part ii

., 1900, p. 153; and Mineralogy of Scotland (1901), vol. i. p. 58; J. G. Goodchild, Proc. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xiv., 1899, p. 191. For the agate-industry see G. Lange, Die Halbedelsteine (Kreuznach, 1868). For American agates, G. F. Kunz, Gems and Precious Stones of North America (1890), p. 128. For agates in general see Max Bauer's Precious Stones, translated by L. J. Spencer (London, 1904). (F. W. R.n)

AGATHA, SAINT, the patron saint of Catania, Sicily, where her festival is celebrated on the 5th of February. The legend is that she was a native of Sicily (probably of Catania, though Palermo also claims her), of noble birth and great beauty. She repelled the advances of the Roman prefect sent by the emperor Decius to govern Sicily, and was by his orders brutally tortured and finally sent to the stake. As soon as the fire was lighted, an earthquake occurred, and the people insisted on her release. She died in prison on the 5th of February 251. The rescue of Catania from fire during an eruption of Mount Etna was later attributed to St Agatha's veil.

AGATHANGELUS, AGATHANGE or AKATHANKELOS, Armenian historian, lived during the 4th century, and wrote a History of the Reign of Dertad, or Tiridates, and of the Preaching of St Gregory the Illuminator. The text of this history has been considerably altered, but it has always been in high favour with the Armenians. It has been translated into several languages, and Greek and Latin translations are found in the Acta Sanctorum Bollandistarum, tome viii. As known to us the history consists of three parts, a history of St Gregory and his companions, the doctrine of Gregory, and the conversion of Armenia to Christianity.

See V. Langlois, Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Armenie (Paris, 1868).

AGATHARCHIDES, or AGATHARCHUS, of Cnidus, Greek historian and geographer, lived in the time of Ptolemy Philometor (181-146 B.C.) and his successors. Amongst other works, he wrote treatises on Asia, Europe and The Red Sea. Interesting extracts from the last, of some length, are preserved in Photius (cod. 213), who praises the style of the author, which was modelled on that of Thucydides.

See H. Leopoldi, De Agatharchide Cnidio Dissertatio (1892); C. W. Muller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iii., and Geographi Graeci Minores, i.; E. H. Bunbury, Hist. of Ancient Geography, ii. (1879).

AGATHARCHUS, an Athenian painter of the 5th century B.C. He is said by Vitruvius to have been the first to paint a scene for the acting of tragedies. Hence some writers, such as Karl Woermann, have supposed that he introduced perspective and illusion into painting. This is a mistaken view, for ancient writers know nothing of canvas scenes; the background painted by Agatharchus was the wooden front of the stage building, and it was painted, not with reference to any particular play, but as a permanent decorative background, representing no doubt a palace or temple. Agatharchus is said to have been seized by Alcibiades and compelled by him to paint the interior of his house, which shows that at the time (about 435 B.C.) decorative painting of rooms was the fashion.

AGATHIAS (c. A.D. 536-582), of Myrina in Aeolis, Greek poet and historian. He studied law at Alexandria, completed his training at Constantinople and practised as an advocate (scholasticus) in the courts. Literature, however, was his favourite pursuit. He wrote a number of short love-poems in epic metre, called Daphniaca. He next put together a kind of anthology, containing epigrams by earlier and contemporary poets and himself, under the title of a Cycle of new Epigrams. About a hundred epigrams by Agathias have been preserved in the Greek Anthology and show considerable taste and elegance. After the death of Justinian (565), some of Agathias's friends persuaded him to write the history of his own times. This work, in five books, begins where Procopius ends, and is the chief authority for the period 552-558. It deals chiefly with the struggles of the Byzantine army, under the command of the eunuch Narses, against the Goths, Vandals, Franks and Persians. The author prides himself on his honesty and impartiality, but he is lacking in judgment and knowledge of facts; the work, however, is valuable from the importance of the events of which it treats. Gibbon contrasts Agathias as ``a poet and rhetorician'' with Procopius ``a statesman and soldier.''

AUTHORITIES.--Editio princeps, by B. Vulcanius (1594); in the Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Byz. Hist., by B. G. Niebuhr (1828); in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, lxxxviii.; L. Dindorf, Historici Graeci Minores (1871); W. S. Teuffel, ``Agathias von Myrine,'' in Philolegus (i. 1846); C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (2nd ed. 1897).

AGATHO, pope from 678 to 681, was born in Sicily. He is noteworthy as the pope who ordered St Wilfrid to be restored to his bishopric at York in 679, and as the first to cease payment of the tribute hitherto paid on election to the emperor at Constantinople. It was during his pontificate that the 6th oecumenical council was held at Constantinople, to which he sent his legates and those from a Roman council held in 679. Agatho died on the 10th of January 681.

AGATHOCLES (361-289 B.C.), tyrant of Syracuse, was born at Thermae Himeraeae (mod. Termini Imerese) in Sicily. The son of a potter who had removed to Syracuse, he learned his father's trade, but afterwards entered the army. In 333 he married the widow of his patron Damas, a distinguished and wealthy citizen. He was twice banished for attempting to overthrow the oligarchical party in Syracuse (q.v.); in 317 he returned with an army of mercenaries under a solemn oath to observe the democratic constitution which was then set up. Having banished or murdered some 10,000 citizens, and thus made himself master of Syracuse, he created a strong army and fleet and subdued the greater part of Sicily. War with Carthage followed. In 310 Agathocles, defeated and besieged in Syracuse, took the desperate resolve of breaking through the blockade and attacking the enemy in Africa. After several victories he was at last completely defeated (306) and fled secretly to Sicily. After concluding peace with Carthage, Agathocles styled himself king of Sicily, and established his rule over the Greek cities of the island more firmly than ever. Even in his old age he displayed the same restless energy, and is said to have been meditating a fresh attack on Carthage at the time of his death. His last years were harassed by ill-health and the turbulence of his grandson Archagathus, at whose instigation he is said to have been poisoned; according to others, he died a natural death. He was a born leader of mercenaries, and, although he did not shrink from cruelty to gain his ends, he afterwards showed himself a mild and popular ``tyrant.''

See Justin xxii., xxiii.; Diodorus Siculus xix., xxi., xxii. (follows generally Timaeus who had a special grudge against Agathocles); Polybius ix. 23; Schubert, Geschichte des Agathokles (1887); Grote, History of Greece, ch. 97; also SICILY, History. AGATHODAEMON; in Greek mythology, the ``good spirit'' of cornfields and vineyards. It was the custom of the Greeks to drink a cup of pure wine in his honour at the end of each meal (Aristophanes, Equites, 106). He was also regarded as the protecting spirit of the state and of individuals. He was often accompanied by 'Agathe Tuche (good fortune), and in this aspect may be compared with the Roman Bonus Eventus (Pliny, Nat Hist. xxxvi. 23), and Genius. He is represented in works of art in the form of a serpent, or of a young man with a cornucopia and a bowl in one hand, and a poppy and ears of corn in the other.

See Gerhard, Uber Agathodamon und Bona Dea (Berlin, 1849).

AGATHODAEMON, of Alexandria, map designer, probably lived in the 2nd century A.D. Some MSS. of the Geography of Ptolemy contain twenty-seven maps, which are stated to have been drawn by Agathodaemon of Alexandria, who ``delineated the whole world according to the eight books of Ptolemy's geography.'' As Ptolemy speaks of IIinakes to accompany his treatise, these maps were probably the work of a contemporary

## acting under his instructions. About 1470 Nicolaus Doris,

a Benedictine monk, brought out a revised edition of them, the names being inserted in Latin instead of Greek.

See Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, ii.

AGATHON (c. 448-400 B.C.), Athenian tragic poet, friend of Euripides and Plato, best known from his mention by Aristophanes (Thesmophoriazusae) and in Plato's Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for a tragedy (416). He probably died at the court of Archelaus, king of Macedonia. He introduced certain innovations, and Aristotle (Poetica, 9) tells us that the plot of his 0Antho1 was original, not, as usually, borrowed from mythological subjects.

See Aristophanes, Thesmoph. 59, 106, Eccles. 100; Plato, Symp. 198 c; Plutarch, Symp. 3; Aelian, Var. Hist. xiv. 13; Ritsch, Opuscula, i.; fragments in Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta.

AGATHYRSI, a people of Thracian origin, who in the earliest historical times occupied the plain of the Maris (Maros), in the region now known as Transylvania. Thyrsi is supposed to be a Scythian form of Trausoi (Trausi), a Thracian tribe mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium. They are described by Herodotus (iv. 104) as of luxurious habits, wearing gold ornaments (the district is still auriferous) and having wives in common. They tattooed their bodies (picti, Aeneid iv. 136), degrees of rank being indicated by the manner in which this was done, and coloured their hair dark blue. Like the Gallic Druids, they recited their laws in a kind of sing-song to prevent their being forgotten, a practice still in existence in the days of Aristotle (Problemata, xix. 28). Valerius Flaccus (Argonautica, vi. 135) calls them Thyrsagetae, probably in reference to their celebration of orgiastic rites in honour of some divinity akin to the Thracian Dionysus. In later times the Agathyrsi were driven farther north, and their name was unknown to the Romans in their original home.

[26]. 88; Pomponius Mela ii. 1. 10: W. Tomaschek, ``Die alten Thraker,'' in Sitzungsber. der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der kaiserl. Akad. der Wiss. cxxviii. (Vienna, 1893).

AGAVE, a large botanical genus of the natural order Amaryllidaceae, chiefly Mexican, but occurring also in the southern and western United States and in central and tropical South America. The plants have a large rosette of thick fleshy leaves generally ending in a sharp point and with a spiny margin; the stout stem is usually short, the leaves apparently springing from the root. They grow slowly and flower but once after a number of years, when a tall stem or ``mast'' grows from the centre of the leaf rosette and bears a large number of shortly tubular flowers. After development of fruit the plant dies down, but suckers are frequently produced from the base of the stem which become new plants. The most familiar species is Agave americana (see fig.), a native of tropical America, the so-called century plant or American aloe (the maguey of Mexico). The number of years before flowering occurs depends on the vigour of the individual, the richness of the soil and the climate; during these years the plant is storing in its fleshy leaves the nourishment required for the effort of flowering. During the development of the inflorescence there is a rush of sap to the base of the young flowerstalk. In the case of A. americana and other species this is used by the Mexicans to make their national beverage, pulque; the flower shoot is cut out and the sap collected and subsequently fermented. By distillation a spirit called mescal is prepared. The leaves of several species yield fibre, as for instance, A. rigida var. sisalana, sisal hemp (q.v.), A. decipiens, false sisal hemp; A. americana is the source of pita fibre, and is used as a fibre plant in Mexico, the West Indies and southern Europe. The flowering stem of the last named, dried and cut in slices, forms

Agave americana, Century plant or American aloe. About 1/40 nat. size. 1, Flower; 2, same flower split open above the ovary; 3, ovary cut across; 1, 2, and 3, about 1/2 nat. size.

From the Botanical Magazine, by permission of Lovell Reeve and Co.

natural razor strops, and the expressed juice of the leaves will lather in water like soap. In the Madras Presidency the plant is extensively used for hedges along railroads. Agave americana, century plant, was introduced into Europe about the middle of the 16th century and is now widely cultivated for its handsome appearance; in the variegated forms the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central stripe from base to apex. As the leaves unfold from the centre of the rosette the impression of the marginal spines is very conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves. The plants are usually grown in tubs and put out in the summer months, but in the winter require to be protected from frost. They mature very slowly and die after flowering, but are easily propagated by the offsets from the base of the stem.

AGDE, a town of southern France, in the department of Herault, on the left bank of the river of that name, 2 1/2 m. from the Mediterranean Sea and 32 m. S.W. of Montpellier on the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) 7146. The town lies at the foot of an extinct volcano, the Montagne St Loup, and is built of black volcanic basalt, which gives it a gloomy appearance. Overlooking the river is the church of St Andre, which dates

## partly from the 12th century, and, till the Revolution, was a

cathedral. It is a plain and massive structure with crenelated walls, and has the aspect of a fortress rather than of a church. The exterior is diversified by arched recesses forming machicolations, and the same architectural feature is reproduced in the square tower which rises like a donjon above the building. The Canal du Midi, or Languedoc canal, uniting the Garonne with the Mediterranean, passes under the walls of the town, and the mouth of the Herault forms a harbour which is protected by a fort. The maritime commerce of the town has declined, owing partly to the neighbourhood of Cette, partly to the shallowness of the Herault. The fishing industry is, however, still active. The chief public institutions are the tribunal of commerce and the communal college.

Agde is a place of great antiquity and is said to have been founded under the name of agathe polis (Good City) by the Phocaeans. The bishopric was established about the year 400 and was suppressed in 1790.

SYNOD OF AGDE (Concilium Agathense.)--With the permission of the West Goth Alaric II. thirty-five bishops of southern Gaul assembled in person or sent deputies to Agde on the 11th of September 506. Caesarius, bishop of Arles, presided. The forty seven genuine canons of the synod deal with discipline, church life, the alienation of ecclesiastical property and the treatment of Jews. While favouring sacerdotal celibacy the council laid rather rigid restrictions on monasticism. It commanded that the laity communicate at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide. The canons of Agde are based in part on earlier Gallic, African and Spanish legislation; and some of them were re-enacted by later councils, and found their way into collections such as the Hispana, Pseudo-Isidore and Gratian.

See Mansi viii. 319 ff.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 2nd edition, ii. 649 ff. (English translation, iv. 76 ff.); Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, i. 242.

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas), a term used (1) of the divisions into which it is suggested that human history may be divided, whether regarded from the geological, cultural or moral aspects, e.g. the palaeolithic age, the bronze age, the dark ages; (2) of an historic epoch or generation; (3) of any period or stage in the physical life of a person, animal or thing; (4) of that time of life at which the law attributes full responsibility for his or her acts to the individual.

(1) From the earliest times there would appear to have been the belief that the history of the earth and of mankind falls naturally into periods or ages. Classical mythology popularized the idea. Hesiod, for example, in his poem Works and Days, describes minutely five successive ages, during each of which the earth was peopled by an entirely distinct race. The first or golden race lived in perfect happiness on the fruits of the untilled earth, suffered from no bodily infirmity, passed away in a gentle sleep, and became after death guardian daemons of this world. The second or silver race was degenerate, and refusing to worship the immortal gods, was buried by Jove in the earth. The third or brazen race, still more degraded, was warlike and cruel, and perished at last by internal violence. The fourth or heroic race was a marked advance upon the preceding, its members being the heroes or demi-gods who fought at Troy and Thebes, and who were rewarded after death by being permitted to reap thrice a year the free produce of the earth. The fifth or iron race, to which the poet supposes himself to belong, is the most degenerate of all, sunk so low in every vice that any new change must be for the better. Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, follows Hesiod exactly as to nomenclature and very closely as to substance. He makes the degeneracy continuous, however, by omitting the heroic race or age, which, as Grote points out, was probably introduced by Hesiod, not as part of his didactic plan, but from a desire to conciliate popular feeling by including in his poem the chief myths that were already current among the Greeks. Varro recognized three ages: (1) from the beginning of mankind to the Deluge, a quite indefinite period; (2) from the Deluge to the First Olympiad, called the Mythical Period; (3) from the First Olympiad to his own time, called the Historic Period. Lucretius divided man's history into three cultural periods: (1) the Age of Stone; (2) the Age of Bronze; (3) the Age of Iron. He thus anticipated the conclusions of some of the greatest of modern archaeologists.

(2) A definite period in history, distinguished by some special characteristic, such as great literary activity, is generally styled, with some appropriate epithet, an age. It is usual, for example, to speak of the Age of Pericles, the Augustan, the Elizabethan or the Victorian Ages; of the Age of the Crusades, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Age of Steam. Such isolated periods, with no continuity or necessary connexion of any kind, are obviously quite distinct from the ages or organically related periods into which philosophers have divided the whole course of human history. Auguste Comte, for instance, distinguishes three ages according to the state of knowledge in each, and he supposes that we are now entering upon the third of these. In the first age of his scheme knowledge is supernatural or fictitious; in the second it is metaphysical or abstract; in the third it is positive or scientific. Schemes somewhat similar have been proposed by other philosophers, chiefly of France and Germany, and seem to be regarded by them as essential to any complete science of history.

(3) The subject of the duration of human and animal life does not fall within the scope of this article, and the reader is referred to LONGEVITY. But the word ``age'' has been used by physiologists to express certain natural divisions in human development and decay. These are usually regarded as numbering five, viz. infancy, lasting to the seventh year; childhood to the fourteenth; youth to the twenty-first; adult life till fifty; and old age.

