RECORDS OF CIIARLE^[AGNE. 243 



There surely can be no doubt that to manure a field 

 which already contains an excess of nutritive substances, 

 is opposed to a rational system of cultivation ; for what 

 end could be gained by increasing the nutritive substances 

 in a field where a portion of the elements already existing 

 cannot, ou account of their mass, come into operation ? 



But how can sensible men talk of excess when they are 

 obhged to use mamu'e in order to keep up their harvests, 

 and when their crops decline if they employ no manure ? 



The simple fact, say others, that in certain districts, as 

 in Ehenish Bavaria, agriculture has flourished since the 

 time of the Eomans, and that the ground there is just as 

 rich, nay, gives higher crops than in other lands, is a 

 proof how httle reason there is to fear want or exhaus- 

 tion b}^ continued culture ; for if such a thing were 

 likely, it would make itself manifest there sooner than 

 elsewhere. 



But in the cultivated lands of Europe agriculture is at 

 all events still very young, as we know with the greatest 

 certainty from records of the time of Charlemagne. His 

 ordinances respecting the management of his own estates 

 [capitulare de villis vel curtis imperatoris)^ wherein 

 directions are given to the stewards, as also the official 

 reports to the Emperor (specimen breviarii reruni Jisca- 

 lium Caroli Magni), sent in by inspectors expressly 

 appointed to survey those estates, are irrefragable proofs 

 that there was then no agriculture worth the name. 

 Very little is said in the Capihdare about the cultivation 

 of corn, -svitlv the exception of millet. It is reported in 

 the Breviarium^ that at Stefanswerth (a domain of the 

 Emperor), comprising 740 acres {jurnales) of arable 

 land and meadow, capable of supplying GOO cartloads of 

 hay, the commissioners found no corn in store, but on 

 the other hand a large number of cattle, 27 sickles great 



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