88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



0.1 their operations in a rery simple way, at first, for many 

 generations. On the continent of Europe, where we have the 

 most authentic accounts, they plowed a small portion of land, 

 and grew some grain upon it — barley, wheat, or rye — putting in 

 the same crop as long as they could make it grow and get back 

 a little more than the seed. They were content with much 

 poorer crops than we regard profitable. Tliey used the same 

 land for several years, until its " condition " was gone, or until 

 it was no longer remunerative, and then they left it and plowed 

 up another piece. The old field would grow up to grass, and 

 after a number of years they would come round to it again 

 and sow it to grain. That was the earliest and simplest plan 

 of conducting farming. In those days, there was but little 

 skill or thought bestowed upon agriculture. The intelligence 

 of the world was mainly given to government, war, and things 

 of that sort. The peasant was a man who knew nothing ex- 

 cept to grub the ground, and he did it year after year, genera- 

 tion after generation, as his father had done it before him, 

 with little idea of change or improvement. In the neighbor- 

 hood of cities, where there was better pay for this kind of 

 work, and more intelligence concentrated upon it, of course 

 it began to be found that a little rotation was a good thing. 

 Where rotation started, we do not know. In some books it 

 is stated that it was invented in England. But if you will 

 read Virgil and Varro, you will find that the Romans were 

 well acquainted with rotation, although Virgil, who was a 

 poet, only mentions it in an incidental way. Leaving the re- 

 sults of modern science out of the account, there is not much 

 in our agricultural practice that you will not find described in 

 Latin books. Those people, who developed a magnificsnt 

 civilization which they forced upon the unwilling savages of 

 Britain and tlie north of Europe, who were our ancestors, did 

 a great deal of good work in the way of agriculture, consid- 

 ering the facilities at their command. 



After a time, there came into use in Europe a system 

 which was practised there extensively in the ninth century, 

 and is still followed in some parts of the continent. It was 

 known as the tliree-course system of rotation. For centuries 



