The chief grain cultivated by the Romans was wheat, but barley was also cultivated to a considerable extent. Land devoted to grain was fallowed for a whole year every alternate year; in other words, the rotation consisted of, 1st, wheat; 2d, fallow. One third of the fallow was manured and sown with some green crop as cattle-food. Fallow received from four to five furrows before the wheat was sown in autumn. The last plowing left the land in narrow ridges; and as the seed was sown broadcast, it came up in rows, which admitted of the crop being several times hand-hoed. The crops of wheat ripened about the middle of June, but the summers were too dry to allow of millet and other summer crops being raised with certainty. Rye, hemp, flax, beans, turnips, lupines, vetches and lucerne are also mentioned as occasionally cultivated. Meadows were highly esteemed, and irrigation to some extent adopted. Cattle were fed in the plains in winter, and driven towards the Apennines as the snows melted in spring, and when the pastures below became parched by the heat. The greater portion of the sur face of southern Italy consists of thin calcareous soils, ill adapted for the growth of grain or grass; and the vine, the olive and the mulberry become the chief object of cul ture. The principal districts for growing wheat are in the neighborhood of Naples, and in the ancient Apulia, where Hannibal generally wintered when he overran Italy. Some of these rich plains are still held directly from the government, and cultivation is of the rudest character. One third of the land is in pasture, and the other two thirds in fallow and grain. Three or four crops are taken in succession, and the soil is then allowed to recruit its exhausted strength by remaining under pasture.
In the great plain of northern Italy watered by the Po, A. is now in a very advanced condition. A great part of it is of great natural fertility; it drew forth the praises of Polybius, who visited it about fifty years after it came into the hands of the Romans. The oak-groves which he found scattered over the plain fed the immense droves of swine that were then raised in Italy. Now, however, rich and poor soils are subjected to the fertilizing influences of irrigation, and the region has become the best cultivated in Europe. No less than 1,600,000 acres of land are under irrigation, and the results are of the most striking character. The land is forced to produce a constant suc cession of grass and grain. The irrigated meadows, like the pastures of Ireland and Scotland, are made the corner-stone of the systems of rotation.. In general, three years in meadow are succeeded by three years in rice; two years in Indian corn and flax; one year in wheat sown out with grass-seeds. Large numbers of cattle are kept on the farms of Lombardy, 'where the land is often a complete net-work of canals, with their smaller distributing channels. There is a large exportation both of grain and dairy produce. The vast ranges of snowy mountains that bound the plain to the north afford a never failing supply of water during the heats of summer. The vine and mulberry beautify the country, and also give employment to the dense population.
The lower latitude of Spain, gives it a still more arid summer climate than Italy. Rains commonly fall only during the autumn and winter, and the supply is scanty and irregular. This renders Spain a poor and unproductive country, excepting where the soil can be irrigated. For this reason, the resources of its A. are chiefly confined to its well-watered valleys, which are capable of being made to outstrip Egypt itself in pro ductiveness. The Moors early introduced the art of irrigation in the s. of Spain, and carried it to a high pitch in the kingdom of Granada. Before the conquest of that coun try by Ferdinand and Isabella, the valley of Granada was one well-cultivated garden. Though the undiminished powers of land are still attested by a few spots in the veqas of Murcia and Granada, its present condition cannot he compared to its condition under the Moors. The high temperature admits of a succession of crops being raised in one year, as in Egypt. After wheat has been gathered in June, a crop of maize or millet or of vegetables is got. Maize is scarcely grown in Spain except where the land is irrigated, so that every valley is more or less under the productive influences of water. The melt mg of the snows in summer on the high ranges of mountains, affords a supply when it is most needed in the plains below. Vines, olives and oranges find a genial climate for their growth in the southern parts, and are important objects of culture.
' France must be regarded as one of the richest agricultural countries in Europe. In the s., the climate is sufficiently hot for olives, maize, the mulberry and the vine. The summer rains, too, are more abundant than in Spain, and permit maize to be'extensively grown alternately with wheat, which forms a most productive course of crops. Irriga tion has received considerable attention in the southern valleys, and the reclamation of the barren wastes of the Crau in Provence, testifies to its fertilizing effects. Much of the soil is poor in the .southern provinces, and not suited to, the growth Of' grain ; but such soil admits of the grQwt4i of the mulberry, the olive, or the vine. All these crops de mand a large amount of labor in their culture, and sustain a dense population. Nor mandy is celebrated for its pastures. The n.w. of France generally is the most fertile tract of land in Europe. In the less advanced districts, fallow wheat and oats is the rota tion still followed. Clovers and lucerne are largely sown in the chalky districts. In the best cultivated districts in the n., wheat and beet-root or poppy are sown alternately. Beet forms a most important plant in the A. of France in the present day, as a large part of the sugar consumed in the country is derived from it. Much of France is divided into small properties, which is more especially the case in the less fertile prov inces. This division of property is so far a necessity, as no other industrial occupation is open to the people. As soon as manufactures raise the standard of living in the town, it will influence the condition of the rural population, and lead to the enlargement of properties.