Agriculture

The Renaissance saw several new developments in the field of agriculture. Farmers and horticulturists* experimented with new crops and growing techniques. Two major changes during this time were improvements in irrigation and the planting of forage crops, which were used as food for livestock. Other new crops entered Europe from distant parts of the world. These changes marked the beginning of an agricultural revolution in which modern techniques replaced more traditional practices.

Renaissance Approaches to Agriculture. New ideas about farming began to emerge in Europe during the 1300s. Around 1320 the Italian writer Pietro de Crescenzi published his Book of Estate Cultivation. He recommended rotating grain crops—that is, growing a different crop each year in the same field—without allowing the field to lie fallow (unused) in between. He also suggested the use of turnips as a forage crop.

Another influential Renaissance text was Writers on Rural Subjects (1472). This volume contained agricultural writings by four ancient Roman authors: Cato, Columella, Palladius, and Varro. The book made the ideas of the ancients easily available to Renaissance estate owners. It sparked an interest in reviving classical* knowledge about farming techniques.

During the 1500s, authors created new texts on agriculture for wealthy farmers. In his Book on Agriculture (1513), Spanish horticulturist Gabriel Alonso de Herrera used his own observations to confirm the theories of ancient writers. He emphasized the importance of water in maintaining soil quality. Another influential author was Italian scientist Camillo Tarello. In the 1560s he recommended rotating crops of wheat and clover.

These authors were at the leading edge of a new scientific approach to farming. Farmers in southern France also took part in this trend. They used their gardens to test wild plants and to collect their seeds for future use. Many of their discoveries were later transferred to northern Europe.

New Crops. One of the key agricultural advances of the Renaissance was the planting of forage crops. These crops helped farmers maintain livestock during the winter months. Some forage crops, such as alfalfa and clover, also helped restore fertility to the soil. This feature enabled farmers to reduce or eliminate the practice of leaving fields fallow to replenish the soil.

Alfalfa had been cultivated as a forage crop in ancient times, but it fell out of use in Italy during the Middle Ages. However, Arabs in Spain continued to grow it. Alfalfa reappeared in Italy around 1540, after the rediscovery of Columella's writings on this valuable plant. At the same time, newly printed books on botany provided detailed descriptions of wild alfalfa. The wild form of the plant served as a useful source of seed. Over the next 50 years, alfalfa growing spread through northern Italy. Some farmers grew alfalfa along with rice.

The discovery of the AMERICAS in 1492 brought many new food plants to Europe. Scientists studied these plants and identified those suitable for Europe's soil and climate conditions. The first American crop to spread widely throughout Europe was maize, or corn. By 1498 it was abundant in parts of Spain. Maize spread so quickly that some Europeans forgot its origin and called it "Turkish wheat."

Sweet potatoes were another American plant that took hold rapidly, particularly in Spain. Most mentions of potatoes during this period refer to sweet potatoes. Europeans grew some white potatoes in the 1500s because they believed they had useful medicinal purposes. Tobacco was grown for the same reason until around 1600, when it became a commercial crop. Other plants from the Americas became valuable crops during the 1600s.

New Techniques. European farming methods changed gradually throughout the Renaissance. The quality of the soil was a major concern. Early in the period, farmers focused on fertilizing their fields better so that they would not have to leave them fallow. Later farmers developed cross-plowing, a technique of plowing each field twice—once lengthwise and once crosswise—to turn the soil more fully.

Farmers also took a different approach to seeding. In the Middle Ages, farmers had sowen seeds thickly on all types of soil. During the Renaissance, they returned to the ancient principle that it was wasteful to sow thickly on poor soil. They also developed new methods of crop rotation to use their agricultural resources as efficiently as possible. Continuing a trend that had begun in the Middle Ages, farmers began to plant each field three times a year instead of only twice. The third crop was usually oats, which they used to feed their horses. The use of horses for plowing, rather than oxen, was another development that began in the Middle Ages and continued throughout the Renaissance.

One major change during the Renaissance was enclosure. Farmers put fences around their fields to separate them from common pasture or open areas. Enclosure may have helped farmers increase their yields by allowing them to decide which crops to grow in each field. New methods of surveying land produced more accurate boundaries for estates and farms. Landowners abandoned traditional measures, such as how far a team of oxen could plow in a day, and adopted standard units of measurement.

The use of irrigation expanded greatly during the Renaissance. Between 1400 and 1600, farmers in southern Europe built extensive networks of dams and canals to irrigate their fields. Farther north, irrigation projects made it possible to plant forage crops in meadows. In other areas, agriculture depended on draining water away from the land. In the 1400s, the Dutch used power from windmills to drain inland seas and form new areas of farmland called polders. A regional water court oversaw the drainage system and resolved disputes.

Agriculture

Agriculture and Population