420 AGRICULTURE. 



and must, of course, have very much altered the state of prop- 

 erty 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. 



All that is known of the agriculture of these nations of 

 France, till the ninth century, is derived from a perusal of their 

 laws. These appear to have been favorable to cultivation, espe- 

 cially the laws of the Franks. Horses are frequently mentioned, 

 and a distinction is made between the war horse and the farm 

 horse, which shows 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 improved by Charle- 

 magne, in the ninth century. He planted many vineyards on 

 the crown lands, which were situated in every part of the coun- 

 try, and left in his Capitularies particular instructions for their 

 culture. One of his injunctions prohibits an ox and an ass 

 from being yoked together to the same plow. 



During the greater part of the ninth and the 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 at that period, respecting a farmer's tilling the 

 land of his superior, enacts that, if the cattle are so weak that 

 four could not go a whole day in a plow, 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 supe- 

 rior three days as a laborer. In the eleventh and twelfth centu- 

 ries, the country enjoyed more tranquillity, and agriculture was 

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

 lands of St. Denis, better farm-houses were built, waste lands 

 were cultivated, and rents were 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 was then 

 in the hands of the clergy. In the thirteenth century, little 

 alteration took place ; but the number of holidays diminished, 

 and mills driven by wind, for grinding grain, were introduced. 



