Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
155 
be small ; as it is in the old corn-cxportingf countries, where 
the triennial system of croppin<i^ prevails. A classic writer, in 
pointing out the defects of this ancient rotation, described our 
own experience, as well as that of Roman agriculturists, when he 
said, " Your land would be equally well restored by changing 
the crops, and then there would be no rent to pay for land that 
yields nothing." Yet the triennial system [1. Fallow ; 2. Wheat ; 
3. Spring corn, or wheat] was long considered the best and only 
good one; in proof of which were cited its antiquity and univer- 
sality, its cheapness, ease, and simplicity, the little capital it 
required, and its close connexion with established laws and 
customs, which would have been annihilated by any change of 
practice. In the reign of Charlemagne, the triennial rotation 
was dictated to the officers and stewards of the immense estates 
farmed for the king. Thaer, who witnessed the dawn of a new 
era in agriculture, writes in the ' Principles of Agriculture :' — 
" It became prevalent throughout Christendom (in the time of Charle- 
magne). A^o change was made in the dark and troublous times which 
followed, when agriculture was essentially carried on by a class of peasantry, 
men buried in the depths of slavery and ignorance, or under the inspection of 
the lowest grade of freemen. Those institutions and practices which custom 
had sanctioned, swayed the arts and sciences tor a considerable lapse of time 
with irresistible power; and any one who ventured to express the slightest 
doubt of their conformity with the laws of reason, was regarded as little short 
of a heretic. It is onlj^ of late years that anything like discussion on the 
virtues and defects of this system has arisen ; and it was only on some portion 
of the land in the Netherlands, Holstein, and in some coimties in England 
where any other system of cultivation has been adopted." 
Thaer was called in Germany " the father of the alternate 
system of cropping," by which clover and roots are introduced 
into the rotation, and the land is " restored by changing the 
crops " and by manure. But he failed to introduce his improve- 
ments where circumstances were not yet ripe for their adoption. 
A large population and good markets for all her products are the 
sine qua non of improved agriculture, and the improved system 
which was adopted in certain populous countries and districts 
is still confined to them. A stock farmer, as a grower of roots 
and green crops and an importer of feeding stuffs, is able to 
increase the productive power of the land, and in so doing to 
diminish the cost of production; and he occupies a strong posi- 
tion as a corn-grower, from which the competition of mere 
"grain-and fallow " farmers cannot drive him. 
Thaer, who was a close observer and a zealous farmer, says, 
in describing Continental farming, that the fallow, in the trien- 
nial and biennial courses, ought always to be manured ; but this 
can only be done where there is a great deal of meadow-land, or 
