rights of common were greatly restricted. Hops were introduced from Holland. Turned from the former wool exportation, the farmers began to raise wheat in large quantities to be sent out of the country. A law in the middle of the century practically prevented grain exportation and turned wheat lands into pasturage. The resulting high price of food and the destitution on the part of laborers brought another reaction, and a replowing of grazing lands. The sixteenth century saw the end of the villeinage. In 1595, laborers without food during the summer months worked six days for a bushel of wheat, four days for a bushel of rye, and three and one-half days for a bushel of barley. Gardening, greatly neglected in the first part of the seventeenth century, received due attention in the latter part. Deep drainage, too, began to be talked about. From the middle of the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, England looked to Flanders for the perfection of careful tillage. From the Flanders of the seventeenth century Sir Richard Weston brought turnips and red clover, and Arthur Young afterward called him a greater benefactor than Newton. By the end of the century turnips and clover were extensively cultivated in alternation with wheat. The cultivation of grasses was begun in this century with the introduction of perennial rye grass. White clover was introduced in 1700, and timothy and orchard grass came to England from America about 1760. The eighteenth century saw revolutions in English farming. One came when Lord Townsend established the Norfolk system. Under this system of first, wheat; second, turnips; third, barley; fourth, clover and grass, one-half of the land was constantly under grain crops and the other under cattle-grazing. Large numbers of sheep and cattle were fattened on the turnips, and the consumption of roots on the land increased the yield of the barley. The Norfolk system was a success from the beginning. The rental of certain farms increased fivefold, and farmers in special cases made handsome fortunes. Susceptible of many modifications, it has had much to do with the improved agriculture of England. Beans, peas, and vetches were generally grown, often in mixtures with wheat or oats. Hemp was grown for rope-making. The common vegetables were onions, leeks, mustard, and peas, and the fruits were apples, grapes, and plums.

Another revolution came from the breeding experiments of Bakewell, commenced in 1750. To mention a single point, it had taken three or four years to prepare sheep for the market; those bred by Bakewell were prepared for the market in two years. Besides making a reputation and a fortune for himself, he made for others a way since followed in breeding. Jethro Tull, whose book on Horse-hoeing Husbandry appeared in 1731, was almost in touch with the methods of the nineteenth century. His theory was that seeds should be sowed in drills, and the spaces between the drills kept thoroughly cultivated.

He invented a drill and a horse-hoe. He did not succeed in obtaining a large crop, but successful modifications of the method have since been made.

. The white colonists of North America had much to discourage them as agriculturists; in New England they had the additional drawbacks of long winters and a rocky soil. The colonists in Virginia found both Indian corn and tobacco, the latter fitted to become an article of export. The New England settlers brought with them English modes of farming. From the Indians they learned how to raise corn (maize), breaking the soil with a hoe and manuring with fish. Corn was the great product to be depended upon, although other grains were cultivated, and cattle and sheep increased slowly, fed first upon the native grass, then upon timothy specially fitted for New England soil.

Potatoes began to be raised in the first part of the eighteenth century. The southern colonists, more favored by nature, made less actual progress than those of the North. Even as late as 1790, as we learn from McMaster's History of the American People, little progress was made. In New England and New York, as well as farther south, barns were small, implements rude, and carts more common than wagons. In Georgia the hoe was more often used than the plow; in Virginia the poor whites thrashed their grain by driving their horses over it. Throughout the South it was the common practice to grow crops without rotation, and in general manure was thrown away. A little later came the invention of the cotton gin and the beginning of the reign of cotton, with a demand for fresh fields and a disregard of careful tillage. Early in the century the importation of the Spanish merino sheep changed the farming of the North and greatly increased the production of wool.

. In the nineteenth century the progress of agriculture was profoundly affected by great general causes, some of which exerted a world-wide influence. Among these were: (1) the application of science to the improvement of agriculture; (2) the revolution in transportation methods through the use of steam power on land and sea; (3) the rapid opening of vast areas of new land in North and South America, Australia, and Africa to settlement, cultivation, and grazing; (4) the invention and extensive use of labor-saving machinery as applied to agriculture; (5) the abolition of serfdom and slavery; (6) the specialization of agricultural industries; (7) the organization of the distribution of agricultural products and their use in manufactures in accordance with the modern business principles governing the organization of other great industries; (8) the establishment of governmental agencies for the promotion of agriculture; (9) the voluntary coöperation of farmers through numerous associations; and (10) the wide dissemination of agricultural information through books, journals, public documents, and farmers' meetings. Scientific studies and experiments for the benefit of agriculture began with the development of agricultural chemistry early in the century. The most widespread practical result of the investigations in agricultural chemistry has been the extensive use of a large number of forms of commercial fertilizers. In more recent years a wide