(4) The division of human life into periods for legal purposes is naturally more sharp and definite than in physiology. It would be unscientific in the physiologist to name any precise year for the transition from one of his stages to another, inasmuch as that differs very considerably among different nations, and even to some extent among different individuals of the same nation. But the law must necessarily be fixed and uniform, and even where it professes to proceed according to nature, must be more precise than nature. The Roman law divided human life for its purposes into four chief periods, which had their subdivisions--(1) infantia, lasting till the close of the seventh year; (2) the period between infantia and pubertas, males becoming puberes at fourteen and females at twelve; (3) adolescentia, the period between puberty and majority; and (4) the period after the twenty-fifth year, when males became majores. The first period was one of total legal incapacity; in the second period a person could lawfully do certain specified acts, but only with the sanction of his tutor or guardian; in the third the restrictions were fewer, males being permitted to manage their own property, contract marriage and make a will; but majority was not reached until the age of twenty-five. By English law there are two great periods into which life is divided--infancy, which lasts in both sexes until the twenty-first year, and manhood or womanhood. The period of infancy, again, is divided into several stages, marked by the growing development both of rights and obligations. Thus at twelve years of age a male may take the oath of allegiance; at fourteen both sexes are held to have arrived at years of discretion, and may therefore choose guardians, give evidence and consent or disagree to a marriage. A female has the last privilege from the twelfth year, but the marriage cannot be celebrated until the majority of the parties without the consent of parents or guardians. At fourteen, too, both sexes are fully responsible to the criminal law. Between seven and fourteen there is responsibility only if the accused be proved doli capax, capable of discerning between right and wrong, the principle in that case being that malitia supplet aetatem. At twenty-one both males and females obtain their full legal rights, and become liable to all legal obligations. A seat in the British parliament may be taken at twenty-one. Certain professions, however, demand as a qualification in entrants a more advanced age than that of legal man. hood. In the Church of England a candidate for deacon's orders must be twenty-three (in the Roman Catholic Church, twenty-two) and for priest's orders twenty-four years of age; and no clergyman is eligible for a bishopric under thirty. In Scotland infancy is not a legal term. The time previous to majority, which, as in England, is reached by both sexes at twenty-one, is divided into two stages: pupilage lasts until the attainment of puberty, which the law fixes at fourteen in males and twelve in females; minority lasts from these ages respectively until twenty-one. Minority obviously corresponds in some degree to the English years of discretion, but a Scottish minor has more personal rights than an English infant in the last stage of his infancy, e.g he may dispose by will of movable property, make contracts, carry on trade, and, as a necessary consequence, is liable to be declared a bankrupt. In France the year of majority is twenty-one, and the nubile age eighteen for males and fifteen for females, with a restriction as to the consent of guardians. Age qualification for the chamber of deputies is twenty-five and for the senate forty years. In Germany, majority is reached at twenty-one, the nubile age is twenty for males and sixteen for females, subject to the consent of parents. Without the consent of parents, the age is twenty-five for males and twenty-four for females. The age qualification for the Reichstag is twenty-five. In Austria the age of majority is twenty-four, and the nubile age fourteen for either sex, subject to the consent of the parents. In Denmark, qualified majority is reached at eighteen and full majority at twenty-five. The nubile age is twenty for males and sixteen for females. In Spain, majority is reached at twenty-three; the nubile age is eighteen for males and sixteen for females. In Greece the age of majority is twenty-one, and the nubile age sixteen for males and fourteen for females. In Holland the age of majority is twenty-one, and the nubile age eighteen for males and sixteen for females. In Italy, majority is reached at twenty-one; the nubile age is eighteen for males and fifteen for females. In Switzerland the age of majority is twenty, and the nubile age is eighteen for males and sixteen for females. In the United States the age qualification for a president is thirty-five, for a senator thirty and for a representative twenty-five.

AGELADAS, or (as the name is spelt in an inscription) HAGELAIDAS, a great Argive sculptor, who flourished in the latter part of the 6th and the early part of the 5th century B.C. He was specially noted for his statues of Olympic victors (of 520, 516, 508 B.C.); also for a statue at Messene of Zeus, copied on the coins of that city. Ageladas was said to have been the teacher of Myron, Phidias and Polyclitus; this tradition is a testimony to his wide fame, though historically doubtful. We have no work of Ageladas surviving; but we have an inscription which contains the name of his son Argeiadas.

AGEN, a city of south-western France, capital of the department of Lot-et-Garonne, 84 m. S.E. of Bordeaux by the Southern railway between Bordeaux and Toulouse. Pop. (1906) 18,640. It is skirted on the west by the Garonne itself, and on the north by its lateral canal. The river is crossed by a stone bridge, by a suspension bridge for foot-passengers, and by a fine canal bridge, carrying the lateral canal. Pleasant promenades stretch for some distance along the right bank. The town is a medley of old narrow streets contrasting with the wide modern boulevards which cross it at intervals. The chief building in Agen is the cathedral of St Caprais, the most interesting portion of which is the apse of the 12th century with its three apse-chapels; the transept dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, the nave from the 14th to the 16th centuries; the tower flanking the south facade is modern. The interior is decorated with modern paintings and frescoes. There are several other churches, among them the church of the Jacobins, a brick building of the 13th century, and the church of St Hilaire of the 16th century, which has a modern tower. In the prefecture, a building of the 18th century, once the bishop's palace, is a collection of historical portraits. The hotel de ville occupies the former Hotel du Presidial, an obsolete tribunal, and contains the municipal library. Two houses of the 16th century, the Hotel d'Estrades and the Hotel de Vaurs, are used as the museum, which has a rich collection of fossils, prehistoric and Roman remains, and other antiquities and curiosities. The poet Jacques Jasmin was a native of the town, which has erected a statue to him. Through its excellent water communication it affords an outlet for the agricultural produce of the district, and forms an entrepot of trade between Bordeaux and Toulouse. Agen is the seat of a bishop. It is the seat of a court of appeal and a court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce and a chamber of commerce. There are also ecclesiastical seminaries, lycees for boys and girls, training-colleges, a school of commerce and industry, and a branch of the Bank of France. Agen is the market for a rich agricultural region. The chief articles of commerce are fattened poultry, prunes (pruneaux d'Agen) and other fruit, cork, wine, vegetables and cattle. Manufactures include flour, dried plums, pate de foie gras and other delicacies, hardware, manures, brooms, drugs, woven goods tiles.

Agen (Aginnum) was the capital Of the Celtic tribe of the Nitiobroges, and the discovery of extensive ruins attests its importance under the Romans. In later times it was the capital of the Agenais. Its bishopric was founded in the 4th century. Agen changed hands more than once in the course of the Albigensian wars, and at their close a tribunal of inquisition was established in the town and inflicted cruel persecution on the heretics. During the religious wars of the 16th century Agen took the part of the Catholics and openly joined the League in 1589.

See Labenazie, Histoire de la ville d'Agen et pays d'Agenois, ed. by A.-G. de Dampierre (1888); A. Ducom, La Commune d'Agen: essai sur son histoire et son organisation depuis son origine jusqu'au traite de Bretigny (1892).

AGENAIS, or AGENOIS, a former province of France. In ancient Gaul it was the country of the Nitiobroges with Aginnum for its capital, and in the 4th century it was the Civitas Agennensium which was a part of Aquitania Secunda and which formed the diocese of Agen. Having in general shared the fortunes of Aquitaine during the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, Agenais next became an hereditary countship in the part of the country now called Gascony (Vasconia.) In 1038 this countship was purchased by the dukes of Aquitaine and counts of Poitiers. The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine with Henry Plantagenet in 1152 brought it under the sway of England; but when Richard Coeur-de-Lion married his sister Joan to Raymund VI., count of Toulouse, in 1196, Agenais formed part of the princess's dowry; and with the other estates of the last independent count of Toulouse it lapsed to the crown of France in 1271. This, however, was not for long; the king of France had to recognize the prior rights of the king of England to the possession of the countship, and restored it to him in 1279. During the wars between the English and the French in the 14th and 15th centuries, Agenais was frequently taken and retaken, the final retreat of the English in 1453 at last leaving the king of France in peaceable possession. Thenceforth Agenais was no more than an administrative term. At the end of the ancien regime it formed part of the ``Gouvernement'' of Guienne, and at the Revolution it was incorporated in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, of which it constitutes nearly the whole. The title of count of Agenais, which the kings of England had allowed to fall into desuetude, was revived by the kings of France, and in 1789 was held by the family of the dukes of Richelieu.

There is no good history of Agenais; that published by Jules Andrieu in 1893 (Histoire de l'Agenais, 2 vols.) being quite inadequate. The Bibliographie generale de l'Agenais, by the same author (1886-1891, 3 vols.), may be found useful. (C. B.n)

AGENT (from Lat. agere, to act), a name applied generally to, any person who acts for another. It has probably been adopted from France, as its function in modern civil law was otherwise expressed in Roman jurisprudence. Ducange (s.v. Agentes) tells us that in the later Roman empire the officers who collected the grain in the provinces for the troops and the household, and afterwards extended their functions so as to include those of government postmasters or spies, came to be called agentes in rebus, their earlier name having been frumentarii. In law an agent is a person authorized, expressedly or impliedly, to act for another, who is thence called the principal, and who is, in consequence of, and to the extent of, the authority delegated by him, bound by the acts of his agent. (See PRINCIPAL AND AGENT; FACTOR, &c.)

In Scotland the procurators or solicitors who act in the preparation of cases in the various law-courts are called agents. (See SOLICITOR.)

In France the agents de change were formerly the class generally licensed for conducting all negotiations, as they were termed, whether in commerce or the money market. The term has, however, become practically limited to those who conduct transactions in public stock. The laws and regulations as to courtiers, or those whose functions were more distinctly confined to transactions in merchandise, have been mixed up with those applicable to agents de change. Down to the year 1572 both functions were free; but at that period, partly for financial reasons, a system of licensing was adopted at the suggestion of the chancellor, l'Hopital. Among the other revolutionary measures of the year 1791, the professions of agent and courtier were again opened to the public. Many of the financial convulsions of the ensuing years, which were due to more serious causes, were attributed to this indiscriminate removal of restrictions, and they were reimposed in 1801. From that period regulations have been made from time to time as to the qualifications of agents, the security to be found by them and the like. They are now regarded as public officers, appointed, with certain privileges and duties, by the government to act as intermediaries in negotiating transfers of public funds and commercial stocks and for dealing in metallic currency. (See STOCK EXCHANGE: France.)

In diplomacy the term ``agent'' was originally applied to all ``diplomatic agents,'' including ambassadors. With the evolution of the diplomatic hierarchy, however, the term gradually sank until it was technically applied only to the lowest class of ``diplomatic agents,'' without a representative character and of a status and character so dubious that, by the regulation of the congress of Vienna, they were wholly excluded from the immunities of the diplomatic service. (See DIPLOMACY.)

AGENT-GENERAL, the term given to a representative in England of one of the self-governing British colonies. Agents-general may be said to hold a position mid-way between agents of provinces and ambassadors of foreign countries. They are appointed, and their expenses and salaries provided, by the governments of the colonies they represent, viz. Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Transvaal, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand and Canada (whose representatives are termed high commissioners). Their duties are to look after the political and economic interests of their colonies in London, to assist in all financial and commercial matters in which their colonies may be concerned, such as shipping arrangements and rates of freight, cable communications and rates, tenders for public works, &c., and to make known the products of their colonies. Those colonies which are not under responsible government are represented in London by crown agents.

AGESANDER, a Rhodian sculptor, whose title to fame is that he is mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 37) as author (with Polydorus and Athenodorus) of the group of the Laocoon. Inscriptions recently found at Lindus in Rhodes date Agesander and Athenodorus to the period 42-21 B.C. The date of the Laocoon seems thus finally settled, after long controversy. It represents the culmination of a sentimental or pathetic tendency in art, which is prominent in the somewhat earlier sculpture of Pergamum. (See GREEK ART.)

AGESILAUS II., king of Sparta, of the Eurypontid family, was the son of Archidamus II. and Eupolia, and younger step-brother of Agis II., whom he succeeded about 401 B.C. Agis had, indeed, a son Leotychides, but he was set aside as illegitimate, current rumour representing him as the son of Alcibiades. Agesilaus' success was largely due to Lysander, who hoped to find in him a willing tool for the furtherance of his political designs; in this hope, however, Lysander war disappointed, and the increasing power of Agesilaus soon led to his downfall. In 396 Agesilaus was sent to Asia with a force of 2000 Neodamodes (enfranchized Helots) and 6000 allies to secure the Greek cities against a Persian attack. On the eve of sailing from Aulis he attempted to offer a sacrifice, as Agamemnon had done before the Trojan expedition, but the Thebans intervened to prevent it, an insult for which he never forgave them. On his arrival at Ephesus a three months' truce was concluded with Tissaphernes, the satrap of Lydia and Caria, but negotiations conducted during that time proved fruitless, and on its termination Agesilaus raided Phrygia, where he easily won immense booty since Tissaphernes had concentrated his troops in Carla. After spending the winter in organizing a cavalry force, he made a successful incursion into Lydia in the spring of 395. Tithraustes was thereupon sent to replace Tissaphernes, who paid with his life for his continued failure. An armistice was concluded between Tithraustes and Agesilaus, who left the southern satrapy and again invaded Phrygia, which he ravaged until the following spring. He then came to an agreement with the satrap Pharnabazus and once more turned southward. It was said that he was planning a campaign in the interior, or even an attack on Artaxerxes himself, when he was recalled to Greece owing to the war between Sparta and the combined forces of Athens, Thebes, Corinth, Argos and several minor states. A rapid march through Thrace and Macedonia brought him to Thessaly, where he repulsed the Thessalian cavalry who tried to impede him. Reinforced by Phocian and Orchomenian troops and a Spartan army, he met the confederate forces at Coronea in Boeotia, and in a hotly contested battle was technically victorious, but the success was a barren one and he had to retire by way of Delphi to the Peloponnese. Shortly before this battle the Spartan navy, of which he had received the supreme command, was totally defeated off Cnidus by a powerful Persian fleet under Conon and Pharnabazus.

Subsequently Agesilaus took a prominent part in the Corinthian war, making several successful expeditions into Corinthian territory and capturing Lechaeum and Piraeum. The loss, however, of a mora, which was destroyed by Iphicrates, neutralized these successes, and Agesilaus returned to Sparta. In 389 he conducted a campaign in Acarnania, but two years later the Peace of Antalcidas, which was warmly supported by Agesilaus, put an end to hostilities. When war broke out afresh with Thebes the king twice invaded Boeotia (378, 377), and it was on his advice that Cleombrotus was ordered to march against Thebes in 371. Cleombrotus was defeated at Leuctra and the Spartan supremacy overthrown. In 370 Agesilaus tried to restore Spartan prestige by an invasion of Mantinean territory, and his prudence and heroism saved Sparta when her enemies, led by Epaminondas, penetrated Laconia that same year, and again in 362 when they all but succeeded in seizing the city by a rapid and unexpected march. The battle of Mantinea (362), in which Agesilaus took no part, was followed by a general peace: Sparta, however, stood aloof, hoping even yet to recover her supremacy. In order to gain money for prosecuting the war Agesilaus had supported the revolted satraps, and in 361 he went to Egypt at the head of a mercenary force to aid Tachos against Persia. He soon transferred his services to Tachos's cousin and rival Nectanabis, who, in return for his help, gave him a sum of over 200 talents. On his way home Agesilaus died at the age of 84, after a reign of some 41 years.

A man of small stature and unimpressive appearance, he was somewhat lame from birth, a fact which was used as an argument against his succession, an oracle having warned Sparta against a ``lame reign.'' He was a successful leader in guerilla warfare, alert and quick, yet cautious--a man, moreover, whose personal bravery was unquestioned. As a statesman he won himself both enthusiastic adherents and bitter enemies, but of his patriotism there can be no doubt. He lived in the most frugal style alike at home and in the field, and though his campaigns were undertaken largely to secure booty, he was content to enrich the state and his friends and to return as poor as he had set forth. . The worst trait in his character is his implacable hatred of Thebes, which led directly to the battle of Leuctra and Sparta's fall from her position of supremacy.

See lives of Agesilaus by Xenophon (the panegyric of a friend), Cornelius Nepos and Plutarch; Xenophon's Hellenica and Diodorus xiv., xv. Among modern authorities, besides the general histories of Greece, J. C. F. Manso, Sparta, iii. 39 ff.; G. F. Hertzberg, Das Leben des Konigs Agesilaos II. von Sparta (1856); Buttmann, Agesilaus Sohn des Archidamus (1872); C. Haupt, Agesilaus in Asien (1874); E. von Stern, Geschichte der spartanischen und thebanischen Hegemonie (1884). (M. N. T.)

