206 WiSGOJSrSIJSr state agrigultural sogiett. 
i 
duction of a very few crops, of a quality no doubt far inferior to 
those of the present day, with clumsy and inefficient tools, by un¬ 
skillful processes, and with no basis of scientific knowledge; but, 
assuming all these deficiencies in matters of detail, the cultivation 
was as a whole careful and systematic. They made the most of 
what knowledge and facilities they had. It would probably be safe 
to say that at the present day, with all the unqestioned advance in 
processes and materials, there is more superficial and slip-shod 
farming than there was five hundred years ago. Our opportunities 
are greater, and we get better results on the average; but our bet¬ 
ter results are perhaps due to our superior opportunities, more than 
to the use we make of them. 
I have said that the progress of agriculture in modern times has 
consisted mainly in improved processes and greater variety of crops. 
The first point of inquiry is therefore, what crops were cultivated, 
and for what object. Agricultural operations are designed either 
to supply the immediate wants of men, in the production of food; 
or to provide materials for manufactures; or, again, either of these 
classes of products may be exported to foreign countries in ex¬ 
change for other commodities. The Wisconsin farmer produces 
wheat for immediate consumption; wool for manufacturing into 
cloth; and both wheat and wool for export. Now with these last 
two objects the medieval farmer had little to do; neither man¬ 
ufactures nor commerce existed on a very large scale. Every 
country was in the main self-supporting; that is, provided by its 
own production for its own wants. And what is true of the country 
is also true in a degree of every estate. The estates or manors 
were large, embracing generally an entire township; and each 
estate produced corn and meat for its own needs, brewed its own 
beer from its own barley, and wore garments made by its own 
women from the fleeces of its own sheep, purchasing whatever 
foreign articles it required for its surplus. 
Small communities like these, which bad this habit of depending 
almost exclusively upon their own productions, with no large and 
constant channels of exchange, and no facilities for quickly meet¬ 
ing sudden and unexpected demands, were liable to great fluctua¬ 
tions in the value of their products, and to real suffering from defi¬ 
cient crops. Famines were frequent in those days, just as they are 
now in the remote parts of the East. In the five years from 1316 
