While there is much in the writings of the old English chroniclers concerning the tenure of land, upon which subject the Domesday Book gives much enlightenment, there is a great lack of information as to the manner in which the land was cultivated. Information began to be recorded in the middle of the thirteenth century, but only one treatise is known to have been written, namely, La Dite de Husbanderye, an essay in Norman French by Walter de Henley. This work was superseded by another treatise, the best of the early works on the subject, and published in the reign of Henry VIII (in 1523)
by Sir A. Fitzherbert, judge of the Common Pleas. It is entitled the Book of Husbandry, and contains directions for draining, clearing, and enclosing a farm, for enriching the soil, and rendering it fit for tillage. Lime, marl, and fallowing are strongly recommended. The subject of agriculture attained some prominence during the reign of Elizabeth. The principal writers of that period were Tusser, Googe, and Sir Hugh Platt. Tusser's Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandry (first complete edition published in 1580) conveys much useful instruction in metre, but few works of this time contain much that is original or valuable. The first half of the seventeenth century produced no systematic work on agriculture, though several on different branches of the subject. About 1645 the field cultivation of red clover was introduced into England, the merit of this improvement being due to Sir Richard Weston, author of a Discourse on the Husbandry of Brabant and Flanders, to whom also belongs the credit of first growing turnips in England. The Dutch had devoted much attention to the improvement of winter roots, and also to the cultivation of clover and other artificial grasses, and the farmers and proprietors of England soon saw the advantages to be derived from their introduction. Potatoes had been introduced during the latter part of the sixteenth century, but were not for long in general cultivation. A number of writers on agriculture appeared in England during the Commonwealth, the most important works on the subject being Blythe's Improver Improved and Hartlib's Legacy. The former writer speaks of a rotation, or rather alternation of crops, and well knew the use of lime, as also of other manures. In the eighteenth century the first name of importance in British agriculture is that of Jethro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who began to drill wheat and other crops about the year 1701, and whose Horse-hoeing Husbandry was published in 1731. Tull was a great advocate of the system of sowing crops in rows or drills with an interval between every two or three rows wide enough to allow of ploughing or hoeing to be carried on. This enabled the ground to be cleared with crops still growing, thus obviating the necessity for 'bare fallow' and leading to the four-course or Norfolk Rotation of Charles, second Viscount Townshend, the first agriculturist to cultivate turnips on a large scale. After the time of Tull and Townshend no great alteration in British agriculture took place till Robert Bakewell and others effected some important improvements in the breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The raising and maintenance of live stock, especially of sheep, was a characteristic of English farming from a very early time, and for several centuries the country had almost a monopoly in the supply of wool. To Bakewell we owe the well-known breed of Leicester sheep. By the end of the century it was a common practice to alternate green crops with grain crops, instead of exhausting the land with a number of successive crops of corn. A well-known writer on agriculture at this period, and one who did a great deal of good in diffusing a knowledge of the subject, was Arthur Young. Scotland was for a long time behind England in agricultural progress. Great progress was made during the eighteenth century, however, especially in the latter half of it, turnips being introduced as a field-crop, and new implements such as the swing-plough and the thrashing-machine coming into general use. The construction of good roads through the country also gave agriculture a great impulse. During the wars caused by the French revolution (1795-1815) the high price of agricultural produce led to an extraordinary improvement in agriculture all over Britain. The establishment of the institution called the National Board of Agriculture was also of very great service to British husbandry at this period. Though a private association, it was assisted by an annual parliamentary grant, and prizes were given by it for the encouragement of experiments and improvements in agriculture. It existed from 1793 to 1816.
Among other societies which have greatly furthered the progress of agriculture in Britain, the chief in existence at the present day are the Smithfield Club, inaugurated in 1798; the Royal Agricultural Society of England, established in 1838; the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, founded in 1783; and the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, instituted in 1841. The objects of these and similar societies are such as the following: To encourage the introduction of improvements in agriculture; to encourage the improvement of agricultural implements and farm buildings; the application of chemistry to agriculture; the destruction of insects injurious to vegetation; to promote the discovery and adoption of new varieties of grain, or other useful vegetables; to collect information regarding the management of woods, plantations, and fences; to improve the education of those supported by the cultivation of the soil; to improve the veterinary art; to improve the breeds of live stock, &c. Shows are held, at which prizes are distributed for live stock, implements, and farm produce.
