Book I. AGRICULTURE OF MODERN TIMES. 47 



and most of them little known to agriculturists of the present day. In almost all of 

 them there is much that is now useless, and not a little that is trifling and foolish ; yet the 

 labour of perusal is not altogether fruitless. He who ^wishes to view the condition of the 

 great body of the people during this period, as well as the cultivator who still obstinately 

 resists every new practice, may, each of them, be gratified and instructed, in tracing the 

 gradual progress of improvement, both in enjojTnent and useful industry. {Encyc. 

 Brit., art. Agr.) 



Sect. V. History of Agriculture in Ultra- European Countiies during the Middle Ages. 



257. The general history of the old Ultra-European countries, during this period, is not 

 known with sufficient precision and detail, to enable us to give a progressive account of 

 their agriculture. There is no evidence of any improvement having been made in the 

 agriculture of the Indian and Chinese nations, from the earliest period of their known 

 history to the present time. The agriculture of Persia, of the African shores of the 

 Mediterranean sea, and of all the countries under the Turks, seems, if any change has 

 taken place, rather to have declined than advanced during the latter centuries of the 

 middle ages. 



258. The history of the new Ultra-European countries of America and Australasia, only 

 dates its commencement (with the exception of part of America) from the latter end of 

 the period under notice, and therefore cannot furnish sufficient materials for any useful 

 account of their agriculture. Under these circumstances we think it better to defer an 

 account 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 and Sweden, and also with regard to that of Spain and 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, Olivier de 

 Serres in France, Heresbach in Germany, Herrera in Spain, and Fitzherbert in Eng- 

 land, all published about that period, supplied the materials of study, and led to improved 

 practices 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 we have been enabled to glean from the very scanty 

 materials which exist on the subject. Had these been more abundant, this part of our 

 work would have been much more instructive. The past state of agriculture can do 

 little more than gratify the curiosity, but its present state is calculated both to excite our 

 curiosity and aflfect our interests. Independently of the political relations which may be 

 established by a free trade in corn, there is probably no European country that does not 

 possess some animal or vegetable production, or pursue some mode of culture or manage- 

 ment, that might not be beneficiajly introduced into Britain ; but, with the exception of 

 Flanders and some parts of France and Italy, there are as yet no sufficient data for 

 obtaining the necessary details. 



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



260. Italy is the most interesting country of Euroj^e 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, has occasioned an almost equally 

 great variety in the tenure of land, and the political circumstances which afiect the cul 

 tivator. The great advantage which Italy possesses over the rest of Europe, in an agricul- 

 tural point of view, is its climate ; for though, as the learned Sismondi has shown (Annals 

 (f Agric., vol. i.), it is, in point of heal^ and agreeableness, one of the worst in the 



