THE CEOPS. 49 



exhaustion by cereal crops, a period arrives when the land, 

 too often required to bear corn, refuses to do so. Even 

 where climate and soil are most favourable, the old Eoman 

 system, which consisted in growing corn one year, and 

 leaving the land fallow the next, is found ultimately to be 

 insufficient ; the soil ceases to produce crops of any 

 value. 



In northern latitudes, it is found that the land becomes 

 sooner exhausted under cereals than in the south : this 

 inferiority in their soil led the English to the know- 

 ledge of one of its valuable properties. The impossi- 

 bility of taking from their land as many white crops 

 as were elsewhere produced, set them at an early period 

 to discover the causes, and to effect a remedy for this 

 exhaustion. At the same time, their soil presented one 

 resource, which less naturally offers itself to southern 

 agriculturists ; namely, the spontaneous growth of an 

 abundant grass for cattle. These two facts combined 

 to produce their entire agricultural system. Animal 

 manure being the best agent for renewing the fertility of 

 the soil after a cereal crop, they concluded that they 

 ought to apply themselves especially to the feeding of a 

 large number of cattle. Besides that butcher-meat is 

 an article of food more required by the inhabitants of 

 northern than those of southern latitudes, they perceived 

 in this large animal production the means of increasing, 

 by the quantity of manure, the richness of the soil, and 

 so augmenting their production of corn. This simple 

 calculation succeeded, and since they adopted it, expe- 

 rience has led them to apply it every day more and 

 more. 



At first the English contented themselves with natural 

 pastures for their cattle, and upon this system one-half 



D 



