AGRICULTURE IN FRANCE. 419 



articles of subsistence among the Neapolitans, this imposition 

 is said to have rendered them industrious. But though some 

 agricultural books were published at Naples during the sixteenth 

 century, there is no evidence that they made much progress in 

 culture. Their best lands are in Sicily, and on them a grain 

 crop, alternating with a fallow, was, and is, the rotation, and the 

 produce seldom exceeded eight or ten for one, as in the time of 

 the Romans. This is the case with Sicily at present, and it is 

 likely that it was not different, at least that it was not better, 

 from the fifth to the seventeenth centuries. 



The greatest agricultural improvements in Italy, which took 

 place during the period in question, were in Tuscany and Lom- 

 bardy. In the former country, the culture of the vine and the 

 olive was brought to greater perfection than anywhere else 

 in Europe. The oil of Lucca and the wines of Florence 

 became celebrated in other countries, and the commerce in 

 these articles enriched the inhabitants, and enabled the proprie- 

 tors to bestow increased attention upon the cultivation of their 

 estates. Lombardy excelled in the management of grain and 

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

 this country were esteemed the best in Italy. The pastures 

 were at that time, and still are, more productive than any others 

 in Europe, or perhaps in the world, having the three advantages 

 of a climate so temperate in winter that grass grows all the 

 year, a soil naturally rich, and an abundant supply of river 

 water for irrigation. The irrigation of Lombardy forms the 

 chief feature of its culture. It was begun and carried on to a 

 considerable extent under the Romans, and in the period of 

 which we speak it 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 thir- 

 teenth century, by the picture of a farmhouse, given by Cres- 

 cenzio, who lived on its borders ; which, as a French antiquarian 

 has observed, differs little from the best modern ones of Italy, 

 except in being covered with thatch. 



History of Agriculture in France, from the Fifth to the 

 Seventeenth Century. The nations which conquered France 

 in the fifth century were the Goths, Vandals, and Franks. The 

 two former nations claimed two-thirds of the conquered lands, 