AGGLOMERATE (from the Lat. agglomerare, to form into a ball, glomus, glomeris), a term used in botany, meaning crowded in a close cluster or head, and, in geology, applied to the accumulations of coarse volcanic ejectamenta such as frequently occur near extinct or active volcanoes. Agglomerates in the geological sense, with which this article is concerned, consist typically of blocks of various igneous rocks, mixed often with more or less material of rudimentary origin and embedded in a finer-grained matrix, similar in nature to the coarser fragments. As distinguished from ordinary ash beds or tuffs, they are essentially coarser, less frequently well-bedded; they are less persistent and tend to occur locally, but may attain a very great thickness. Showers of fine ash may be distributed over a wide area of country and will form thin layers of great extent. Coarser accumulations gather only near the actual foci of eruption (craters, fissures, &c.). When the activity of a volcanic vent comes to an end, the orifice is often choked by masses of debris, which will in time become compacted into firm agglomerates. Hence rocks of this type very commonly mark the sites of necks, the remains of once-active volcanic craters. In this connexion they are of especial interest to geologists, as it is always important to be able to locate the exact points at which volcanic products, such as lavas and ash-beds, were emitted.

The blocks in agglomerates vary greatly in size. Some are thirty or forty feet in diameter, and weigh many tons; these are usually pieces of the strata through which the volcano has forced an outlet. They are never far from the crater; most of them, in fact, lie within its boundaries, and cases are known in which enormous masses of this kind (half an acre in area) have been found in such situations. They are masses which have been dislodged, by fissures and landslides, from the crater's walls and have tumbled into the cavity. Pieces of sandstone, limestone and shale occur in the agglomerates mixed with volcanic materials, and very often have been baked and partly recrystallized by contact with the hot igneous rocks and the gases discharged by the volcano. At Vesuvius such blocks of altered limestone are rich in new minerals and are well known to collectors.

Agglomerates also are usually full of volcanic bombs. These are spongy globular masses of lava which have been shot from the crater at a time when liquid molten lava was exposed in it, and was frequently shattered by the sudden outbursts of steam. These bombs were more or less viscous at the moment of ejection and by rotation in the air acquired their spheroidal form. They are commonly one or two feet in diameter, but specimens as large as nine or twelve feet have been observed. There is less variety in their composition at any volcanic centre than in the case of the foreign blocks above described. They correspond in nature to the lava which at the time fills the crater of the volcano, and as this varies only very slowly the bombs belong mostly to only a few kinds of rock and are similar in composition to the lava flows.

Crystalline masses of a different kind occur in some numbers in certain agglomerates. They consist of volcanic minerals very much the same as those formed in the lavas, but exhibiting certain peculiarities which indicate that they have formed slowly under pressure at considerable depths. Hence they bear a resemblance to plutonic igneous rocks, but are more correctly to be regarded as agglomerations of crystals formed within the liquid lava as it slowly rose towards the surface, and at a subsequent period cast out by violent steam explosions. The sanidinites of the Eifel belong to this group. At Vesuvius, Ascension, St Vincent and many other volcanoes, they form a not inconsiderable part of the coarser ash-beds. Their commonest minerals are olivine, anorthite, hornblende, augite, biotite and leucite.

Agglomerates occur wherever volcanoes are known. In many parts of Britain they attain a great development either in beds alternating with lavas or as the material occupying necks. In the latter case they are often penetrated by dikes. They also show a steep, angular, funnel-shaped dip (e.g. Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh), and may contain thin layers of clay or ashy sand-stone, which gathered in the crater during intervals of repose. (J. S. F.)

AGGLUTINATION (Lat. ad, and gluten, glutinare, literally to fasten together with glue), a term used technically in philology for the method of word-formation by which two significant words or roots are joined together in a single word to express a combination of the two meanings each of which retains its force. This juxtaposition or conjoining of roots is characteristic of languages such as the Turkish and Japanese, which are therefore known as agglutinative, as opposed to others, known generically as inflexional, in which differences of termination or combinations in which all separate identity disappears are predominant.

The term was also formerly used by associationist philosophers for those mental associations which were regarded as peculiarly close. Combination in its simplest form has been called Agglutination by W. Wundt.

AGGRAVATION (from Lat. ad, increasing, and gravis, heavy), the making anything graver or more serious, especially of offences; also used as synonymous with ``irritation.'' In the canon law ``aggravation'' was a form of ecclesiastical censure, threatening excommunication after three disregarded admonitions.

AGGREGATION (from the Lat. ad, to, gregare, to collect together), in physics, a collective term for the forms or states in which matter exists. Three primary ``states of aggregation'' are recognized--gaseous, liquid and solid. Generally, if a solid be heated to a certain temperature, it melts or fuses, assuming the liquid condition (see FUSION); if the heating be continued the liquid boils and becomes a vapour (see VAPORIZATION.) On the other hand, if a gas be sufficiently cooled and compressed, it liquefies; this transition is treated theoretically in the article CONDENSATION OF GASES, and experimentally in the article LIQUID GASES.

AGGTELEK, a village of Hungary, in the county of Gomor, situated to the south of Rozsnyo, on the road from Budapest to Dobsina. Pop. (1900) 557. In the neighbourhood is the celebrated Aggtelek or Baradla cavern, one of the largest and most remarkable stalactite grottos in Europe. It has a length, together with its ramifications, of over 5 miles, and is formed of two caverns--one known for several centuries, and another discovered by the naturalist Adolf Schmidl in 1856. Two entrances give access to the grotto, an old one extremely narrow, and a new one, made in 1890, through which the exploration of the cavern can be made in about 8 hours, half the time it took before. The cavern is composed of a labyrinth of passages and large and small halls, and is traversed by a stream. In these caverns there are numerous stalactite structures, which, from their curious and fantastic shapes, have received such names as the Image of the Virgin, the Mosaic Altar, &c. The principal parts are the Paradies with the finest stalactites, the Astronomical Tower and the Beinhaus. Rats, frogs and bats form actually the only animal life in the caves, but a great number of antediluvian animal bones have been found here, as well as human bones and numerous remains of prehistoric human settlements.

AGINCOURT (AZINCOURT), a village of northern France in the department of Pas de Calais, 14 m. N.W. of St Pol by road, famous on account of the victory, on the 25th of October 1415, of Henry V. of England over the French. The battle was fought in the defile formed by the wood of Agincourt and that of Tramecourt, at the northern exit of which the army under d'Albret, constable of France, had placed itself so as to bar the way to Calais against the English forces which had been campaigning on the Somme. The night of the 24th of October was spent by the two armies on the ground, and the English had but little shelter from the heavy rain which fell. Early on the 25th, St Crispin's day, Henry arrayed his little army (about 1000 men-at-arms, 6000 archers, and a few thousands of other foot). It is probable that the usual three ``battles'' were drawn up in line, each with its archers on the flanks and the dismounted men-at-arms in the centre; the archers being thrown forward in wedge-shaped salients, almost exactly as at Crecy (q.v..) The French, on the other hand, were drawn up in three lines, each line formed in deep masses. They were at least four times more numerous than the English, but restricted by the nature of the ground to the same extent of front, they were unable to use their full weight (cf. Bannockburn); further, the deep mud prevented their artillery from taking part, and the crossbowmen were as usual relegated to the rear of the knights and men-at-arms. All were dismounted save a few knights and men-at-arms on the flanks, who were intended to charge the archers of the enemy. For three hours after sunrise there was no fighting; then Henry, finding that the French would not advance, moved his army farther into the defile. The archers fixed the pointed stakes, which they carried to ward off cavalry charges, and opened the engagement with flights of arrows. The chivalry of France, undisciplined and careless of the lesson of Crecy and Poitiers, was quickly stung into action, and the French mounted men charged, only to be driven back in confusion. The constable himself headed the leading line of dismounted men-at-arms; weighted with their armour, and sinking deep into the mud with every step, they yet reached and engaged the English men-at-arms; for a time the fighting was severe. The thin line of the defenders was borne back and King Henry was almost beaten to the ground. But at this moment the archers, taking their hatchets, swords or other weapons, penetrated the gaps in the now disordered French, who could not move to cope with their unarmoured assailants, and were slaughtered or taken prisoners to a man. The second line of the French came on, only to be engulfed in the melee; its leaders, like those of the first line, were killed or taken, and the commanders of the third sought and found their death in the battle, while their men rode off to safety. The closing scene of the battle was a half-hearted attack made by a body of fugitives, which led merely to the slaughter of the French prisoners, which was ordered by Henry because he had not enough men both to guard them and to meet the attack. The slaughter ceased when the assailants drew off. The total loss of the English is stated at thirteen men-at-arms (including the duke of York, grandson of Edward III.) and about 100 of the foot. The French lost 5000 of noble birth killed, including the constable, 3 dukes, 5 counts and 90 barons; 1000 more were taken prisoners, amongst them the duke of Orleans (the Charles d'Orleans of literature).

See Sir Harris Nicolas, Battle of Agincourt; Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. i.; and H. B. George, Battles of English History.

AGIO (Ital. aggio, exchange, discount, premium), a term used in commerce in three slightly different connexions. (a) The variations from fixed pars or rates of exchange in the currencies of different countries. For example, in most of the gold-standard countries, the standard coin is kept up to a uniform point of fineness, so that an English sovereign fresh from the mini will bear the following constant relation to coins of other countries in a similar condition:--L. 1 =frcs. 25.221 =mks. 2O.429=$4.867, &c. This is what is known as the mint par of exchange. But the mint par of exchange, say, between France and England is not necessarily the market value of French currency in England, or English currency in France. The balance of trade between the various countries is the factor determining the rate of exchange. Should the balance of trade (q.v.) be against England, money must be remitted to France in payment of the indebtedness, but owing to the cost for,the transmission of specie there will be a demand for bills drawn on Paris as a cheaper and more expeditious method of sending money, and it therefore will be necessary, in order to procure the one of the higher current value, to pay a premium for it, called the agio. (b) The term is also used to denote the difference in exchange between two currencies in the same country; where silver coinage is the legal tender, agio is sometimes allowed for payment in the more convenient form of gold, or where the paper currency of a country is reduced below the bullion which it professes to represent, an agio is payable on the appreciated currency. (c) Lastly, in some states the coinage is so debased, owing to the wear of circulation, that the real is greatly reduced below the nominal value. Supposing that this reduction amounts to 5%, then if 100 sovereigns were offered as payment of a debt in England while such sovereigns were current there at their nominal value, they would be received as just payment; but if they were offered as payment of the same amount of debt in a foreign state, they would be received only at their intrinsic value of L. 95, the additional L. 5 constituting the agio. Where the state keeps its coinage up to a standard value no agio is required.

AGIRA (formerly SAN FILIPPO D'ARGIRO), a town of the province of Catania, Sicily, with a railway station 4 1/2 m. to the south of the town, 35 m. W. of Catania. Pop. (1901) 17,738. It occupies the site of Agyrion, an ancient Sicel city which was ruled by tyrants, one of whom, Agyris, was the most powerful ruler in the centre of Sicily. He was a contemporary of Dionysius I., and with him successfully resisted the Carthaginians when they invaded the territory of Agyrium in 392 B.C. Agira was not colonized by the Greeks until Timoleon drove out the last tyrant in 339 B.C. and erected various splendid buildings of which no traces remain. Agyrion was the birthplace of the historian Diodorus Siculus.

AGIS, the name of four Spartan kings:--

(1) Son of Eurysthenes, founder of the royal house of the Agiadae (Pausanias iii. 2.1). His genealogy was traced through Aristodemus, Aristomachus, Cleodaeus and Hyllus to Heracles (Herodotus vii. 204), and he belongs rather to mythology than to history. Tradition ascribed to him the capture of the maritime town of Helos, which resisted his attempt to curtail its guaranteed rights, and the institution of the class of serfs called Helots (q.v..)

Ephorus ap. Strabo, viii. p. 365.

(2) Son of Archidamus II., Eurypontid, commonly called Agis I. He succeeded his father, probably in 427 B.C., and from his first invasion of Attica in 425 down to the close of the Peloponnesian war was the chief leader of the Spartan operations on land. After the conclusion of the peace of Nicias (421 B.C.) he marched against the Argives in defence of Epidaurus, and after skilful manoeuvring surrounded the Argive army, and seemed to have victory within his grasp when he unaccountably concluded a four months' truce and withdrew his forces. The Spartans were indignant, and when the Argives and their allies, in flagrant disregard of the truce, took Arcadian Orchomenus and prepared to march on Tegea, their fury knew no bounds, and Agis escaped having his house razed and a fine of 100,000 drachmae imposed only by promising to atone for his error by a signal victory. This promise he brilliantly fulfilled by routing the forces of the Argive confederacy at the battle of Mantinea (418), the moral effect of which was out of all proportion to the losses inflicted on the enemy. In the winter 417-416 a further expedition to Argos resulted in the destruction of the half-finished Long Walls and the capture of Hysiae. In 413, on the suggestion of Alcibiades, he fortified Decelea in Attica, where he remained directing operations until, after the battle of Aegospotami (405), he took the leading part in the blockade of Athens, which was ended in spring 404 by the surrender of the city. Subsequently he invaded and ravaged Elis, forcing the Eleans to acknowledge the freedom of their perioeci and to allow Spartans to take part in the Olympic games and sacrifices. He fell ill on his return from Delphi, where he had gone to dedicate a tithe of the spoils, and, probably in 401, died at Sparta, where he was buried with unparalleled solemnity and pomp.

Thuc. iii. 89, iv. 2. 6, v., vii. 19. 27, viii.; Xenophon, Hellenica, i 1. ii. 2. 3, iii. 2. 3; Diodorus xii. 35, xiii. 72, 73, 107; Pausanias iii. 8. 3-8; Plutarch, Lysander ix. 14. 22, Alcibiades 23-25, Lycurgus 12, Agesilaus i. 3, de Tranquill. Anim. 6. (See PELOPONNESIAN WAR.)

(3) Son of Archidamus III., of the Eurypontid line, commonly called Agis II. He succeeded his father in 338 B.C., on the very day of the battle of Chaeronea. During Alexander's Asiatic campaign he revolted against Macedonia (333 B.C.) and, with the aid of Persian money and ships and a force of 8000 Greek mercenaries, gained considerable successes in Crete. In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by Elis, Achaea (except Pellene) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis, which the allies besieged. Antipater marched rapidly to its relief at the head of a large army, and the allied force was defeated after a desperate struggle (331) and Agis was slain.

Pausanias iii. 10. 5; Diodorus xvii. 48, 62, 63; Justin xii. 1; Quintus Curtius iv. 1, 39, vi. 1; Arrian, Anabasis, ii. 13.

(4) Son of Eudamidas II., of the Eurypontid family, commonly called Agis III. He succeeded his father probably in 245 B.C., in his twentieth year. At this time the state had been brought to the brink of ruin by the growth of avarice and luxury; there was a glaring inequality in the distribution of land and wealth, and the number of full citizens had sunk to 700, of whom about 100 practically monopolized the land. Though reared in the height of luxury he at once determined to restore the traditional institutions of Lycurgus, with the aid of Lysander, a descendant of the victor of Aegospotami, and Mandrocleidas, a man of noted prudence and courage; even his mother, the wealthy Agesistrata, threw herself heartily into the cause. A powerful but not disinterested ally was found in the king's uncle, Agesilaus, who hoped to rid himself of his debts without losing his vast estates. Lysander as ephor proposed on behalf of Agis that all debts should be cancelled and that Laconia should be divided into 19,500 lots, of which 4500 should be given to Spartiates, whose number was to be recruited from the best of the perioeci and foreigners, and the remaining 15,000 to perioeci who could bear arms. The Agiad king Leonidas having prevailed on the council to reject this measure, though by a majority of only one, was deposed in favour of his son-in-law Cleombrotus, who assisted Agis in bearing down opposition by the threat of force. The abolition of debts was carried into effect, but the land distribution was put off by Agesilaus on various pretexts. At this point Aratus appealed to Sparta to help the Achaeans in repelling an expected Aetolian attack, and Agis was sent to the Isthmus at the head of an army. In his absence the open violence and extortion of Agesilaus, combined with the popular disappointment at the failure of the agrarian scheme, brought about the restoration of Leonidas and the deposition of Cleombrotus, who took refuge at the temple of Apollo at Taenarum and escaped death only at the entreaty of his wife, Leonidas's daughter Chilonis. On his return Agis fled to the temple of Athene Chalcioecus at Sparta, but soon afterwards he was treacherously induced to leave his asylum and, after a mockery of a trial, was strangled in prison, his mother and grandmother sharing the same fate (241). Though too weak and good-natured to cope with the problem which confronted him, Agis was characterized by a sincerity of purpose and a blend of youthful modesty with royal dignity, which render him perhaps the most attractive figure in the whole of Spartan history.

