AGRICULTURE.
Charlemagne may be said to have introduced Agriculture and the Industrial Arts north of the Alps. He was the first to apply rational methods not only to political, military, financial, and legal affairs, but also to the formation of the character and to the development of the resources of the nations which he governed. The process was often pain ful to the natural disposition of the people, and particularly to the Teu tonic nationalities, but it was absolutely necessary, considering the state of affairs after the great migrations and the Merovingian period. That his efforts did not immediately accomplish greater results was due to the incapacity of his immediate successors. However, he gave to the world an impulse which never died out.
Charlemagne paid the greatest attention to agriculture, and rewarded with gifts of land those who cleared away the primeval forests. Tillage and stock-raising were protected by his laws, which manifest a thorough experience, and were encouraged by the establishment on all his estates of experimental stations to serve as patterns, which he carefully super intended. From his edicts we learn how the cultivation of gardens, grain fields, meadows, and forests was conducted, how cattle and other live stock were treated, what vegetables were raised, and what ornamental shrubs were grown; in fact, they fully instruct us as to the condition of agriculture in that age. Fruit-culture, which had previously included only wild pears and crab-apples, made considerable progress, and special attention was given to the cultivation of the vine, which had been intro duced by the Romans.
In the development of the industrial arts the emperor was hampered, at least in Germany, by the lack of centres of population. These arts were practised principally in the monasteries and convents, which, as we have said (p. 252), formed complete communities. Many handicrafts were confined to the women, but they were ennobled in the eyes of all the people by the fact that Charlemagne required his own daughters to practise them. A golden spindle was placed upon the grave of Luitgard, the daughter of Otto the Great, duchess of Lorraine and Franconia, as a testimony to her diligence.
More important was the influence exerted by Charlemagne upon the mechanical industries: he organized these on his own estates, and thus called into life a complete round of activity. He promoted trade and commerce, which had always flourished along the Rhine and in other regions colonized by Rome, indirectly through the construction of roads and bridges, improvement of river navigation, regulation of tolls, stringent measures against robbery and extortion, and similar reforms.
clearing of the forests was continued throughout the Middle Ages, but of course without any system. The result was that in some districts wild beasts were a source of danger, while in others wood became scarce, and measures had to be taken for the preservation of the forests—a care which the ancient Teutons had never neglected.
Products.—The increase of cultivated lands brought with it an increase of population, which was certainly very sparse during the early Middle Ages. The methods of agriculture improved, though the condition of the farming class became more and more unfavorable with the develop ment of the feudal system. In Germany grain was principally grown, but other products were cultivated for commercial purposes. Thus in the North the raising of flax, pursued from an early period, became widely extended; the cultivation of rape was soon added; while in the South the cultivation of spices, dyes, and medicinal plants was begun. Choice vege tables and fruits were chiefly grown in the convents, whence they spread to country estates and to the city gardens of the wealthy. The grape was cultivated at that time in some districts from which it has long since disappeared.
reason of the great importance which attached to the horse during the Middle Ages, attention was given from an early period to improving the breed, while cattle were in this respect neglected. The flocks of sheep, however, increased in proportion as men laid aside skins and sought better protection against the cold of winter. The chase was a privilege which became more and more exclusive,. until finally it was permitted only to nobles and princes, and consequently can scarcely find a place in a history of civilization.
Land Tenure and social revolutions which occasioned the transition from medimval to modern history were highly beneficial to the interests of agriculture. The nobility, almost the sole possessors of land, had lost many sources of income by the increased powers of the royal prerogative, and were compelled to develop the productivity of their estates. Tillage by discontented serfs was no longer sufficient. A great advance was made in the sixteenth century in land tenure by the intro duction of leases and hereditary tenure. Earnest attention was given to methods of husbandry: the first treatise on the subject in Germany appeared in 1580. Large tracts of land, which had been unproductive when held by mortmain, were by confiscation of Church property con verted into royal domains and brought under cultivation. Even great personages, such as the elector Augustus of Saxony and the emperor Maximilian II., personally concerned themselves about farming and stock-raising. Superfluous forest lands were cleared; swampy districts were drained and colonized; new and useful plants began to be intro duced, such as clover, tobacco, and later the potato. A machine for planting was used in Carinthia as early as 1665. The Thirty Years' W'ar almost destroyed German husbandry, but the universal misery and pov erty led to the development of the native powers of the people. The gradual elevation of the peasantry dates from that period.