188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tion. Farmers have always carried on their operations in a very 

 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. 

 They 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 except to 

 grub the ground, and he did it year after year, generation after 

 generation, as his father had done it before him, with little idea of 

 change or improvement. In the neighborhood 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 Eng- 

 land. 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 results 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 magnificent 

 civilization which they forced upon the unwilling savages of. 

 Britain and the north of Europe, who were our ancestors, did a 

 great deal of good work in the way of agriculture, considering 

 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 

 three-course system of rotation. For centuries this system was 

 carried on where the fanner had large pasturage, and little plow- 

 land. The first year, the plow-land was left in fallow, but in the 

 autumn was prepared, by what manure and rough tillage could be 

 given it, for a sowing of winter grain, mostly rye, which occupied 