See Plutarch's biography. Pausanias' accounts (ii. 8. 5, vii. 7. 3, viii. 10. 5-8, 27. 13) of his attack on Megalopolis, his seizure of Pellene and his death at Mantinea fighting against the Arcadians, Achaeans and Sicyonians are without foundation (J. C. F. Manso, Sparta, iii. 2. 123-127). See also Manso, op. cit. iii. 1. 276-302; B. Niese, Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischcn Staaten, ii. 299-303. (M. N. T.)

AGISTMENT. To ``agist'' (from O. Fr. agister, derived from gesir--Lat. jacere--to lie) is, in law, to take cattle to graze, for a renumeration. ``Agistment,'' in the first instance, referred more particularly to the proceeds of pasturage in the king's forests, but now means either (a) the contract for taking in and feeding horses or other cattle on pasture land, for the consideration of a weekly payment of money, or (b) the profit derived from such pasturing. Agistment is a contract of bailment, and the bailer is bound to take reasonable care of the animals entrusted to him; he is responsible for damages and injury which result from ordinary casualties, if it be proved that such might have been prevented by the exercise of great care. There is no lien on the cattle for the price of the agistment, unless by express agreement. Under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, agisted cattle cannot be distrained on for rent if there be other sufficient distress to be found, and if such other distress be not found, and the cattle be distrained, the owner may redeem them on paying the price of their agistment. The tithe of agistment or ``tithe of cattle and other produce of grass lands,'' was formally abolished by the act of union in 1707, on a motion submitted with a view to defeat that measure.

AGITATORS, or ADJUTATORS, the name given to representatives elected in 1647 by the different regiments of the English Parliamentary army. The word really means an agent, but it was confused with ``adjutant,'' often called ``agitant,'' a title familiar to the soldiers, and thus the form ``adjutator'' came into use. Early in 1647 the Long Parliament wished either to disband many of the regiments or to send them to Ireland. The soldiers, whose pay was largely in arrear, refused to accept either alternative, and eight of the cavalry regiments elected agitators, called at first commissioners, who laid their grievances before the three generals, and whose letter was read in the House of Commons on the 30th of April 1647. The other regiments followed the example of the cavalry, and the agitators, who belonged to the lower ranks of the army, were supported by many of the officers, who showed their sympathy by signing the Declaration of the army. Cromwell and other generals succeeded to some extent in pacifying the troops by promising the payment of arrears for eight weeks at once; but before the return of the generals to London parliament had again decided to disband the army, and soon afterwards fixed the 1st of June as the date on which this process was to begin. Again alarmed, the agitators decided to resist; a mutiny occurred in one regiment and the attempt at disbandment failed. Then followed the seizure of the king by Cornet Joyce, Cromwell's definite adherence to the policy of the army, the signing of the manifestoes, a Humble Representation and a Solemn Engagement, and the establishment of the army council composed of officers and agitators. Having, at an assembly on Thriplow Heath, near Royston, virtually refused the offers made by parliament, the agitators demanded a march towards London and the ``purging'' of the House of Commons. Subsequent events are part of the general history of England. Gradually the agitators ceased to exist, but many of their ideas were adopted by the Levellers (q.v.), who may perhaps be regarded as their successors. Gardiner says of them, ``Little as it was intended at the time, nothing was more calculated than the existence of this elected body of agitators to give to the army that distinctive political and religious character which it ultimately bore.''

See S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War, vols. iii. and iv. (London, 1905).

AGLIARDI, ANTONIO (1832- ), papal diplomatist, was born at Cologno (Bergamo), Italy, on the 4th of September 1832. He studied theology and canon law, and, after acting as parish priest in his native diocese for twelve years, was sent by the pope to Canada as a bishop's chaplain. On his return he was appointed secretary to the Propaganda. In 1884 he was created by Leo XIII. archbishop of Caesarea in partibus and sent to India to report on the establishment of the hierarchy there. In 1887 he again visited India, to carry out the terms of the concordat arranged with Portugal. The same year he was appointed secretary to the Congregation super negotiis ecclesiae extraordinariis, in 1889 became papal nuncio at Munich and in 1892 at Vienna. Allowing himself to be involved in the ecclesiastical disputes by which Hungary was divided in 1895, he was made the subject of formal complaint by the Hungarian government and in 1896 was recalled. His services were rewarded by a Cardinalate and the archbishopric of Ferrara. In 1903 he was named vice-chancellor of the Roman Church.

AGNANO, LAGO DI, a circular lake, 5 m. W. of Naples, Italy. It was apparently not formed until the middle ages, as it is not mentioned by ancient writers; it was drained in 1870. It occupied the crater of an extinct volcano, 4 m. in circumference. On the south bank are the Stufe di S. Germano, natural sulphureous vapour baths, and close by is the Grotta del Cane, from the floor of which warm carbonic acid gas constantly rises to a height of 18 in., the fumes of which render a dog insensible in a few seconds. It is mentioned by Pliny (Nat. Hist. ii. 93). Remains of an extensive Roman building and some statues have been discovered close by.

AGNATES (Agnati), in Roman law, persons related through males only, as opposed to cognates. Agnation was founded on the idea of the family held together by the patria potestas; cognatio involves simply the modern idea of kindred.

AGNES, SAINT, a virgin martyr of the Catholic Church. The legend of St Agnes is that she was a Roman maid, by birth a Christian, who suffered martyrdom when but thirteen during the reign of the emperor Diocletian, on the 21st of January 304. The prefect Sempronius wished her to marry his son, and on her refusal condemned her to be outraged before her execution, but her honour was miraculously preserved. When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the faggots would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and struck off her head. St Agnes is the patron saint of young girls, who, in rural districts, formerly indulged in all sorts of quaint country magic on St Agnes' Eve (20th-21st January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalized in Keats's poem, ``The Eve of St Agnes.'' St Agnes's bones are supposed to rest in the church of her name at Rome, originally built by Constantine and repaired by Pope Honorius in the 7th century. Here on her festival (21st of January) two lambs are specially blessed after pontifical high mass, and their wool is later woven into pallia (see PALLIUM.)

AGNES OF MERAN (d. 1201), queen of France, was the daughter of Bertold IV., duke of Meran in Tirol. She is called Marie by some of the chroniclers. In June 1196 she married Philip II., king of France, who had repudiated Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193. The pope espoused the cause of Ingeborg; but Philip did not submit until 1200, when, interdict having been added to excommunication, he consented to a separation from Agnes. She died in July of the next year, at the castle of Poissy, and was buried in the church of St Corentin, near Nantes. Her two children by Philip II., Philip, count of Clermont (d. 1234), and Mary, who married Philip, count of Namur, were legitimized by Innocent III. in 1201 on the demand of the king. Little is known of the personality of Agnes, beyond the remarkable influence which she exercised over Philip II. She has been made the heroine of a tragedy by Francois Ponsard, Agnes de Meranie.

See the notes of Robert Davidsohn in Philipp II. August von Frankreich und Ingeborg (Stuttgart, 1888). A genealogical notice is furnished by the Chronicon of the monk Alberic (Aubry) of Fontaines, (Albericus Trium Fontium) in Pertz, Scriptores, vol. xxiii. pp. 872 f., and by the Genealogia Wettinensis, ibid. p. 229.

AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA (1718-1799), Italian mathematician, linguist and philosopher, was born at Milan on the 16th of May 1718, her father being professor of mathematics in the university of Bologna. When only nine years old she had such command of Latin as to be able to publish an elaborate address in that language, maintaining that the pursuit of liberal studies was not improper for her sex. By her thirteenth year she had acquired Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and other languages. Two years later her father began to assemble in his house at stated intervals a circle of the most learned men in Bologna, before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in de Brosse's Lettres sur l'Italie and in the Propositiones Philosophicae, which her father caused to be published in 1738. These displays, being probably not altogether congenial to Maria, who was of a retiring disposition, ceased in her twentieth year, and it is even said that she had at that age a strong desire to enter a convent. Though the wish was not gratified, she lived from that time in a retirement almost conventual, avoiding all society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. The most valuable result of her labours was the Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventu italiana, a work of great merit, which was published at Milan in 1748. The first volume treats of the analysis of finite quantities. and the second of the analysis of infinitesimals. A French translation of the second volume by P. T. d'Antelmy, with additions by Charles Bossut (1730-1814), appeared at Paris in 1775; and an English translation of the whole work by John Colson (1680-1760), the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, was published in 1801 at the expense of Baron Maseres. Madame Agnesi also wrote a commentary on the Traite analytique des sections coniques of the marquis de l'Hopital, which, though highly praised by those who saw it in manuscript, was never published. She invented and discussed the curve known as the ``witch of Agnesi'' (q.v.) or versiera. In 1750, on the illness of her father, she was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV. to the chair of mathematics and natural Philosophy at Bologna. After the death of her father in 1752 she carried out a long-cherished purpose by giving herself to the study of theology, and especially of the Fathers. After holding for some years the office of directress of the Hospice Trivulzio for Blue Nuns at Milan, she herself joined the sisterhood, and in this austere order ended her days on the 9th of January 1799.

Her sister, MARIA TERESA AGNESI (1724-1780), a well-known Italian pianist and composer, was born at Milan in 1724. She composed several cantatas, two pianoforte concertos and five operas, Sofenisbe, Ciro in Armenia, Nitocri, Il Re Pastore and Insubria consolata.

See Antonio Francesco Frisi, Eloge historique de Mademoiselle Agnesi, translated by Boulard (Paris, 1807); Milesi-Mojon, Vita di M. G. Agnesi (Milan, 1836); J. Boyer, ``La Mathematicienne Agnesi'' in the Revue Catholique des revues francaises et etrangeres (Paris, 1897).

AGNEW, DAVID HAYES (1818-1892), American surgeon, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of November 1818. He graduated from the medical department of the university of Pennsylvania in 1838, and a few years later set up in practice at Philadelphia and became a lecturer at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. He was appointed surgeon at the Philadelphia Hospital in 1854 and was the founder of its pathological museum. For twenty-six years (1863-1889) he was connected with the medical faculty of the university of Pennsylvania, being elected professor of operative surgery in 1870 and professor of the principles and practice of surgery in the following year. From 1865 to 1884--except for a brief interval --he was a surgeon at the Pennsylvania Hospital. During the American Civil War he was consulting surgeon in the Mower Army Hospital, near Philadelphia, and acquired considerable reputation for his operations in cases of gun-shot wounds. He attended as operating surgeon when President Garfield was fatally wounded by the bullet of an assassin in 1881. He was the author of several works, the most important being The Principles and Practice of Surgery (1878-1883). He died at Philadelphia on the 22nd of March 1892.

AGNI, the Hindu God of Fire, second only to Indra in the power and importance attributed to him in Vedic mythology. His name is the first word of the first hymn of the Rig-veda: ``Agni, I entreat, divine appointed priest of sacrifice.'' The sacrifices made to Agni pass to the gods, for Agni is a messenger from and to the gods; but, at the same time, he is more than a mere messenger, he is an immortal, for another hymn runs: ``No god indeed, no mortal is beyond the might of thee, the mighty One. . . .'' He is a god who lives among men, miraculously reborn each day by the fire-drill, by the friction of the two sticks which are regarded as his parents; he is the supreme director of religious ceremonies and duties,and even has the power of influencing the lot of man in the future world. He is worshipped under a threefold form, fire on earth, lightning and the sun. His cult survived the metamorphosis of the ancient Vedic nature-worship into modern Hinduism, and there still are in India fire-priests (agnihotri) whose duty is to superintend his worship. The sacred fire-drill for procuring the temple-fire by friction--symbolic of Agni's daily miraculous birth--is still used. In pictorial art Agni is always represented as red, two-faced, suggesting his destructive and beneficent qualities, and with three legs and seven arms.

See W. J. Wilkins, Hindu Mythology (London, 1900); A. A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (Strassburg, 1897).

AGNOETAE (Gr. agnoeo, to be ignorant of), a monophysite sect who maintained that Christ's human nature was like other men's in all respects, including limited knowledge. Its founder was Themistius, a deacon in Alexandria in the 6th century. The sect was anathematized by Gregory the Great.

AGNOIOLOGY (from Gr. agnoi-a, ignorance), the science or study of ignorance, which determines its quality and conditions.

AGNOSTICISM. The term ``agnostic'' was invented by Huxley in 1869 to describe the philosophical and religious attitude of those who hold that we can have scientific or real knowledge of phenomena only, and that so far as what may lie behind phenomena is concerned--God, immortality, &c.--there is no evidence which entitles us either to deny or aflirm anything. The attitude itself is as old as Scepticism (q.v.); but the expressions ``agnostic'' and ``agnosticism'' were applied by Huxley to sum up his deductions from those contemporary developments of metaphysics with which the names of Hamilton (``the Unconditioned'') and Herbert Spencer (``the Unknowable'') were associated; and it is important, therefore, to fix precisely his own intellectual standpoint in the matter. Though Huxley only began to use the term ``agnostic'' in 1869, his opinions had taken shape some time before that date. In a letter to Charles Kingsley (September 23, 1860) he wrote very fully concerning his beliefs:--

``I neither affirm nor deny the immortality of man. I see no reason for believing it, but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it. I have no a priori objections to the doctrine. No man who has to deal daily and hourly with nature can trouble himself about a priori difficulties. Give me such evidence as would justify me in believing in anything else, and I will believe that. Why should I not? It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter. . . .

``It is no use to talk to me of analogies and probabilities. I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions. . . .

``That my personality is the surest thing I know may be true. But the attempt to conceive what it is leads me into mere verbal subtleties. I have champed up all that chaff about the ego and the non-ego, noumena and phenomena, and all the rest of it, too often not to know that in attempting even to think of these questions, the human intellect flounders at once out of its depth.''

And again, to the same correspondent, the 5th of May 1863:--

``I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel. l cannot see one shadow or tittle of evidence that the great unknown underlying the phenomenon of the universe stands to us in the relation of a Father--loves us and cares for us as Christianity asserts. So with regard to the other great Christian dogmas, immortality of soul and future state of rewards and punishments, what possible objection can I--who am compelled perforce to believe in the immortality of what we call Matter and Force, and in a very unmistakable present state of rewards and punishments for our deeds--have to these doctrines? Give me a scintilla of evidence, and I am ready to jump at them.''

Of the origin of the name ``agnostic'' to cover this attitude, Huxley gave (Coll. Ess. v. pp. 237-239) the following account:--

``When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist or a pantheist, a materialist or an idealist, a Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer. The one thing on which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain `gnosis'--had more or less successfully solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure that I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. This was my situation when I had the good fortune to find a place among the members of that remarkable confraternity of antagonists, the Metaphysical Society. Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was represented there; most of my colleagues were -ists of one sort or another; and I, the man without a rag of a belief to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of the uneasy feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leaving the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to his normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of `agnostic.' It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the `gnostic' of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. To my great satisfaction the term took.''

This account is confirmed by R. H. Hutton, who in 1881 wrote that the word ``was suggested by Huxley at a meeting held previous to the formation of the now defunct Metaphysical Society at Mr Knowles's house on Clapham Common in 1869, in my hearing. He took it from St Paul's mention of the altar to the Unknown God.'' Hutton here gives a variant etymology for the word, which may be therefore taken as partly derived from agnostos (the ``unknown'' God), and partly from an antithesis to ``gnostic''; but the meaning remains the same in either case. The name, as Huxley said, ``took''; it was constantly used by Hutton in the Spectator and became a fashionable label for contemporary unbelief in Christian dogma. Hutton himself frequently misrepresented the doctrine by describing it as ``belief in an unknown and unknowable God''; but agnosticism as defined by Huxley meant not belief, but absence of belief, as much distinct from belief on the one hand as from disbelief on the other; it was the half-way house between the two, where all questions were ``open.'' All that Huxley asked for was evidence, either for or against; but this he believed it impossible to get. Occasionally he too mis-stated the meaning of the word he had invented, and described agnosticism as meaning ``that a man shall not say he knows or believes what he has no scientific ground for professing to know or believe.'' But as the late Rev. A. W. Momerie remarked, this would merely be ``a definition of honesty; in that sense we ought all to be agnostics.''

Agnosticism really rests on the doctrine of the Unknowable, the assertion that concerning certain objects--among them the Deity--we never can have any ``scientific'' ground for belief. This way of solving, or passing over, the ultimate problems of thought has had many followers in cultured circles imbued with the new physical science of the day, and with disgust for the dogmatic creeds of contemporary orthodoxy; and its outspoken and even aggressive vindication by physicists of the eminence of Huxley had a potent influence upon the attitude taken towards metaphysics, and upon the form which subsequent Christian apologetics adopted. As a nickname the term ``agnostic'' was soon misused to cover any and every variation of scepticism, and just as popular preachers confused it with atheism (q.v.) in their denunciations, so the callow freethinker--following Tennyson's path of ``honest doubt''--classed himself with the agnostics, even while he combined an instinctively Christian theism with a facile rejection of the historical evidences for Christianity.

