S6 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



bors ; and during the whole period they were Ynore or less engaged in attacking one 

 another. Under such circumstances, agriculture must either have remained in the state 

 which we have already described (178.), or it must have declined. In some states or 

 kino-doms it may have been less neglected than in others, or may even have improved ; 

 but durincr the whole of this period, nothing was effected which demands particular 

 attention. 



1 93. The earliest German author on husbandry is Conradus Heresbachius, who was 

 born in 1508, and died in 1576. His work, De Be Rustica, was published after his 

 death. It is an avowed compilation from all the authors who liad preceded him, and 

 contains no information as to the state of agriculture around him. It is a dialogue in 

 four books, and includes also gardening. The persons are Cono, a gentleman retired 

 tothe country ; Rigo, a courtier ; Metelea, wife of Cono ; and Hermes, a servant. 

 The conversation is carried on in Cono's house, and on his farm, and the different 

 speakers are made to deliver all that has been said by all the Greek and Roman writers, 

 from Hesiod to Pliny, by Crescenzio and other Italians, and by various writers on 

 general subjects : they converse on the advantages of agriculture as a pursuit ; on its 

 general maxims and practices ; on the culture of particular plants, and the economy of 

 the house and garden. 



194. No other books on agriculture of any note appeared in Germany during the period 

 under review. About the middle of the sixteenth century, the Elector of Saxony, 

 Augustus II., is said to have encouraged agriculture, and to have planted the first vine- 

 yard in Saxony ; but from the implements with which he worked in person, which are 

 still preserved in the arsenal of Dresden, he appears to have been more a gardener than 

 a farmer. It is to be regretted that the histories K the arts in the northern countries 

 during the middle ages are very few, and so little known or accessible, that we cannot 

 derive much advantage from them. 



Sect. IV. History of Agriculture in Britain from the Fifth to the Seventeenth Century. 



1 95. Britain^ on being quitted by the JHomans, was invaded by the Saxons, a ferocious 

 and ignorant people, by whom agriculture, and all other civilized arts, were neglected. 

 In the eleventh century, when the Saxons had amalgamated with the natives, and con- 

 stituted the main body of the English nation, the country was again invaded by the Nor- 

 mans, a much more civilized race, who introduced considerable improvement. These 

 two events form two distinct periods in the history of British agriculture, and two 

 others will bring it down to the seventeenth century. 



SuBSECT. 1. History of Agriculture in Britain during the Anglo-Saxon Dynasty, or 

 from the Fifth to the Eleventh Century. 



196. At the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons this island, according to Fleury, (History, 

 vol. iv. p. 97.) abounded in numerous flocks and herds, which these conquerors seized, 

 and pastured for their own use ; and after their settlement they still continued to follow 

 pasturage as one of the chief means of their subsistence- This is evident from the great 

 number of laws that were made in the Anglo-Saxon times, for regulating the prices of all 

 kiuds of tame cattle, directing the manner in which they were to be pastured, and for 

 preserving them from thieves, robbers, and beasts of prey. ( Wilkins, Leges Saxon, 

 passim.) 



1 97. The Welsh in thisperiod, from the nature of their country, and other circumstances, 

 depended still more on their flocks and herds for their support ; hence their laws res- 

 pecting pasturage were more numerous and minute than those of the Saxons. (Leges 

 WalliccB, passim. ) From these laws we learn, among many other particulars, which need 

 not be mentioned, that all the cattle of a village, though belonging to different owners, 

 were pastured together in one herd, under the direction of one person (with proper 

 assistants) ; whose oath, in all disputes about the cattle under his care, was decisive, 



198. By one of these laws, they were prohibited to plough with horses, mares, or cows, 

 but only with oxen. (Leges WalliccB, p. 288.) Their ploughs seem to have been very 

 slight and inartificial ; for it was enacted, that no man should undertake to guide a 

 plough who could not make one ; and that the driver should make the ropes of twisted 

 willows, with which it was drawn. (Id. p. 283.) Rut slight as these ploughs were, 

 it was usual for six or eight persons to form themselves into a society for fitting out one 

 of them, and providing it with oxen, and every thing necessary for ploughing ; and 

 many minute and curious laws were made for the regulation of such societies. This is 

 a sufficient proof both of the poverty of the husbandmen, and of the imperfect state of 

 agriculture among the ancient Britons in this period. 



199. Certain privileges were allowed to any person who laid dung on a field, cut down 

 a wood, or folded his cattle on another's land for a year. Such was the state of agri- 

 culture during this period in Wales ; it was probably in a still more imperfect state 

 among the Scots and Picts, but of this we have no means of ascertaining. 