Through the efforts of the above-mentioned and other societies, the investigations of scientific men, the general diffusion of knowledge among all classes, and the necessity of competing with producers in foreign countries, agriculture made
vast strides in Britain during the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Among the chief improvements we may mention deep ploughing and thorough draining. By the introduction of new or improved implements the labour necessary to the carrying out of agricultural operations has been greatly diminished, and advancement in this direction has been promoted by the necessities of the Great War. Labour-saving machinery is likely to be used in future on an increasingly large scale. Science, too, has been called in to act as the handmaid of art, and in its application we owe very much to the researches conducted at the Rothamsted Experimental Station, founded in 1834 by Lawes, who endowed the Lawes Trust in 1889. Gilbert and he worked together from 1843 to the end of last century. It is primarily by the investigations of the chemist and physicist that agriculture has been put on a really scientific basis. The physiology of plants and animals, and the complex properties of soils, have all been investigated, and most important results obtained. Artificial manures, in great variety to supply the elements wanted for plant growth, have come into common use, and the free nitrogen of the air is now worked up into various substances by which the nitrate of soda imported from South America can be replaced. An improvement in all kinds of stock is becoming more and more general, feeding is conducted on more scientific principles, and improved varieties of crop-plants are created by applying the principles of Mendel and other scientists. Much attention is also devoted to seed-testing, and the applications of electricity to agriculture are being developed.
As a result of the new conditions, to be a thoroughly-trained and competent agriculturist requires a special education, partly theoretical, partly practical. In many countries there are now agricultural schools or colleges supported by the State, and many such institutions exist in Britain. In Scotland, the Edinburgh chair of Rural Economy was founded in 1790; in Ireland, the Glasnevin Institution was inaugurated in 1838; and the establishment of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, dates from 1845. In the United States nearly all the States have now colleges, or departments of colleges, devoted to the teaching of agriculture, and large allotments of public land have been made for their support. There are also numerous experimental stations. In Britain there has been a Board of Agriculture since 1889, under a cabinet minister, which was constituted a ministry in 1919; previously there was only a department under a committee of the Privy Council.
It is probable that on the whole the agriculture of Britain is farther advanced than that of any other region of similar size. Wheat, barley, and oats are the chief cereals in Britain; the chief roots are turnips and potatoes; other crops (besides grass and clover) are beans, peas, mangold, hops, and flax. In Europe at large the principal cereals are wheat, oats, barley, and rye, wheat being mostly grown in the middle and southern regions, such as France, Spain, part of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, and southern Russia, the others in the more northern portion, while maize is grown in the warmest parts. Turnips are comparatively little grown out of Britain, beet-root in some sense taking their place; potatoes, however, are largely cultivated, except in the south. In the United States maize is the chief corn crop, next to which comes wheat, then oats; potatoes are an important crop, but turnips are only grown to a very small extent. In Canada large quantities of wheat are grown (more especially in Manitoba and the North-West), much is also now produced in the Australian colonies, in India, Argentina, &c.—Bibliography: W. Fream, Elements of Agriculture; C. W. Burkett, Agriculture for Beginners; Encyclopædia of Agriculture (Gresham Publishing Company).
Agrigentum (-jen′tum) (modern Girgenti), an ancient Greek city of Sicily, founded about 580 B.C., and long one of the most important places on the island. The town is also famous as the birthplace of the philosopher Empedocles. Extensive ruins of splendid temples and public buildings yet attest its ancient magnificence. See Girgenti.
Ag′rimony (Agrimonia), a genus of plants, nat. ord. Rosaceæ, consisting of slender perennial herbs found in temperate regions. A. Eupatoria, or common agrimony, was formerly of much repute as a medicine in England. Its leaves and rootstock are astringent, and the latter yields a yellow dye. The plant is a common weed on the borders of cornfields and on roadsides.
Agrippa, Herod. See Herod Agrippa.