The term is now less fashionable, though the state of mind persists. Huxley's agnosticism was a natural consequence of the intellectual and philosophical conditions of the 'sixties, when clerical intolerance was trying to excommunicate scientific discovery because it appeared to clash with the book of Genesis. But as the theory of evolution was accepted, a new spirit was gradually introduced into Christian theology, which has turned the controversies between religion and science into other channels and removed the temptation to flaunt a disagreement. A similar effect has been produced by the philosophical reaction against Herbert Spencer, and by the perception that the canons of evidence required in physical science must not be exalted into universal rules of thought. It does not follow that justification by faith must be eliminated in spiritual matters where sight cannot follow, because the physicist's duty and success lie in pinning belief solely on verification by physical phenomena, when they alone are in question; and for mankind generally, though possibly not for an exceptional man like Huxley, an impotent suspension of judgment on such issues as a future life or the Being of God is both unsatisfying and demoralizing.

It is impossible here to do more than indicate the path out of the difficulties raised by Huxley in the letter to Kingsley quoted above. They involve an elaborate discussion, not only of Christian evidences, but of the entire subject-matter alike of Ethics and Metaphysics, of Philosophy as a whole, and of the philosophies of individual writers who have dealt in their different ways with the problems of existence and epistemology. It is, however, permissible to point out that, as has been exhaustively argued by Professor J. Ward in his Gifford lectures for 1896-1898 (Naturalism and Agnosticism, 1899), Huxley's challenge ( ``I know what I mean when I say I believe in the law of the inverse squares, and I will not rest my life and my hopes upon weaker convictions'') is one which a spiritualistic philosophy need not shrink from accepting at the hands of naturalistic agnosticism. If, as Huxley admits, even putting it with unnecessary force against himself,``the immortality of man is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the indestructibility of matter,'' the question then is, how far a critical analysis of our belief in the last-named doctrines will leave us in a position to regard them as the last stage in systematic thinking. It is the pitfall of physical science, immersed as its students are apt to be in problems dealing with tangible facts in the world of experience, that there is a tendency among them to claim a superior status of objective reality and finality for the laws to which their data are found to conform. But these generalizations are not ultimate truths, when we have to consider the nature of experience itself. ``Because reference to the Deity will not serve for a physical explanation in physics, or a chemical explanation in chemistry, it does not therefore follow,'' as Professor Ward says (op. cit. vol. i. p. 24), ``that the sum total of scientific knowledge is equally intelligible whether we accept the theistic hypothesis or not. It is true that every item of scientific knowledge is concerned with some definite relation of definite phenomena, and with nothing else; but, for all that, the systematic organization of such items may quite well yield further knowledge, which transcends the special relations of definite phenomena.''

At the opening of the era of modern scientific discovery, with all its fruitful new generalizations, the still more highly generalized laws of epistemology and of the spiritual constitution of man might well baffle the physicist and lead his intellect to ``flounder.'' It is fundamentally necessary, in order to avoid such floundering, that the ``knowledge'' of things sensible should be kept distinct from the ``knowledge'' of things spiritual; yet in practice they are constantly confused. When the physicist limits the term ``knowledge', to the conclusions from physical apprehensions, his refusal to extend it to conclusions from moral and spiritual apprehensions is merely the consequence of an illegitimate definition. He relies on the validity of his perceptions of physical facts; but the saint and the theologian are no less entitled to rely on the validity of their moral and spiritual experiences. In each case the data rest on an ultimate basis, undemonstrable, indeed to any one who denies them (even if he be called mad for doing so), except by the continuous process of working out their own proofs, and showing their consistency with, or necessity in, the scheme of things terrestrial on the one hand, or the mind and happiness of man on the other. The tests in each case differ; and it is as irrelevant for the theologian to dispute the ``knowledge'' of the physicist, by arguments from faith and religion, as it is for the physicist to deny the ``knowledge'' of the theologian from the point of view of one who ignores the possibility of spiritual apprehension altogether. On the ground of secular history and secular evidence both might reasonably meet, as regards the facts, though not perhaps as to their interpretation; but the reason why they ultimately differ is to be found simply in the difference of their mental attitude towards the nature of ``knowledge,'-itself a difference of opinion as to the nature of man.

In addition to the literature cited above, see L. Stephen, An Agnostic's Apology (1893); R. Flint, Agnosticism (1903); T. Bailey Saunders, The Quest of Faith, chap. ii. (1899); A. W. Benn, English Rationalism in the XIXth Century (London, 1906). (H. CH.)

AGNUS DEI, the figure of a lamb bearing a cross, symbolical of the Saviour as the ``Lamb of God.'' The device is common in ecclesiastical art, but the name is especially given in the Church of Rome to a small cake made of the wax of the Easter candles and impressed with this figure. Since the 9th century it has been customary for the popes to bless these cakes, and distribute them on the Sunday after Easter among the faithful, by whom they are highly prized as having the power to avert evil. In modern times the distribution has been limited to persons of distinction, and is made by the pope on his accession and every seven years thereafter.

Agnus Dei is also the popular name for the anthem beginning with these words, which is said to have been introduced into the missal by Pope Sergius I. (687-701). Based upon John i. 29, the Latin form is Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. In the celebration of the mass it is repeated three times before the communion, and it is also appended to many of the litanies. By the judgment in the case of ``Read and others v. The Bishop of Lincoln'' it was decided in 1890 that the singing of the Agnus Dei in English by the choir during the administration of the Holy Communion, provided that the reception of the elements be not delayed till its conclusion, is not illegal in the Church of England.

For the various ceremonies in the blessing of the Agnus Dei see A. Vacant, Dict. de theologie (cols. 605-613).

AGOBARD (c. 779-840), Carolingian prelate and reformer, became coadjutor to Leidrad, archbishop of Lyons, in 813, and on the death of the latter succeeded him in the see (816). We know nothing of his early life nor of his descent. He pursued the same vigorous policy as his predecessor, who had been one of Charlemagne's most active agents in the reformation of the Church. He was strongly opposed to the schemes of the empress Judith for a redivision of the empire in favour of her son Charles the Bald, Which he regarded as the cause of all the subsequent evils, and supported Lothair and Pippin against their father the emperor Louis I. Deposed in 835 by the council of Thionville, he made his peace with the emperor and was reinstated in 837. Agobard occupies an important place in the Carolingian renaissance. He wrote extensively not only theological works but also political pamphlets and dissertations directed against popular superstitions. These last works are unique in the literature of the time. He denounced the trial by ordeal of fire and water, the belief in witchcraft, and the ascription of tempests to magic, maintained the Carolingian opposition to image-worship, but carried his logic farther and opposed the adoration of the saints. The basis for this crusade was theological, not scientific; but it reveals a clear intellect and independent judgment In his purely theological works Agobard was strictly orthodox, except that he denied the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. Agobard was reverenced as a saint in Lyons, and although his canonization is disputed his life is given by the Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum, Jun. ii. 748.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Agobard's works were lost until 1605, when a manuscript was discovered in Lyons and published by Papirius Masson, again by Baluze in 1666. For later editions see Potthast, Bibliotheca Historica Medii Aevi. The life of Agobard in Ebert's Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters (1880), Band ii., is still one the best to consult. For further indications see A. Molinier, Sources de l'histoire de France, i. p. 235.

AGONALIA, in ancient Rome, festivals celebrated on the 9th of January, 17th of March, 21st of May, and 11th of December in each year in honour of various divinities (Ovid, Fasti, i. 319-332). The word is derived either from agonia, ``a victim,'' or from agonium, ``a festival.''

AGONIC LINES (from Gr. a-, privative, and gonia, an angle), the term given to the imaginary lines on the earth's surface connecting points at which the magnetic needle points to the geographical north and south. (See MAGNETISM, TERRESTRIAL.)

AGONOTHETES, in ancient Greece, the president or superintendent of the sacred games. At first the person who instituted the games and defrayed the expenses was the Agonothetes; but in the great public games, such as the Olympic and Pythian, these presidents were the representatives of different states, or were chosen from the people in whose country the games were celebrated; thus at the Panathenaic festival at Athens ten athlothetae were elected for four years to superintend the various contests. They were variously called aisumnetai, brabeutai, agonarchai, agonodikai, athlothetai (at Athens), eabdouchoi or eabdonomoi (from the rod or sceptre emblematic of their authority), but their functions were generally the same.

AGORA, originally, in primitive times, the assembly of the Greek people, convoked by the king or one of his nobles. The right of speech and vote was restricted to the nobles, the people being permitted to express their opinion only by signs of applause or disapproval. The word then came to be used for the place where assemblies were held, and thus from its convenience as a meeting-place the agora became in most of the cities of Greece the general resort for public and especially commercial intercourse, corresponding in general with the Roman forum. At Athens, with the increase of commerce and political interest, it was found advisable to call public meetings at the Pnyx or the temple of Dionysus; but the important assemblies, such as meetings for ostracism, were held in the agora. In the best days of Greece the agora was the place where nearly all public traffic was conducted. It was most frequented in the forenoon, and then only by men. Slaves did the greater part of the purchasing, though even the noblest citizens of Athens did not scruple to buy and sell there. Citizens were allowed a free market; foreigners and metics had to pay a toll. Public festivals also were celebrated in the open area of the agora. At Athens the agora of classical times was adorned with trees planted by Cimon; around it numerous public buildings were erected, such as the council chamber and the law courts (for its topography, see ATHENS.) Pausanias (especially vi. 24) is the great architectural authority on the agorae of various Greek cities, and details are also given by Vitruvius (v. 1).

AGORACRITUS, a Parian and Athenian sculptor of the age of Phidias, and said to have been his favourite pupil. His most noted work was the statue at Rhamnus of Nemesis, by some attributed to Phidias himself. Of this statue part of the head is in the British Museum; some fragments of the reliefs which adorned the pedestal are in the museum at Athens.

AGORANOMI, magistrates in the republics of Greece, whose position and duties were in many respects similar to those of the aediles of Rome. In Athens there were ten, chosen annually by lot, five of whom took charge of the city and five of the Peiraeus. They maintained order in the markets, settled disputes, examined the quality of the articles exposed for sale, tested weights and measures, collected the harbour dues and enforced the shipping regulations.

AGORDAT, a town of Eritrea, N.E. Africa, on the route between Massawa and Kassala. At Agordat on the 21st of December 1893 the Italian troops under Colonel Arimondi inflicted a severe defeat on the followers of the khalifa. Agordat is protected by a strong fort. (See ERITREA and SUDAN, History.)

AGOSTINI, LEONARDO, Italian antiquary of the 17th century, was born at Siena. After being employed for some time to collect works of art for the Barberini palace, he was appointed by Pope Alexander VII. superintendent of antiquities in the Roman states. He issued a new edition of Paruta's Sicilian Medals, with engravings of 400 additional specimens; and in conjunction with Giovanni Bellori (1615-1696) he also published a work on antique sculptured gems, which was translated into Latin by Jakob Gronovius (Amsterdam, 1685).

AGOSTINO, or AGOSTINI [AUGUSTINUS], PAOLO (1593-1629), Italian musician, was born at Valerano, and studied under G. B. Nanini, as we learn from the dedication in the third and fourth books of his masses, subsequently becoming the son-in-law of his master. He succeeded Ugolini as conductor of the pope's orchestra in St. Peter's. His musical compositions are numerous and of great merit, an Agnus Dei for eight voices being specially admired.

AGOSTINO and AGNOLO (or ANGELO) DA SIENA, Italian architects and sculptors in the first half of the 14th century. Della Valle and other commentators deny that they were brothers. They certainly studied together under Giovanni Pisano, and in 1317 were jointly appointed architects of their native town, for which they designed the Porto Romana, the church and convent of St Francis, and other buildings. On the recommendation of the celebrated Giotto, who styled them the best sculptors of the time, they executed in 1330 the tomb of Bishop Guido Tarlati in the cathedral of Arezzo, which Giotto had designed. It was esteemed one of the finest artistic works of the 14th century, but unfortunately was destroyed by the French under the duke of Anjou.

AGOULT, MARIE CATHERINE SOPHIE DE FLAVIGNY, COMTESSE D' (1805-1876), French author, whose nom de plume was ``Daniel Stern,'' was born at Frankfort-on-Main on the 31st of December 1805. Her father was a French officer who had served in the army of the emigrant princes, and her mother was the daughter of a Frankfort banker. She was married in 1827 to the comte Charles d'Agoult. In Paris she gathered round her a brilliant society which included Alfred de Vigny, Sainte-Beuve, Ingres, Chopin, Meyerbeer, Heine and others. She was separated from her husband, and became the mistress of Franz Liszt. During her frequent travels in Switzerland, France and Italy she made the acquaintance of George Sand, and figures in the Lettres d'un voyageur as'`Arabella.'' By Liszt she had three children--a son who died young; Blandine, who married M. Emile Ollivier; and Cosima, who married first Hans von Bulow and later Richard Wagner. The story of her breach with Liszt is told under a very slight disguise in her novel Nelida (1845). On her return to Paris in 1841 she began to write art criticisms for the Presse, and in 1844 she contributed to the Revue des deux Mondes articles on Bettina von Arnim and on Heinrich Heine, but her views were not acceptable to the editor, and Daniel Stern withdrew to become a contributor to the Revue independante. Mme. d'Agoult was an ardent apostle of the ideas of' 48, and from this date her salon, which had been literary and artistic, took on a more political tone; revolutionists of various nationalities were welcomed by her, and she had an especial friendship and sympathy for Daniele Manin. In 1857 she produced a national drama, Jeanne Darc, which was translated into Italian and presented with brilliant success at Turin. The most important section of Daniel Stern's work is her political and historical essays: Lettres republicaines (1848), Esquisses morales et politiques (1849), Histoire de la Revolution de 1848 (3 vols., 1850-1853), Histoire des commencements de la Republique aux Pays-Bas (1872). Mme. d'Agoult died in Paris on the 5th of March 1876. Her daughter Claire Christine (b. 1830), who married Guy de Charnace, is known as a writer.

See Mme. d'Agoult, Mes Souvenirs (1806-1833), 1877; A. Cuvillier Fleury, Portraits revolutionnaires, vol. i. (1889); J. Mazzini, Lettres de Joseph Mazzini a Daniel Stern (1872): A. Pommier, Madame la comtesse d'Agoult (Daniel Stern), 1876; A. Ungherini, ``Daniel Stern'' in the Revista repubblicana (1880, No. 9); S. Rocheblave, Une Amitie romanesque, George Sand et Madame d'Agoult (1895).

AGOUTI, or AGUTI, the West Indian name of Dasyprocta aguti, a terrestrial rodent of the size of a rabbit, common to Trinidad and Guiana, and classed in the family Caviidae. Under the same term may be included the other species of Dasyprocta, of which there are about half a score in tropical America. Agoutis are slender-limbed rodents, with five front and three hind toes (the first front toe very minute), and very short tails. The hair, especially on the hind-quarters, is coarse and somewhat rough; the colour being generally rufous brown. The molar teeth have cylindrical crowns, with several islands and a single lateral fold of enamel when worn. In habits agoutis are nocturnal, dwelling in forests, where they conceal themselves during the day in hollow tree-trunks, or in burrows among roots. Active and graceful in their movements, their pace is either a kind of trot or a series of springs following one another so rapidly as to look like a gallop. They take readily to water, in which they swim well. Their food comprises leaves, roots, nuts and other fruits. They do much harm to plantations of sugar-cane and bananas. In captivity the females produce only one or two young at a birth.

