48 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



Recount of the origin and progress of ultra European agriculture till the succeeding 

 chapter, where it will precede some account of its present state. We have adopted the 

 same plan with respect to the agriculture of some of the northern European nations, as 

 Russia, Siyeden, and Spain, and also of Ireland. 



Chap. IV. 

 Present State of Agriculture in Europe. 



259. Agriculture began to be studied as a science in the principal countries of Europe 

 about the middle of the 16th century. The works of Crescenzio in Italy, Liebault in 

 France, Heresbach in Germany, Herera in Spain, and Fitzlierbert in England, ail 

 published about that period, supplied the materials of study, and led to improved prac- 

 tices among the reading agriculturists. The art received a second impulse in the middle 

 of the century following, after the general peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Then, as Harte 

 has observed (^Essays, i. p. 62.), <' almost all the European nations, by a sort of tacit 

 consent, applied themselves to the study of agriculture, and continued to do so, more 

 or less, even amidst the universal confusion that soon succeeded. " During the 18th 

 century, the march of agriculture has been progressive throughout Europe, with little 

 exception ; and it has attained to a very considerable degree of perfection in some 

 districts of Italy, in the Netherlands, and in Great Britain. In Spain it has been least 

 improved, and it is still in a very backward state in most parts of Hungary, Poland, 

 and Russia. We shall, in the following sections, give such notices of the agriculture 

 of these and the other countries of Europe as our limits permit, and refer our readers to 

 original works containing more ample information. 



Sect. I. Of the present State of Agriculture in Italy. 



260. Italy is the most interesting country of Europe in respect to its rural economy. 

 Its climate, soils, rivers, and surface are so various, as to have given rise to a greater 

 variety of culture than is to be found throughout the rest of Europe ; while the number 

 of governments and petty states into which it is divided have occasioned an almost 

 equally great variety in the tenure of land, and the political circumstances which affect 

 the cultivator. The great advantage which Italy possesses over the rest of Europe, in 

 an agricultural point of view, is its climate ; for though, as professor Symonds has 

 shewn (Annals of Agric. vol. i.), it is, in point of health and agreeableness, one of the 

 worst in the world ; yet, the cool temperature of some of the northern districts admits 

 of the finest pastures ; while, from the warmth of others, the rocky sides ofhills are as 

 productive of grapes and olives as the plains are in corn. It is the only country in 

 Europe, with the exception of some parts of Spain, where corn, grass, butchers' meat, 

 cheese, butter, rice, silk, cotton, wine, oil, and fruits are produced, all in the highest 

 degree of perfection. Only a fifth of its surface is considered sterile; while only a 

 fifth of the surface of France is considered fertile. The population of Italy is greater in 

 proportion to the surface, than that of either France or Britain. 



26 1 . The writers on the rural economy of Italy are, Arthur Young, in 1788; Sigismondi, 

 in 1801 ; and, Chateauvieux, in 1812. From the works of these authors, from 

 those of Forsyth, Wilson, and other recent tourists, and from our own observations 

 in ] 8 1 9, we shall select some of the most characteristic traits as to the agriculture of 

 Italy, adopting the division of Chateauvieux of the region of irrigation, and tlie rotation 

 of crops, in Lombardy ; the region of vines and olives exemplified in Tuscany ; the 

 region of insalubrious air, or the states of the church ; and the region of volcanic ashes, 

 or the Neapolitan culture. 



SuBSECT. 1 . Of the Agriculture of Lombardy. 



262. The climate of Lombardy is less irregular than that of some other districts. It 

 is temperate on the declivities of the mountains in Piedmont, where the richest sheep- 

 pastures are produced ; subject to great vicissitudes and to severe storms at the base of the 

 Alps, and warm and humid in the plain of the Po. In some parts the olive and the 

 orange endure the open air throughout the year, as in the islands of the lakes ; in other 

 places, at Milan for example, they require nearly as much protection in winter as in 

 England. 



263. The soil of the plain of the Po has evidently been formed by the recession or 

 deposition of water, and is a rich black mould, deep, and every where perfectly level. 



264. These lands are every where enclosed, either with hedges and ditches, or with open 

 water-courses, for irrigation. The hedges, however, are not very well kept ; they are a 

 mixture of different plants ; often chiefly of willows ; occasionally of the mulberry for 



