Of the actual state of Agriculture in Europe.
This is very different in different states, and even in different
parts of the same state; its greater or less degree of perfection,
depending on causes physical, or political, or both. Where a
state, or part of a state, from _soil_, _climate_, _manners_, or
_geographical position_, draws its principal subsistence from the
fishery or the chase, as in the more northern parts of Europe,
agriculture will not succeed; when a state is from any cause both
essentially maritime or manufacturing, as in England, or principally
manufacturing, as in Prussia; where public opinion has degraded
manual labour, as in Spain, Portugal, and the Papal territory; or
where laws villainize it, as in Russia, Prussia, Poland, Hungary,
&c. &c. it is in vain to expect pre-eminent agriculture.--These
principles will receive illustration as we go along.
1. In the Campania of Rome, where in the time of Pliny were counted
twenty-three cities, the traveller is now astonished and depressed
at the silence and desolation that surround him.--Even from Rome
to Trescati, (four leagues of road the most frequented) we find
only an arid plain, without trees, without meadows, natural or
artificial, and without villages, or other habitation of man!
Yet is this wretchedness not the fault of soil or climate, which
(with little alteration[2]) continue to be what they were in the
days of Augustus. "_Man is the only growth that dwindles here_,"
and to his deficient or ill directed industry, are owing all the
calamities of the scene.[3] Instead of the hardy and masculine
labours of the field; the successors of Cato and of Pliny employ
themselves in fabricating _sacred vases, hair powders and pomatums,
artificial pearls, fiddle strings, embroidered gloves, and religious
relics_! They are also great collectors of pictures, statues, and
medals--"dirty gods and coins," and find an ample reward in the
ignorance and credulity of those who buy them.
[2] The climate of Italy is now warmer than it was in the Augustan
age, which Buffon ascribes to the draining of great tracts of swampy
lands in Germany.
[3] "Un Romain meme le plus indigent rougiroit de cultiver la
terre." Bosc.
2. How different from this picture is that of _Tuscany_! where
the soil, though less fertile,[4] is covered with grains, with
vines, and with cattle; and where a surface of 1200 square
leagues, subsists a population of nine hundred and fifty thousand
inhabitants, of whom eighty thousand are agriculturists. It may
amuse, if it does not instruct, the reader, to offer a few details
of a husbandry, among the most distinguished of the present age. The
plough of the north of Europe, as of this country, has the powers of
a wedge, and acts perpendicularly; but that of Tuscany resembles a
shovel, is eight or nine inches long, and nearly as broad, and cuts
the earth horizontally. This instrument is particularly adapted to
the loose and friable texture of the soil. A second plough, of the
same shape, but of smaller size, follows that already described, and
with the aid of the hoe and the spade,[5] throws the earth, already
broken and pulverised, into four feet ridges, or beds, on which the
crop is sown. The furrows answer a threefold purpose; they drain the
beds of excessive moisture, ventilate the growing crops, and supply
paths for the weeders.
[4] "Two thirds of Tuscany consist of mountains." Vol. viii. p. 232.
_Geographic, Mathematique et Phisique_: See also Forsyth's remarks,
p. 80, where are detailed the principal causes of her prosperity.
"Leopold," says he, "in selling the crown lands, studiously _divided
large tracts_ of rich but neglected land, into _small properties_.
His favourite plan of encouraging agriculture consisted, not in
_boards_, _societies_, and _premiums_, but in giving _the labourer
a security and interest in the soil_--in multiplying small
freeholders--in extending the livelli, or life leases, &c. &c.
[5] It is among the most important covenants of a Tuscan lease, that
one third of the ground be annually worked with a spade.
The _rotation of crops_, employs two periods of different length;
the one of three, the other of five years. In the rotation of
_three_ years, the ground is sown five times, and in that of four
years, seven times, as follows.
First year, wheat, and after wheat lupins.
Second year wheat, and after wheat turnips.
Third year, Indian corn or millet.
First year, wheat, and after wheat beans.
Second year, wheat, and after wheat lupins.