AGRA, an ancient city of India, which gives its name to a district and division in the United Provinces. It is famous for containing the most perfect specimens of Mogul architecture. Agra, like Delhi, owes much of its importance in both historical and modern times to the Commercial and strategical advantages of its position. The river Jumna, which washes the walls of its fort, was the natural highway for the traffic of the rich delta of Bengal to the heart of India, and it formed, moreover, from very ancient times, the frontier defence of the Aryan stock settled in the plain between the Ganges and the Jumna against their western neighbours, hereditary freebooters who occupied the highlands of Central India. No place was better fitted for both an emporium and a frontier fortress. The river formed an unfordable barrier and also a useful means of communication. Jehangir tells us in his autobiography that before his father Akbar built the present fort, the town was defended by a citadel of great antiquity. For three hundred years the Afghans and other tribes came down from the north and founded kingdoms; and their power radiated from Delhi and Agra. It was Sikandar, of the house of Lodi (A.D. 1500), the last of the Afghan dynasties, who realized the strategic importance of Agra as a point for keeping in check his rebellious vassals to the south. He removed his court there, and Agra from being ``a mere village of old standing,'' says a Persian chronicler, became the capital of a kingdom. In 1526 the city was captured by the emperor Baber, the famous Koh-i-noor diamond being part of the loot; and it was here that Baber announced that his invasion was to be a permanent conquest, and not a mere temporary inroad. It was Baber's grandson Akbar that built the present fort, whose strong and lofty walls of red sandstone are a mile and a,half in circumference. The building was completed in 1665, when Charles II. was on the throne of England and the plague was devastating London. Another building of much the same date is the red stone palace generally attributed to Akbar, but probably of an earlier time, which is the finest example of pure Hindu architecture; while the Moti Masjid, or Pearl Mosque, is an equally perfect example of the Mahommedan style.

But the glory of Agra, the most splendidly poetic building in the world, is the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum built (A.D. 1632) by

Taj Mahal.

the emperor Shah Jahan for the remains of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Manal, in which he himself also also lies buried. The building is of white marble throughout, crowned with a great white dome in the centre, and with a smaller dome at each of its four corners. From the marble terrace which surrounds it rise four tall minarets of the same material, one at each corner. The Taj has been modelled and painted more frequently than any other building in the world, and the word pictures of it are numberless. But it can only be described as a dream in marble. It amply justifies the saying that the Moguls designed like Titans and finished like jewellers. In regard to colour and design the Taj ranks first in the world for purely decorative workmanship; while the perfect symmetry of its exterior once seen can never be forgotten, nor the aerial grace of its domes, rising like marble bubbles into the azure sky. In his History of Architecture, Fergusson says of it:--

``This building is an early example of that system of inlaying with precious stones which became the great characteristic of the style of the Moghals aftrer the death of Akbar. All the spandrils of the Taj, all the angles and more important architectural details, are heightened by being inlaid with precious stones such as agates, bloodstones, jaspers and the like. These are combined in wreaths, scrolls and frets, as exquisite in design as they are beautiful in colour, and relieved by the pure white marble in which they are inlaid, they form the most beautiful and precious style of ornament ever adopted in architecture. 1t is lavishly bestowed on the tombs themselves and the screens which surround them, but more sparingly introduced on the mosque that forms one wing of the Taj, and on the fountains and surrounding buildings. The judgment, indeed, with which this style of ornament is apportioned to the various parts, is almost as remarkable as the ornament itself, and conveys a high idea of the taste and skill of the architects of this age.''

Of the Taj as a whole Lord Roberts says in his Forty-one Years in India:--

``Neither words nor pencil could give to the most imaginative reader the slightest idea of the all-satisfying beauty and purity of this glorious conception. To those who have not already seen it I would say, `Go to India. The Taj alone is well worth the journey.'''

The Taj was designed by Ustad Isa, variously described as a Byzantine Turk and a native of Shiraz in Persia. The pietra dura work belongs to the Persian school and the common belief that it was designed by Austin de Bordeaux, a French architect in the service of Shah Jahan, is probably incorrect.

Agra was formerly the capital of the North-West Provinces, but after the Mutiny the seat of government was removed to Allahabad. Situated 841 m. from Calcutta it is now an important railway centre, whence two main lines diverge southwards towards Bombay. In 1901 the population was 188,022, showing an increase of 12% during the decade. The city contains cotton mills, factories for ginning and pressing cotton, a tannery and boot factory and flour mill. There are also two missionary colleges.

The DISTRICT OF AGRA has an area of 1856 sq. m. Its general appearance is that common to the Doab, a level plain intersected by watercourses and ravines. Its general elevation is estimated at from 650 to 700 ft. above the level of the sea. The district is intersected by the Jumna, and is also watered by the Agra canal. The principal crops are millets, pulses, barley, wheat, cotton and a little indigo. The population in 1901 was 1,060,528, showing an increase of 6% during the decade.

The DIVISION OF AGRA has an area of 10,154 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 5,249,542, showing an increase of 10% during the decade, attributed to the extension of irrigation from canals. It comprises the six districts of Muttra, Agra, Farukhabad, Mainpuri, Etawah and Etah.

For an account of the architecture of Agra see Fergusson's History of Architecture; Cities of India (1903) by G. W. Forest; Enchanted India (1899), by Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch; and E. B. Havelln, Handbook to Agra and the Taj (1904).

AGRA CANAL, an important Indian irrigation work, available also for navigation, in Delhi, Gurgaon, Muttra and Agra districts, and Bharatpur state. The canal receives its water from the Jumna river at Okia, about 10 m. below Delhi. The weir across the Jumna was the first attempted in Upper India upon a foundation of fine sand; it is about 800 yds. long, and rises 7 ft. above the summer level of the river. From Okla the canal follows the high land between the Khari-nadi and the Jumna, and finally joins the Banganga river about 20 m. below Agra. Navigable branches connect the canal with Muttra and Agra. It was opened in 1874.

AGRAM (Hungarian Zagrab, Croatian Zagreb), the capital of Croatia-Slavonia, and a royal free town of Hungary; pleasantly situated between the north bank of the Save and the mountains which culminate in Sljeme (3396 ft.); 187 m. by rail S. of Vienna. Pop. (1890) 38,742; (1900) 57,930, or with garrison 61,002. Agram is the seat of the ban, or viceroy, of Croatia-Slavonia, of the Banal and Septemviral courts, the highest in the land, and of a chamber of commerce. It is also the meeting-place of the parliament; but local affairs are conducted by a municipal council. The city is divided into three districts. The Kapitel-Stadt, sometimes called the Bishop's Town, with the palace of the Roman Catholic archbishop, and his late Gothic cathedral, dating from the 15th century, lies eastward of the Medvescak, a brook which flows into the Save. The Upper Town, on high ground west of the Medvescak, contains the palace of the ban and the natural history museum. On the south, the Lower Town is separated from the other districts by the Inca, a long street traversed by a cable tramway. In it are the business and industrial quarters; the palace of justice; the academy of science, with picture-galleries, a library and a collection of antiquities; the theatre; the Franz Josef University, founded in 1874 to teach theology, law and philosophy; the synagogue; and the only Protestant church existing in the country at the beginning of the 20th century. Roman Catholic churches and schools are numerous. Besides the large Maximir park and botanical gardens, many of the squares are planted with trees and adorned with statues; while the whole city is surrounded by vineyards and country houses. Tobacco, leather, linen, carpets and war-material are manufactured in Agram, which also contains the works of the Hungarian state railways, and has a brisk trade in grain, wine, potash, honey, silk and porcelain.

In 1094 Agram was founded by Ladislaus I. of Hungary, as the seat of a bishop; and on the expulsion of its Mongol colony, in 1242, it was raised to the rank of a royal free city. For centuries a bitter feud raged between the Kapitel-Stadt and the Upper Town, until these rivals were forced to join hands against the Turks. Agram, already the political centre of Croatia-Slavonia, was selected as the capital in 1867. It suffered severely from earthquake in 1880 and 1901.

AGRAPHA (i.e. ``unwritten''), the name given to certain utterances ascribed, with some degree of certainty, to Jesus, which have been preserved in documents other than the Gospels, e.g. Acts xx. 35; 1 Tim. v. 18; 1 Cor. vii. 10-12, and the Logia (q.v.) discovered in 1897 and 1903 at Oxyrhyncus. Two interesting examples of such sayings may be quoted: (1) ``That which is weak shall be saved by that which is strong''; (2) ``Jesus, on whom be peace, has said: `The world is merely a bridge; ye are to pass over it, and not to build your dwellings upon it.''' The first of these is from the Apostolic Canons (c. A.D. 300), the second was found by the missionary Alexander Duff inscribed in Arabic on the gateway of the mosque at Fatehpur Sikri.

The earliest modern collection of such sayings was by Cotelerius, Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta (1677-1688), followed by J. E. Grabe, Spicelegium (1698 and 1700), and J. B. Fabricius, Codex Apocryph. N. T. (2nd ed., 1719). See also A. Resch, Agrapha (Leipzig, 1889); J. H. Ropes, Die Spruche Jesu (Leipzig, 1896); and the article ``Sayings'' in J. Hastings' Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels.

AGRARIAN LAWS (Lat. ager, land). Under this heading we deal with the disposal of the public land (ager publicus) of ancient Rome. It was a principle of the Republican constitution that no gratuitous disposition of state property should be made without the consent of the people. Hence many of the ordinances affecting the public land were laws (leges) in the strictest sense of that word. It is, however, both justifiable and convenient to consider in this article all the regulations that were made for the administration of the public land by the executive authorities, as well as by the people during the Republic, and by the commands of the emperor, which had the force of law during the Principate.

The existence of public land, first in Italy, and then in the Mediterranean world, was the outcome of two ideas which are very familiar to students of antiquity. This land was the prize of conquest and was one of the means of defraying the current expenses of state-administration. For the latter purpose land is often leased or allowed to be occupied on the condition of the payment of dues. But it may be made to fulfil another purpose as well--this purpose being the satisfaction of the individual needs of poorer citizens. To meet this object the land is usually assigned, and on assignment generally ceases to be the property of the state. But it often happens that the state is not wholly disinterested in undertaking such acts of assignment. It gains security and territorial control by planting garrisons in conquered country, and it relieves itself of the necessity of providing for its poorer classes whether by state-aid or by a hazardous tampering with the rights of private property. In this use to which public land could be turned we see at once the connexion between agrarian legislation and colonization--a connexion which was so close that when a Roman spoke of an agrarian law he seems generally to have understood by it a law establishing a colony--and also the two aspects of colonization, the military and the social. These two objects were indissolubly connected throughout the whole of the earlier period of Roman agrarian assignation. They only became separated in the period subsequent to the Gracchi in so far as social motives still continued to be operative when military precautions had ceased to be necessary. It is probable that one of the chief motives which prompted infant Rome to war with her neighbours was the land-hunger of her citizens. This hunger she satisfied after conquest by annexing a portion of the enemy's territory. The amount thus confiscated varied from time to time. It was usually a third, but sometimes a half or even two-thirds, and after the fall of Capua in the Second Punic War the whole territory of the state was annexed. It is possible that by the close of the 2nd century B.C. one-half of the land of Italy belonged to Rome whether in private ownership or as the property of the state. Annexation was carried on in the provinces on a relatively smaller scale: but Rome retained as domain-land much of the territory of communities which had been destroyed, such as Carthage and Corinth, and the estates of former kings, such as the lands of the Attalids in the Chersonese. Other domains in Sicily and Greece, such as the territory of Leontini in the former, or Oropus in the latter case, are also found. This peculiar property of the Roman state in the provinces must be carefully distinguished from the general overlordship which Rome was supposed to hold over all provincial soil, expressed in the statement that provincials had only possession or usufruct of their land (Gaius ii. 7; Gromatici, p. 36, Lachmann). This overlordship was probably merely a legal fiction by which the juristic mind assigned a reason for the fact that the provincials paid a land tax from which Italians were exempt.

Such portions of the territories of conquered cities as were not claimed by Rome were as a matter of course left in the undisturbed possession of these cities. If the city was a federate state (civitas foederata), his possession was guaranteed by a treaty; if it was a free city, the guarantee was made by charter; if it was neither federate nor free, the abandonment of the territory by Rome must have been taken as a sufficient guarantee of the city's right to possess, although statements relative to the surrender may have been contained in the charter of the province (lex provinciae) to which the city belonged. But, whether the states were federate, free or stipendiary, there was only one case in which it was important to specify precisely that land had been restored (redditus) to its former occupants. This was the case where Rome had marked out a territory for assignment to her own citizens, but where in or near the limits of the assignment some of the land had been left in the hands or its former proprietors. Such land was noted in the state registers as redditus veteri possessori. Sometimes it was found that such an ancient possessor owned pieces of land separated from one another. In such cases an exchange might be effected between him and some other possessor, so that his possessions might be continuous. The fact of such an exchange was symbolized in the registers by the entry of land redditus et commutatus pro suo.

When the claims of earlier owners had been satisfied, the state proceeded to deal with such land as it retained. It dealt with it in two ways. It either alienated it, whether in exchange for a price or gratuitously; or it kept it as a source of revenue, whether on a system of lease or on some system of remunerative occupation. We may first consider the cases in which the state decided to alienate. The land might be sold for the benefit of the treasury. Typical instances of this treatment are furnished by the sale of some Campanian land during the Second Punic War (Livy xxviii. 46, xxxii. 7). The censors may have directed the sale, but it was executed by the quaestors as the regular officials of the treasury. Hence such land was described as ager quaestorius. The land was sold in definitely marked out plots, and we must suppose that, as a rule, when this sale had been effected, the lots fell under the absolute ownership of their purchasers. Yet there was some period of Roman history when this ownership was (at least in certain cases) conditioned. The Roman writers on agriculture speak of conditions and their neglect (Gromatici, p. 115). The conditions were probably those of military service or frontier defence. The epoch of history at which this conditioned ownership was recognized cannot be determined. It is a form of tenure that would be equally appropriate to the needs of the earliest period of Roman history and to those of imperial times.

The second mode of alienation was that by assignation. Lands thus assigned were known as agri dati assignati. The gift on the part of the state was gratuitous, and ownership passed wholly to the assignee. The land so given was definitely surveyed, marked out and registered. Such an assignment might take one of two possible forms. It might be the means of establishing a new ``plantation'' (colonia), with some independent political organization of its own, however slight--a settlement, therefore, which could be thought of as an entity separate from the city of Rome and from any other municipality. Or it might be the means of providing allotments for individuals who remained domiciled at Rome or continued to be members of some already existing municipality. It has been frequently held in modern times that this latter method of assignment is the one which our ancient authorities describe as assignment to individuals (viritim), and that the antithesis lies between the ``colonial'' and the ``viritane'' method of distribution. It is true that the passages which speak of the latter mode of assignation need not, and perhaps cannot, be interpreted as presenting the antithesis (Varro, de Re Rustica, i. 2. 7, i. 10. 2; Livy iv. 48, v. 24; Festus, p. 373; Gromatici, pp. 154, 160); yet it is not improbable that the antithesis is latent in this specific use of the term. It seems clear that the idea of assignation to, and, therefore, of ownership by, individuals must originally have been developed in contrast to the idea of ownership by some larger group (see ROMAN LAW). When the stage of individual ownership was reached, all assignation was ``viritane,'' but only some assignation was ``colonial.'' ``Viritane'' was, therefore, the wider term which would cover, and may sometimes have been used specially to denote, the system of non-colonial assignment. The amount granted to individuals in assignments of both types varied from time to time. It was reckoned in terms of the jugerum, which was approximately 5/8 of an English acre. The earliest and smallest assignment was 2 jugera--an amount so small that it seems to presuppose on the part of the recipient some share in common or gentile property or some additional private property of his own. Other quotas were 3, 3 7/12, 7, 10 + 14 jugera. The last was the maximum amount granted before the time of Ti. Gracchus (133 B.C.), and it was held by representatives of the old school that 7 jugera were as much as any frugal Roman should want (Pliny, Historia Naturalis, xviii. 18). The division was carried out by commissions of 3, 5 or 10 men appointed by the people (Cicero, de Lege Agraria ii. 7. 17). The land which the state retained as ager publicus was always placed in the hands of individuals, who occupied it in some manner remunerative to the state. These individuals (possessores) were never regarded as owners of the land thus occupied. It remained the property of the state, was held without a contract (precario) and could be resumed by the state at will. But though the possessors had no claim against the state, their ownership could be defended against all other individual claimants; and it seems probable that from an early date the praetor's possessory interdict was used to protect all occupiers, provided their tenure had been acquired neither by force (vi) nor by seizure of land in its occupiers, absence (clam), nor by mere permission of the previous holder to occupy (precario alter ab altero.) Moreover, Appian says that possessors of this type could transfer their land by inheritance, and that the land was accepted as security by creditors. This kind of occupation, therefore, though clearly distinguished from ownership (dominium), was yet regarded as a perfectly secure form of tenure. All occupiers of public land paid dues to the state through a state contractor (publicanus.) These dues varied in amount, and in the method of their collection. We learn from Appian that the ordinary dues paid by occupiers of arable land in Italy were 1/10 of seed crops and 1/5 of plant produce. Owners who turned cattle or sheep on pasture land belonging to the state also paid fixed dues to the treasury. The occupiers of the Roman public land in Campania paid a large rent (Cic. de leg. Agr. i. 7. 21). Appian's account of the public land (Bell. Civ. i. 7) would lead us to suppose that the amount of tax paid by the occupier, and the method adopted by the state for the collection of the revenues, depended upon the nature of the land at the time when it first passed to a possessor. He says that some of the public land which was in a good state of cultivation was let on lease; but that with regard to the poor or devastated land proclamation was made that anyone might squat on it and till it in return for the small payment in kind mentioned above. It has been questioned whether the land described by Appian and by Cicero as let on lease, of which the Campanian land and some lands in Sicily are typical, represents a legally distinct class. It seems probable that the distinction is one of practice rather than of law, and that the difference lay not in the relation between the state and the possessor (as would be the case if the leased land were really let to individuals by the censor, while the occupied land was held by mere permission of the state without any contract) but in the details of the contract between the censor and the publicanus with regard to the collection of the dues. The conditions of the tenure of the Roman public land in Africa are known to us from the Lex Agraria of 111 B.C. (Bruns, Fontes, i. 3. 11, vv. 85 foll.). Here the publicanus is the middleman between the state and the possessor, and purchases from the censor the right of collecting dues. The law places no restriction on bargaining between the censor and the publicanus, but enacts that no possessor or pastor shall ever be required by the publicanus to pay more than the amount prescribed by the censors of 115 B.C. These conditions may be regarded as typical for the occupation of public lands. And when Cicero speaks of public land as let on lease (locatus) by the censor, he no doubt refers to the farming of the taxes to a publicanus for a fixed period, and not to the letting of the land. This seems clear from a passage (in Verr. iii. 6. 12) where he speaks of land in Sicily which had been restored by Rome to former owners as being leased. The land itself could not be leased by Rome if it belonged not to Rome but to the Sicilian inhabitants; but the collection of the revenues due to Rome could be so leased to Publicani (q.v..) And the same explanation would apply to Cicero's statements that the Campanian land was let on lease by the censors (cf. Festus, s.v. venditiones.) The view that there was a distinct class of the public land which was let out for a fixed term of years to tenants on a definite lease, unlike the ordinary public land which was always held in occupation merely at will (precario), has been maintained by W. A. Becker, and seems to be supported, with the help of conjecture, by a few passages in Cicero and by Hyginus (Gromatici, p. 116). But the passage of Hyginus is barely intelligible even on this supposition; and Cicero's repeated statement that the Campanian land was expressly exempted from the legislation of the Gracchi (cf. Lex Agraria, Bruns, loc. cit. v. 6) shows that there was not sufficient distinction between the Campanian tenure and that of other public land in Italy to make this definite exception by name superfluous. The Sempronian law could obviously not touch land which the state had leased to occupiers on the basis of a definite contract. Moreover, we have absolutely no evidence for such a contract, even in Cicero's speeches against Rullus, when he might be expected to mention it as an objection to Rullus's bill. That there were some distinctive characteristics about the tenure of certain lands, of which the Campanian land is typical, seems proved by the repeated association of these lands with certain special lands in the provinces, especially at Leontini in Sicily, and by some passages in the Gromatici where agri vectigales are spoken of as a distinct class. But what these characteristics were cannot be clearly determined. It seems certain that in every case the possessor occupied precario, and that only in the bargain between the censor and the middleman was there room for contract. Thus the state was justified in the claim to resume public land which it made in many of the Agrarian laws.

