AGRICULTURE, HISTORY OF: IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE ...

Improvements in agriculture in the West: c. 200 BC to AD 1600 The Roman epoch Crop farming and domestication of animals were well established in western Europe by Roman times. Yields per acre were small by 20th-century standards, and nearly half the annual crop had to be used as seed, but quantities of grain were still exported from Britain to Gaul. Where feasible, Roman farming methods were adopted. Greek and Roman farming techniques are known from contemporary textbooks that have survived. Methods were dictated to some degree by the Mediterranean climate and by the contours of the area. The majority of the crops cultivated today on the Mediterranean coast, wheat, spelt, barley, some millet, and the legumes (beans, peas, vetches, chick-peas, alfalfa , and lupines), were known at that time. The olive, the vine, and fruit trees were grown, as were turnips and radishes. The farm Roman holdings were commonly as small as 1 1/4 acres; the ground was prepared with hand tools, hoes, and mattocks, doubtless edged with bronze or iron. Later, as farming developed, and estates of different sizes came into existence, two writers set out catalogs of the tools, implements, and labour required to exploit a given-size holding. These were Marcus Porcius Cato (234149 BC) and Marcus Terentius Varro (11627 BC). Already in Cato's time, emphasis was on production of wine and oil for sale, rather than cultivation of cereal crops, beyond the volume required to feed animals and slaves. For an olive grove of 240 jugers (150 acres), Cato estimated necessary equipment as three large carts, six plows and plowshares, three yokes, six sets of ox harness, one harrow, manure hampers and baskets, three pack saddles, and three pads for the asses. Required tools included eight heavy spades, four smaller spades, shovels, rakes, scythes, axes, and wedges. Some 13 people, including an overseer, a housekeeper, five labourers, three teamsters, a muleteer, a swineherd, and a shepherd responsible for 100 sheep, would do the work. Other livestock included three yokes of oxen, three donkeys to carry manure, and one for the olive-crushing mill. The farm was also to be equipped with oil presses and containers for the oil.