Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 35 



the commerce in these articles enriched the inhabitants, and enabled the proprietors to 

 bestow increased attention to the cultivation of their estates. Lombardy excelled in the 

 culture of corn and cattle as well as of the vine. The butter, cheese, and beef of the 

 country, were esteemed the best in Italy. The pastures were at that time, and still are, 

 more productive than any in Europe, or perhaps the world, having the three advantages 

 of a climate so temperate in winter that the grass grows all the year ; a soil naturally 

 rich ; and an abundant supply of river water for irrigation. The irrigation of Lom- 

 bardy forms the chief feature of its culture. It was begun and carried to a considerable 

 extent under the Romans, and in the period of which we speak extended and increased 

 under the Lombard kings and wealthy religious establishments. Some idea may be 

 formed of the comfort of the farmers in Lombardy in the thirteenth century, by the 

 picture of a farm-house given by Crescenzio, who lived on its borders, which, as a French 

 antiquarian (Paulinag) has observed, differ little from the best modern ones of Italy, 

 but in being covered with thatch. 



Sect. II. History of Agnculture in France from the Fifth to the Seventeenth 



Century. 



185. The nations who conquered France in the fifth century were the Goths, Vandals, 

 and Franks. The two former nations claimed two-thirds of the conquered lands 

 [Leges Burgundiorum, tit. 54.), and must of course have very much altered both the 

 state of property, and the management of the affairs of husbandry. The claim of the 

 Franks is more uncertain ; they were so much a warlike people, that they probably 

 dealt more favorably with those whom they subjected to their dominion. 



186. All that is known of the agriculture of these nations and of France till the ninth 

 century is derived from a perusal of their laws. These appear to have been favorable 

 to cultivation, especially the laws of the Franks, Horses are frequently mentioned, and 

 a distinction made between the war horse and farm horse, which shews that this animal 

 was at that period more common in France than in Italy. Horses, cattle, and sheep, 

 were pastured in the forests and commons, with bells about the necks of several of them, 

 for their more ready discovery. The culture of vines and orchards was greatly 

 encouraged by Charlemagne in the ninth century. He planted many vineyards on the 

 crown lands which were situated in every part of the country, and left in his capitularies 

 particular instructions for their culture. One of his injunctions prohibits an ox and an 

 ass from being yoked together in the same plough. 



187. During great part of the ninth and tenth centuries, France was harassed by 

 civil wars, and agriculture declined ; but to what extent, scarcely any facts are left us 

 to ascertain. A law, passed in that period respecting a farmer's tilling the lands of his 

 superior, enacts that if the cattle are so weak that four could not go a whole day in the 

 plough, he was to join these to the cattle of another and work two days instead of one. 

 He who kept no cattle of his own was obliged to work for his superior three days as 

 a laborer. 



188. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the country enjoyed more tranquillity, and 

 agriculture was improved. Judging from the Abbe Suger's account of the abbey lands 

 of St. Dennis, better farm-houses were built, waste lands cultivated, and rents more 

 than doubled. The church published several canons for the security of agriculture 

 during this period, which must have had a beneficial effect, as the greatest proportion of 

 the best lands in every country were then in the hands of the clergy. 



189. In the thirteenth century little alteration took place ; but the number of holidays 

 were diminished, and mills for grinding corn driven by wind introduced. 



1 90. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries agriculture suffered greatly by the 

 English wars and conquests, and by political regulations relatively to the export and 

 market price of corn. 



191. About the middle of the sixteenth century the first agricultural work produced in 

 France made its appearance. It was entitled, Les Moyens de devenir riche, and was written 

 by Bernard de Pallisy, a potter, who had written on various subjects. It is a very short tract, 

 composed of economical remarks on husbandry, or rural and domestic economy. Towards 

 the end of this century, under Henry IV., and his virtuous minister Sully, considerable 

 enterprise was displayed. Canals were projected and one begun, and according to 

 Sully, France in his time abounded with corn, grain, pulse, wine, cider, flax, hemp, 

 salt, wool, oil, dyeing drugs, cattle great and small, and every thing else, whether neces- 

 sary or convenient for life, both for home consumption and exportation. {Mem. 

 b. xvi. 225. Rankens Hist, of France, i. 433.) 



Sect. III. Of the Agriculture of Germany and other Northern States from the Fifth 

 to the Seventeenth Century. 



192. The nations north of the Rhine and the Danube, during the first half of these 

 centuries, were chiefly employed in making inroads or conquests on their southern neigh- 



D 2 



