XXX ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Amongst the ancient Romans agriculture was highly esteemed, and 
pursued with earnest love, and devoted attention. They were a thor- 
oughly agricultural people, and it was only at a later period that trade 
and arts were introduced among them and even then agriculture occupied 
by far the most prominent place. Their love of agricultural pursuits 
survived for a very long period, and when at length their boundless 
conquests brought unheard of luxury and with it the corruption of their 
morals, the noblest minds among them were strongly attracted towards 
the purer and simpler life of the ancient agricultural times. 
The words which Cicero puts into the mouth of Cato give a fine 
picture of the enthusiasm of the Romans in agriculture “I come now,” 
he says, “ to the pleasures of husbandry in which I vastly delight. They, 
are not interrupted by old age, and they seem to me to be pursuits in 
which a wise man’s life would be well spent. The earth does not rebel 
against authority, but gives back with usury what it receives. I am 
charmed with the nature and productive virtues of the soil. Can those 
old men be called unhappy who delight in the cultivation of the soil? 
In my opinion there can be no happier life, not only because the tillage 
of the earth is salutary to all, but from the pleasure it yields. Nothing 
can be more profitable, nothing can be more beautiful than a well cul- 
tivated farm.” In the later ages of the Empire, agriculture was 
neglected, and those engaged in it were regarded with disdain, the sup- 
plies of food for overgrown Rome being drawn mainly from Egypt, 
Sicily and other provinces. 
Under the Goths, Vandals and other barbarian conquerors, agricul- 
ture in Europe during the middle ages seems to have sunk into the lowest 
condition of neglect and contempt. During the greater part of this 
long period, the population of Europe was divided into two great classes. 
By far the larger one was composed of bondmen, without property or 
the means of acquiring it; the other class consisted chiefly of the great 
Barons who owned large areas of land, and who also owned their 
retainers who were the tillers of the soil. It was the ignorant bondmen 
on whom rested the burden of the cultivation of their master’s lend. 
The retainers, however, were more frequently empicyed in iaving waste 
the fields of their master’s rivals than in cultivating their own. Subse- 
quently the practice began to prevail of renting portions of the land to 
the peasant who paid his rent in grain or cattle. Under this arrange- 
ment the land began to be more carefully cultivated, and to yield greater 
profits to the owners. 
Wheat was the most valuable grain grown, but must have borne but 
a small proportion to other grain crops. The extravagant prices at 
