48 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



instead of following the rigid system of rotation prescribed 

 under the two-field or the three-field system. In short, it made 

 possible the individualistic system of agricultural economy. 



II. THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN ENGLISH AGRICULTURE 



Our indebtedness to English agriculture. Our own agricul- 

 tural history is more closely related to that of Great Britain 

 than to that of any other part of the world. Not only did the 

 American colonists bring with them the rural customs and 

 practices of the mother country, but they continued for a long 

 time, even down almost to the present, to look mainly to Eng- 

 land for improvements in almost everything agricultural except 

 farm machinery, in which we have led the rest of the world. 

 New and improved varieties of fruits, grains, and vegetables, 

 and, more especially, superior breeds of live stock, have gen- 

 erally come from England and Scotland ; in fact, it has not 

 been uncommon in some parts of this country to designate im- 

 proved and cultivated varieties of our garden and field crops 

 and of our live stock by the general name of "English." 

 Thus English hay meant anything but wild hay ; English fruit, 

 almost any kind of grafted fruit ; English cattle, horses, etc., 

 almost anything except common scrub stock. While this was 

 not always a strictly accurate use of terms, it indicated in a 

 general way our indebtedness to the more highly developed 

 agriculture of the mother country, especially during our pio- 

 neer period, when our energies were devoted less to improv- 

 ing our crops and herds than to the gigantic task of subduing 

 the continent and bringing it under cultivation. 



Our indebtedness to other countries. Though France helped 

 us to win our political independence and gave us some of our 

 best political ideals, she contributed little to our agriculture except 

 the Percheron horse ; the French coach horse, which is really 

 not yet an established breed, and owes its best qualities to the 



