s Boox I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 35 nts, ba.:-.. the the commerce in these articles enriched the inhabitants, and enabled the proprietors to ted, bestow increased attention to the cultivation of their estates. Lombardy excelled in the oo culture of corn and cattle as well as of the vine. The butter, cheese, and beef of the : s country, were esteemed the best in Italy. The pastures were at that time, and still are, Fare more productive than any in Europe, or perhaps the world, having the three advantages and: of a climate so temperate in winter that the grass grows all the year; a soil naturally riod, rich; and an abundant supply of river water for irrigation. The irrigation of Lom- den bardy forms the chief feature of its culture. It was begun and carried to a considerable extent under the Romans, and in the period of which we speak extended and increased under the Lombard kings and wealthy religious establishments. Some idea may be formed of the comfort of the farmers in Lombardy in the thirteenth century, by the hat of picture of a farm-house given by Crescenzio, who lived on its borders, which, as a French an antiquarian(Paulinag) has observed, differ little from the best modern ones of Italy, of his, but in being covered with thatch. , and Secr. II. History of Agriculture in France from the Fifth to the Seventeenth ppears Century. =: 185. The nations who conquered France wn the Sifth century were the Goths, Vandals, Th and Franks, The two former nations claimed two-thirds of the conquered lands peer(Leges Burgundiorum, tit. 54.), and must of course have very much altered both the | oe state of property, 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 € Ttaly dealt more favorably with those whom they subjected to their dominion. ee 186. All that 1S known of the agriculture of these nations and of France till the ninth century is derived from a perusal of their laws. These appear to have been favorable cae to cultivation, especially the laws of the Franks. Horses are frequently mentioned, and 5 a distinction made between the war horse and farm horse, which shews that this animal Roman was at that period more common in France than in Italy. Horses, cattle, and sheep, ture of were pastured in the forests and commons, with bells about the necks of several of them, es, May for their more ready discovery. The culture of vines and orchards was greatly ough is encouraged by Charlemagne in the ninth century. He planted many vineyards on the aR ED crown lands which were situated in every part of the country, and left in his capitularies men of particular instructions for their culture. One of his injunctions prohibits an ox and an me. A ass from being yoked together in the same plough.
187. During great part of the ninth and 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 in that period respecting a farmer’s tilling the lands of his superior, enacts that if the cattle are so weak that four could not go a whole day in the plough, 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 superior three days!as a laborer.;
Se 188. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the country enjoyed more tranquillity, and others. agriculture was improved. Judging from the Abbé Suger’s account of the abbey lands ura Was of St.'Dennis, better farm-houses were built, waste lands cultivated, and rents more subjects than doubled.: The church published several canons for the security of agriculture 5 meals during this period, which must have had a beneficial effect, as the greatest proportion of and them the best lands in every country were then in the hands of the clergy.
ties; but 189. In the thirteenth century little alteration took place; but the number of holidays
were diminished, and mills for grinding corn driven by wind introduced.
190. In the fourteenth and_ fifteenth centuries agriculture suffered greatly by the English wars and conquests, and by political regulations relatively to the export and market price of corn.
lenty and yer none | by taxes
Jenty to: P 191. About the middle of the sixteenth century the first agricultural work produced in ib aalel France made its appearance. It was entitled, Les Moyens de devenir riche, and was written
by Bernard de Pallisy, a potter, who had written on various subjects. It is a very short tract,
chief de- f. composed of economical remarks on husbandry, or rural and domestic economy. Towards
js said to
yublished the end of this century, under Henry IV., and his virtuous minister Sully, considerable i raul enterprise was displayed. Canals were projected and one begun, and according to ; alee Sully, France in his time abounded with corn, grain, pulse, wine, cider, flax, hemp, 0;( oot one, salt, wool, oil, dyeing drugs, cattle great and small, and every thing else, whether neces- i+t js not sary or convenient for life, both for home consumption and exportation.(Mem. enteenth b. xvi. 225. Ranken’s Hist. of France, i. 433.) oY
Seer. ITI. Of the Agriculture of Germany and other Northern States from the Fifth uring the to the Seventeenth Century. Loe 192. The nati.. Europe.: The nations north of the Rhine and the Danube, during the first half of these a centuries, were chiefly employed in making inroads or conquests on their southern neigh- atries, 47> a g