38 AGRICULTURE IN MODERN EUROPE. 



which noble and aristocratic Home placed upon her citizen farm 

 ers while the nation was shaping itself. She did not exactly 

 desire their destruction, but allowed it to run its course, and so 

 desolation advanced with gigantic steps over the flourishing 

 land of Italy, where countless numbers^ of free men had lately 

 rejoiced in well earned prosperity.&quot; 



CHAPTEE IV. 



AGRICULTURE IN MODERN EUROPE. 



GKRMANY AND ENGLAND BANKS FOLKS LAND AND RENTS DEGRADATION OF THE 

 BKITISH LABORER ALLOWANCE OF FOOD ELEVATION OF THE MECHANICAL CLASS 

 PROPORTION OF LAND OWNERS TO POPULATION VARIATIONS IN CONDITION- 

 WAGES OF LABORERS How ENGLAND is FED SCOTLAND A WHEAT GROWING 

 COUNTRY AMELIORATION OF CLIMATE THROUGH AGRICULTURE PEDIGREE CAT 

 TLE AND SHEEP FRANCE SMALL FARMING AND POPULATION GREAT PRODUC 

 TION OF WHEAT THE LATE WAR HOLLAND AND THE Low COUNTRIES A 

 MODEL FOR CALIFORNIA DEEP TILLAGE DIVERSITY OF CROPS USE OF MA 

 CHINERY NIGHT SOIL AND MANURES ROTATION MODERN GERMANY BEET 

 CULTURE MAIZE -CULTURE IN AUSTRIA RUSSIA OUR RIVAL IN WHEAT CON 

 CLUSION. 



THE orderly development of agriculture among the Ger 

 mans was retarded by the military spirit which distinguished 

 them, and by a policy exactly the reverse of that pursued by 

 the Komans. The Germans returned the lands to the people 

 they conquered, on condition of receiving military assistance, 

 and required of their tributaries that one half of the popula 

 tion should alternately fight and till the soil. The feudal sys 

 tem arose in their dislike of agricultural pursuits, and was 

 entirely subversive of the freehold or allodial rights essential 

 to their successful prosecution; and although these rights were 

 preserved in some parts of Germany and France, the tendency 

 to vassalage was almost irresistible. Indeed, there was no other 

 security in those distracted times, either for life or property, 

 and the oath of fealty exacted from the peasant by the lord, was 

 required of the lord himself to the next higher in authority, 

 and so on until it rested at the throne; thus diminishing in all 

 classes the sense of degradation. 



In the long procession of nobility, first came the Earls Pala 

 tine, then simple Earls, then Companions in Germany, corres 

 ponding to the Thanes of England, then the Ceorls or tenants, 