The earliest agrarian measures of which we have any record are the distributions of land conquered in war to poor citizens, which later authorities attribute to Numa and Servius Tullius. Such assignments, however, are not the result of legislative acts, but of a voluntary surrender on the king's part of his own portion of the spoils. It is probable that the agrarian law which resulted from the proposals of Spurius Cassius (consul 486 B.C.) was the first attempt made by the Roman people to exercise its control over the occupation of state territory. According to the traditional account, Cassius proposed that such portion of lands lately conquered from the Hernici as fell to the Roman state should be divided in equal shares between the Roman plebs and the Latins; and further that poor citizens should receive allotments of land previously conquered, and occupied without any legal right by the Patricians. The inclusion of the Latins in the distribution was afterwards dropped; but the law in its final form certainly asserted the right of the Plebeians to take their share in the public land. The accounts given of it by Livy and Dionysius are no doubt coloured by their knowledge of later agrarian legislation, and it seems hardly likely that the proposal to resume and redistribute public land already occupied was made at this early stage; but it probably challenged the exclusive claim of Patricians to occupy. We hear of another agrarian law proposed by the tribune Lucius Icilius in 456 B.C. (Lex Icilia de Aventino publicando) which regulated in some way the tenure of public land on the Aventine. In 376 B.C. the tribunes Licinius and Sextius introduced into their laws, for the promotion of the privileges of the plebs, a clause enacting that no more than 500 jugera of land should be occupied by a single cultivator. It seems almost certain from Livy's account that this measure referred only to the occupation of ager publicus, though some modern authorities have upheld the view that it dealt with land held on any kind of tenure, others again that it dealtonlywith private property in land. According to Appian, the law also enacted that only 100 cattle and 500 sheep might be turned by one owner on the public pastures. But it failed of its object because it did not provide any adequate machinery for the resumption by the state of land held in excess of the prescribed amount, and was therefore easily evaded. The next agrarian law we hear of was a more special measure dealing with lands conquered from the Senones and Picentines. In 232 B.C. C. Flaminius, then tribune of the plebs, proposed to resume these lands for the state, although they were already occupied by large landholders, and to distribute them in allotments to poor citizens. The measure met with much opposition from the richer classes, and did not gain the sanction of the senate; but C. Flaminius ignored constitutional usage and brought it direct before the council of the plebs, by which it was made law. In 133 B.C. the tribune Tiberius Gracchus (q.v.) re-enacted the earlier measure of Licinius and Sextius, with the additional provisions that each owner might occupy 250 jugera for each son, in addition to the original 500, and that a commission of three (iii. viri agris dandis adsignandis) should be appointed to carry out the terms of the law. He also enacted that the land occupied in excess of the prescribed amount, and on that account resumed for the state by the land commission, should be distributed in inalienable lots to poor citizens. Subsequent modifications of those provisions which dealt with the powers of the land commission led to a re-enactment of the whole by C. Gracchus, the brother of Tiberius, tribune in 123 B.C. But within 15 years from the tribunate of C. Gracchus the whole of his law had been rendered null by three further enactments. The first of these permitted the sale of land allotted under the law, which thus tended to return into the hands of its former occupiers as private property, which the state had no longer any right to resume. The second abolished the commission appointed to carry out the terms of the law, thus putting a stop to further resumption and distribution, and also transformed existing occupiers into owners of the land they occupied, paying only a small due to the treasury. The third (probably the surviving Lex Agraria, Bruns, loc. cit.) abolished the payment. This law belongs to the year 111 B.C. The dates of the two former laws are uncertain, but it is probable that the first was passed in 121, the second in 119 or 118. From this time forward a change comes over land legislation. The ordinary public land in Italy, in the hands of occupiers, which had given rise to all the agrarian legislation between 376 and 111, had practically ceased to exist. The Campanian land still remained, but the same reasons which led to its exemption from the Gracchan legislation seem to have continued to protect its holders until 63 B.C. In the meantime several agrarian laws were passed which provided for the distribution of land placed in some other way at the disposal of the state. In 100 B.C. Appuleius Saturninus (q.v.), tribune of the plebs, proposed the allotment of lands recently taken from the Cimbri in Gaul. This law was passed, but eventually declared null by the senate, with the rest of Saturninus's laws. A more dangerous precedent was set by Sulla in his dictatorship (82-81 B.C..) He was the first to confiscate the lands of his political foes, and of communities which had resisted him, and treating them as ager publicus, assign them to his veterans as a prize. This example was followed by Octavian (Augustus) and Antony (M. Antonius) after their proscriptions in 43 B.C. A third method of providing land for distribution was that adopted by Servilius Rullus (q.v.) in 63 B.C. His bill enacted that land should be purchased in Italy with money gained by the sale of Roman territories abroad, and allotted to citizens. A commission of ten (x. viri agris dandis adsignandis), annually elected by 9 out of the 35 tribes, was to carry out the terms of the law. Rullus also ventured to propose the distribution of the Campanian land, which had hitherto been respected by all agrarian reformers. It was chiefly on this ground that Cicero in his three speeches on the Agrarian law succeeded in exciting such a general feeling against it that it was eventually withdrawn. In 60 B.C. the tribune L. Flavius brought forward a bill for the distribution of lands to Pompey's veterans. The Campanian land was certainly to be included in the distribution, and it is clear from Cicero that the bill in some way dealt violently with the rights of private owners. It also, however, enacted that land should be purchased by the state with the wealth which Pompey's conquests had brought into the treasury. The last proposal was supported by Cicero, but the bill seems to have been dropped, only to reappear in more moderate form in the following year. A consular bill, the lex Julia Campana, was passed by Julius Caesar in 59 B.C., which provided for the settlement of Pompey's veterans on the Campanian land, and other lands purchased by the state from private owners in Italy with the full consent of the latter. In its original form, the bill omitted all reference to the Campanian land, which seems to have been included by Caesar in the distribution only when the continued and unreasoning opposition of the senate had goaded him to extreme measures. A commission of twenty was to be appointed to carry out the law, from which Caesar himself was expressly excluded. This measure finally settled the question of the Campanian land, which now passed out of the category of ager publicus. The last agrarian law of the republic was that passed in 44 B.C. on the proposal of the consul M. Antonius, or of his brother L. Antonius. We have no detailed account of the measure, but it seems to have provided grants of land for veterans, and was to be administered by seven commissioners. The law was afterwards cancelled by decree of the senate, probably on the ground of some technical flaw. The emperor Vespasian attempted to reclaim for the state small oddments of land (subseciva) which were held by neighbouring owners to whom they had never been definitely assigned. The attempt met with violent opposition, and though resumed by Titus, was finally crushed by Domitian, who issued an edict recognizing all oddments of land thus held to be private property.

AUTHORITIES.--Niebuhr, History of Rome (English translation), ii. p. 129 foll. (Cambridge, 1832); Becker, Handbuch der romischen Alterthumer, iii. 2, p. 142 (Leipzig, 1843); Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwaltung, i. p. 96 foll. (Leipzig, 1881); Madvig, Verfassung und Verwaltung des romischen Staates, ii. p. 364 foll. (Leipzig, 1882), (See also ROME, History.) (A. H. J. G; A. M. CL.)

AGREDA, MARIA FERNANDEZ CORONEL, ABBESS OF, known in religion as Sor (Sister) Maria de Jesus (1602-1665), was the daughter of Don Francisco Coronel and of his wife Catalina de Arana. She was born at Agreda, on the borders of Navarre and Aragon, on the 2nd of April 1602. All her family were powerfully influenced by the ecstatic piety of Spain in that age. Her biographer, Samaniego, records that even as an infant in arms she was filled with divine knowledge. Her stupidity as a child is piously accounted for by extreme humility. From childhood she was favoured by ecstasies and visions. When she was fifteen the whole family entered religion. The father, now an old man, and the two sons entered the Franciscan house of San Antonio de Nalda. Maria, her mother and sister established a Franciscan nunnery in the family house at Agreda, which, when Maria's reputation had extended, was replaced by the existing building. She began it with one hundred reals (one pound sterling) lent her by a devotee, and it was completed in fourteen years by voluntary gifts. Much against her own wish, we are told, she was appointed abbess at the age of twenty-five. In 1668, four years after her death, the Franciscans published a story that at the age of twenty-two she had been miraculously conveyed to Mexico, to convert a native people, and had made five hundred journeys through the air for that purpose in one year. Though the rule required the abbess to be changed every three years, Maria remained the effective ruler of Agreda till her death. The Virgin was declared abbess, and Maria acted as her locus tenens. In her later years she inclined to the ``internal prayer,'' and neglect of the outward offices of the church, which was usual with the ``alumbrados'' or Quietists. The Inquisition took notice of her, but she was not proceeded against with severity. Maria's importance in religion and Spanish history is based on two grounds. In the earlier part of her life, while the Franciscan, Francisco Andres de la Torre, was her confessor, she wrote an Introduction to the History of the Most Blessed Virgin. It was destroyed by the direction of another confessor. Later on, by the order of her superiors, and under the guidance of her Franciscan confessor, Andres de Fuen Mayor, she wrote The Mystic City of God. It is an extraordinary book, full of apocryphal history, visions and scholasticism, which professes to have been written by divine inspiration, and is devoted to praise of the Virgin. In 1642 she sent to Philip IV. an account of a vision she had had, of a council of the infernal powers for the destruction of Catholicism and Spain. The king visited her when on his way to Aragon to suppress the rebellion of Catalonia. A long correspondence, which lasted till her death on the 29th of March 1665, was begun. The king folded a sheet of paper down the middle and wrote on the one side of the division. The answers were to be written on the other and the sheet returned. By a pious fraud copies were kept at Agreda. How far Maria was only the mouthpiece of the Franciscans must of course be a matter of doubt. Her correspondence was apparently suspended whenever her confessor was absent. She must, however, have co-operated at least, and it is certain that the Franciscans, who were very unfortunate in some of their pious women, owed not a little to her. The letters are in excellent Spanish, are curious reading, and are invaluable as illustrations for the second part of the reign of Philip IV.

The correspondence of Sor Maria with the king has been published in full by Don F. Siluela, Cartas de la Venerable Madre Sor Maria de Agreda y del Senor Rey Don Filipe IV. (Madrid, 1885). The Mystic City of God is one of the most characteristic monuments of Mariolatry, and has continued to be much in favour with supporters of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. It appeared in Madrid in 1668, with a biographical introduction by Samaniego, has been often reprinted, and was translated into French and Italian. It was for a time reserved by the Index, both Spanish and Papal, but was taken off by the influence of the Franciscans and of Spain, the chief supporters of the immaculate Conception. An account of Maria de Agreda will be found in the Tracts of Michael Geddes (London, 1706),vol. iii., written by a competent critic and Anglican divine of the 18th century who detested ``enthusiasm.'' (D. H.)

AGRICOLA, CHRISTOPH LUDWIG (1667-1719), German landscape painter, was born and died at Regensburg (Ratisbon). He spent a great part of his life in travel, visiting England, Holland and France, and residing for a considerable period at Naples. His numerous landscapes, chiefly cabinet pictures, are remarkable for fidelity to nature, and especially for their skilful representation of varied phases of climate. In composition his style shows the influence of Caspar Poussin, while in light and colour he imitates Claude Lorraine. His pictures are to be found in Dresden, Brunswick, Vienna, Florence, Naples and many other towns of both Germany and Italy.

AGRICOLA (the Latinized form of the name BAUER), GEORG (1490-1555), German scholar and man of science, known as ``the father of mineralogy,'' was born at Glauchau in Saxony on the 24th of March 1490. Gifted with a precocious intellect, he early threw himself into the pursuit of the ``new learning,'' with such effect that at the age of twenty he was appointed Rector extraordinarius of Greek at the so-called Great School of Zwickau, and made his appearance as a writer on philology. After two years he gave up his appointment in order to pursue his studies at Leipzig, where, as rector, he received the powerful support of the professor of classics, Peter Mosellanus (1493-1524), a celebrated humanist of the time, with whom he had already been in correspondence. Here he also devoted himself to the study of medicine, physics and chemistry. After the death of Mosellanus he went for a short time to Italy, where he took his doctor's degree. On his return he settled as practising physician in the Joachimstal, a centre of mining and smelting works, his object being partly ``to fill in the gaps in the art of healing,'' partly to test what had been written about mineralogy by careful observation of ores and the methods of their treatment. His thorough grounding in philology and philosophy had accustomed him to systematic thinking, and this enabled him to construct out of his studies and observations of minerals a logical system which he began to publish in 1528. Bermannus, sive de re metallica dialogus, the first attempt to reduce to scientific order the knowledge won by practical work, brought Agricola into notice. In 1530 Prince Maurice of Saxony appointed him historiographer with an annual allowance, and he migrated to Chemnitz, the centre of the mining industry, in order to widen the range of his observations. The citizens showed their appreciation of his learning by appointing him town physician and electing him burgomaster. His popularity was, however, short-lived. Chemnitz was a violent centre of the Protestant movement, while Agricola never wavered in his allegiance to the old religion; and he was forced to resign his office. He now lived apart from the contentious movements of the time, devoting himself wholly to learning. His chief interest was still in mineralogy; but he occupied himself also with medical, mathematical, theological and historical subjects, his chief historical work being the Dominatores Saxonici a prima origine ad hanc aetatem, published at Freiberg. In 1544 he published the De ortu et causis subterraneorum, in which he laid the first foundations of a physical geology, and criticized the theories of the ancients. In 1545 followed the De natura eorum quae effluunt e terra; in 1546 the De veteribus et novis metallis, a comprehensive account of the discovery and occurrence of minerals; in 1548 the De animantibus subterraneis; and in the two following years a number of smaller works on the metals. His most famous work, the De re metallica, libri xii., was published in 1556, though apparently finished several years before, since the dedication to the elector and his brother is dated 1550. It is a complete and systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy, illustrated with many fine and interesting woodcuts and containing, in an appendix, the German equivalents for the technical terms used in the Latin text. It long remained a standard work, and marks its author as one of the most accomplished chemists of his time. Believing the black rock of the Schlossberg at Stolpen to be the same as Pliny's basalt, he applied this name to it, and thus originated a petrological term which has been permanently incorporated in the vocabulary of science.

In spite of the early proof that Agricola had given of the tolerance of his own religious attitude, he was not suffered to end his days in peace. He remained to the end a staunch Catholic, though all Chemnitz had gone over to the Lutheran creed; and it is said that his life was ended by a fit of apoplexy brought on by a heated discussion with a Protestant divine. He died at Chemnitz on the 21st of November 1555, and so violent was the theological feeling against him, that he was not suffered to rest in the town to which he had added lustre. Amidst hostile demonstrations he was carried to Zeitz, seven miles from Chemnitz, and there buried.

See article by Gumbel in Allgem. Deutsche Biog. (1875); F. L. Becher, Georg Agricola und Werner (Freiberg, 1819); F. A. Schmidt, Georg Agricola's Bermannus mit Einleitung (Freiberg, 1806); Poggendorff, Biographisches Handworterbuch; Agricola's works passim.

AGRICOLA, GNAEUS JULIUS (A.D. 37-93), Roman statesman and general, father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, was born on the 13th of June A.D. 37 (according to others, 39) at Forum Julii (Frejus) in Gallia Narbonensis. His father, Julius Graecinus, having been put to death by Caligula, Agricola was brought up by his mother Julia Procilla. After studying philosophy at Massilia, he entered the army and served (59) under Suetonius Paulinus in Britain. In 61 he returned to Rome, where he married Domitia Decidiana, a Roman lady of distinction. In 63 he was quaestor in Asia, in 65 tribune, in 68 praetor, and when Vespasian was proclaimed emperor, he immediately declared himself his supporter. In 70 he was appointed to the command of the 20th legion in Britain, then stationed at Deva (Chester). On his return to Rome at the end of three years he was made censor, raised to the rank of patrician, and appointed governor of Aquitania (74-78). Appointed consul suffectus in the following year, he was admitted into the college of pontiffs and made governor of Britain. In the same year he betrothed his daughter to Tacitus. Although the legation of Britain lasted as a rule only three years, Agricola held the post for at least seven and succeeded in reconciling the inhabitants to Roman rule and inducing them to adopt the customs and civilization of their conquerors. His military achievements were equally brilliant. After conquering the Ordovices in North Wales and the island of Mona (Anglesey), during the next two years he carried his victorious arms to the Taus (Tay; others read Tanaus, perhaps the north Tyne), and in his fourth campaign fortified the country between Clota and Bodotria (the firths of Clyde and Forth) as a protection against the attacks of the Caledonians. Having explored the coasts of Fife and Forfar, he gained a decisive victory over the Caledonians under Galgacus at the Graupian hill (see BRITAIN, Roman.) His successes, however, had aroused the envy and suspicion of Domitian. He was recalled to Rome, where he lived a life of studied retirement, to avoid the possibility of giving offence to the tyrant. He died in 93, poisoned, it was rumoured, by the emperor's orders. The Life of Agricola by his son-in-law Tacitus is practically a panegyric or funeral oration.

See Urlichs, De Vita et Honoribus Agricolae (1868); Dio Cassius xxxix. 50, lxvi. 20: Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire (Eng. trans., 1886), i. 183-184, 194.

AGRICOLA, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1720-1774), German musician, was born at Dobitschen in Saxe-Altenburg, on the 4th of January 1720. While a student of law at Leipzig he studied music under Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1741 he went to Berlin, where he studied musical composition. He was soon generally recognized as one of the most skilful organists of his time; and in 1751, as the result of a comic opera, Il Filosofo convinto in amore, performed at Potsdam, he was made court composer to Frederick the Great. He died in Berlin on the 1st of December 1774. In 1759, on the death of Karl Heinrich Graun, he was appointed conductor of the royal orchestra. Besides several operas of merit, he composed instrumental pieces and church music. His reputation chiefly rests, however, on his theoretical and critical writings on musical subjects. He wrote under the pseudonym of Flavio Anicio Olibrio.

AGRICOLA (originally SCHNEIDER, then SCHNITTER), JOHANNES (1494-1566), German Protestant reformer, was born on the 20th of April 1494, at Eisleben, whence he is sometimes called Magister Islebius. He studied at Wittenberg, where he soon gained the friendship of Luther. In 1519 he accompanied Luther to the great assembly of German divines at Leipzig, and acted as recording secretary. After teaching for some time in Wittenberg, he went to Frankfort in 1525 to establish the reformed mode of worship. He had resided there only a month when he was called to Eisleben, where he remained till 1526 as teacher in the school of St Andrew, and preacher in the Nicolai church. In 1536 he was recalled to teach in Wittenberg, and was welcomed by Luther. Almost immediately, however, a controversy, which had been begun ten years before and been temporarily silenced, broke out more violently than ever. Agricola was the first to teach the views which Luther was the first to stigmatize by the now well-known name Antinomian (q.v.), maintaining that while the unregenerate were still under the Mosaic law, Christians were entirely free from it, being under the gospel alone. In consequence of the bitter controversy with Luther that resulted, Agricola in 1540 left Wittenberg secretly for Berlin, where he published a letter addressed to the elector of Saxony, which was generally interpreted as a recantation of his obnoxious views. Luther, however, seems not to have so accepted it, and Agricola remained at Berlin. The elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg, having taken him into his favour, appointed him court preacher and general superintendent. He held both offices until his death in 1566, and his career in Brandenburg was one of great activity and influence. Along with Julius von Pflug, bishop of Naumburg-Zeitz, and Michael Helding, titular bishop of Sidon. he prepared the Augsburg Interim of 1548. He endeavoured in vain to appease the Adiaphoristic controversy (see ADIAPHORISTS.) He died during an epidemic of plague on the 22nd of September 1566. Agricola wrote a number of theological works which are now of little interest. He was the first to make a collection of German proverbs which he illustrated with a commentary. The most complete edition, which contains seven hundred and fifty proverbs, is that published at Wittenberg in 1592; a modern one is that of Latendorf, 1862.

See Cordes, Joh. Agricola's Schriften moglichst verzeichnet (Altona, 1817); Life by G. Kawerau (1881), who also wrote the notice in Hauck-Herzog, Realencyk. fur prot. Theol., where other literature is cited.

AGRICOLA, MARTIN (c. 1500-1556), German musician, was born about 1500 in Lower Silesia. His German name was Sohr or Sore. From 1524 till his death he lived at Magdeburg, where he occupied the post of teacher or cantor in the Protestant school. The senator and music-printer Rhau, of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Agricola, whose theoretical works, providing valuable material concerning the change from the old to the new system of notation, he published. Agricola was also the first to harmonize in four parts Luther's chorale, Ein' feste Burg.

Four other Agricolas1 are known as composers between the end of the 15th century and the middle of the 17th.

In the 18th century we find Burney, in the course of his tour in Germany (1772), much impressed by JOHANN FRIEDRICH AGRICOLA (1720-1774), court composer and director of the royal chapel to Frederick the Great. This Agricola was a pupil of Bach, and a fine organist and clever writer on music, especially on operatic style, the problems of which were beginning to be raised by French writers-and composers in preparation for the work of Gluck.

AGRICOLA, RODOLPHUS (properly ROELOF HUYSMANN) (1443-1485), Dutch scholar, was born at Baflo, near Groningen, in 1443. He was educated at Louvain, where he graduated as master of arts. After residing for some time in Paris, he went in 1476 to Ferrara in Italy, and attended the lectures of the celebrated Theodorus Gaza (1400-1478) on the Greek language. Having visited Pavia and Rome, he returned to his native country about 1479, and was soon afterwards appointed syndic of Groningen. In 1482, on the invitation of Johann von Dalberg, bishop of Worms (1445-1503), whose friendship he had gained in Italy, he accepted a professorship at Heidelberg, and for three years delivered lectures there and at Worms on the literature of Greece and Rome. By his personal influence much more than by his writings he did much for the promotion of learning in Germany; and Erasmus and other critics of the generation immediately succeeding his own are full of his praises. In his opposition to the scholastic philosophy he in some degree anticipated the great intellectual revolution in which many of his pupils were conspicuous actors. He died at Heidelberg on the 28th of October 1485. His principal work is De inventione dialectica, libri iii., in which he attempts to change the scholastic philosophy of the day.

See T. F. Tresling, Vita et Merita Rudolphi Agricolae (Groningen, 1830); v. Bezold, R. Agricola (Munchen, 1884): and Ihm, Der Humanist R. Agricola, sein Leben und seine Schriften (Paderb., 1893).

AGRICULTURAL GANGS, groups of women, girls and boys organized by an independent gang-master, under whose supervision they execute agricultural piece-work for farmers in certain parts of England. They are sometimes called ``public gangs'' to distinguish them from ``private gangs'' consisting of workers engaged by the farmer himself, and undertaking work solely for him, under his own supervision or under that of one of his men. The system was for long prevalent in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and is still to be found in a much modified form in the fen district. The practice dates from the latter years of the reign of George III., when the low-lying, marshy lands surrounding the basin of the Wash were being rapidly drained and converted into rich alluvial districts. The unreformed condition of the poor-law, under which the support of the poor fell upon each individual parish, instead of a union of parishes, made landlords reluctant to erect cottages on the reclaimed land for the benefit of their tenants. Labour had to be obtained for the cultivation of these new lands, and that of women, girls and boys, being cheaper than the labour of men, was consequently very largely employed. The tendency to moral and physical ruin which resulted from this nomadic life was so great that an inquiry into the condition of agricultural child-labour was included in the reference to the commission on child-labour appointed in 1862, and the results were so startling that the Agricultural Gangs Act was passed in 1867, forbidding the employment of any child under eight years old, and of any female under a male gangmaster unless a female licensed to act as gang-mistress were also

1 Alexander, died 1506; Johann, flor. 1600; Wolfgang Christoph, flor. 1630; and George Ludwig, 1643-1676. present. Gang-masters must be licensed by two justices, and may not hold a liquor license. The distance to be traversed on foot is fixed by the justices, and the licenses must be renewed every six months. Later legislation made more stringent the regulations under which children are employed in agricultural gangs. By the Elementary Education Act 1876, repealing and re-enacting the principal provisions of the Agricultural (Children) Act 1873, no child shall be employed under the age of eleven years, and none between eleven years and thirteen years before the child has obtained a certificate of having reached the standard of education fixed by a by-law in force in the district.

AGRICULTURE (from Lat. ager, field, and colere, to cultivate), the science, art and industry of utilizing the soil so as to produce the means of human subsistence, embracing in its widest sense the rearing of live-stock as well as the raising of crops. The history of agriculture is the history of man in his most primitive, and most permanent aspect. Hence the nations of antiquity ascribed to it a divine origin; Brahma in Hindustan, Isis in Egypt, Demeter in Greece, and Ceres in Italy, were its founders. The simplest form of agriculture is that in which crops are raised from one patch of ground till it is exhausted, when it is allowed to go wild and abandoned for another. This ``extensive'' husbandry is found in combination with a nomadic or semi-nomadic and pastoral organization, such as that of the German tribes described by Caesar and Tacitus (see especially Germania, 26). The discovery of the uses of the bare fallow and of manure, by making it possible to raise crops from the same area for an indefinite period, marks a stage of progress. This ``intensive'' culture in a more or less developed form was practised by the great nations of antiquity, and little decided advance was made till after the middle ages. The introduction of new plants, which made it possible to dispense with the bare fallow, and still later the application to husbandry of scientific discoveries as to soils, plant constituents and manures, brought about a revolution in farming. But the progress of husbandry, evidenced by the production of larger and better crops with more certainty, is due to that rationalizing of agricultural practices which is the work of modern times. What before was done in the light of experience is nowadays done in the light of knowledge. Even the earliest forms of intensive cultivation demand the practice of the fundamental processes of husbandry--ploughing, manuring, sowing, weeding, reaping. It is the improvements in methods, implements and materials, brought about by the application of science, that distinguish the husbandry of the 20th century from that of medieval and ancient times.

Ancient Husbandry.--The monumental records of Egypt are the source of the earliest information on farming. The Egypt

Egypt.

of the Pharaohs was a country of great estates farmed either by tenants or by slaves or labourers under the superintendence of stewards. It owed its fertility to the Nile, which, inundating the land near its banks, was distributed by means of canals over more distant portions of its valley. The autumnal subsidence of the river was followed by shallow ploughing performed by oxen yoked to clumsy wooden ploughs, the clods being afterwards levelled with wooden hoes by hand. Next came the sowing, the seed being pressed into the soil by the feet of sheep which were driven over the fields. At harvest the corn was cut high on the stalk with short sickles and put up in sheaves, after which it was carried to the threshing-floor and there trodden out by the hoofs of oxen. Winnowing was done by women, who tossed the grain into the air with small wooden boards, the chaff being blown away by the winds. Wheat and barley were the chief crops, and another plant, perhaps identical with the durra, i.e. millet, of modern Egypt, was also cultivated. The latter, when ripe, was pulled up by the roots, and the grain was separated by means of an implement resembling a comb. To these crops may be added peas, beans and many herbs and esculent roots. Oxen were much prized, and breeding was carried on with a careful eye to selection. Immense numbers of ducks and geese were reared.

Diodorus Siculus, writing of later times, says that cattle were sent during a portion of each year to the marshy pastures of the delta, where they roamed under the care of herdsmen. They were fed with hay during the annual inundation, and at other times tethered in meadows of green clover. The flocks were shorn twice annually (a practice common to several Asiatic countries), and the ewes yeaned twice a year. (See also EGYPT.)

The agriculture of the region bordering the Tigris and Euphrates, like that of Egypt, depended largely on irrigation, and traces of ancient canals are still to be seen in Babylonia. But beyond the fact that both Babylonia and Assyria were large producers of cereals, little is known of their husbandry.

The nomads of the patriarchal ages, whilst mainly dependent upon their flocks and herds, practised also agriculture proper.

Biblical accounts among the Israelites.

The tracts over which they roamed were in ordinary circumstances common to all shepherds alike. During the summer they frequented the mountainous districts, and retired to the valleys to winter. Vast flocks of sheep and of goat constituted their wealth, although they also possessed oxen. When the last were abundant, it seems to be an indication that tillage was practised. Job, besides immense possessions in flocks and herds, had 500 yoke of oxen, which he employed in ploughing, and a ``very great husbandry.'' Isaac, too, conjoined tillage with pastoral husbandry, and that with success, for ``he sowed in the land Gerar, and reaped an hundred-fold''--a return which, it would appear, in some favoured regions, occasionally rewarded the labour of the husbandman. In the parable of the sower, Jesus Christ mentions an increase of thirty, sixty and an hundred fold.

Along with the Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans, the Israelites are classed as one of the great agricultural nations of antiquity. The Mosaic Institute contained an agrarian law, based upon an equal division of the soil amongst the adult males, a census of whom was taken just before their entrance into Canaan. Provision was thus made for 600,000 yeomen, assigning (according to different calculations) from sixteen to twenty-five acres of land to each. This land, held in direct tenure from Jehovah, their sovereign, was in theory inalienable. The accumulation of debt upon it was prevented by the prohibition of interest, the release of debts every seventh year, and the reversion of the land to the proprietor, or his heirs, at each return of the year of jubilee. The owners of these small farms cultivated them with much care, and rendered them highly productive. They were favoured with a soil extremely fertile, and one which their skill and diligence kept in good condition. The stones were carefully cleared from the fields, which were also watered from canals and conduits, communicating with the brooks and streams with which the country ``was well watered everywhere,'' and enriched by the application of manures. The seventh year's fallow prevented the exhaustion of the soil, which was further enriched by the burning of the weeds and spontaneous growth of the Sabbatical year. The crops chiefly cultivated were wheat, millet, barley, beans and lentils; to which it is supposed, on grounds not improbable, may be added rice and cotton. The chief implements were a wooden plough of simple and light construction, a hoe or mattock, and a light harrow. The ox and the ass were used for labour. The word ``oxen,'' which occurs in our version of the Scriptures, as well as in the Septuagint and Vulgate, denotes the species, rather than the sex. As the Hebrews did not mutilate any of their animals, bulls were in common use. The quantity of land ploughed by a yoke of oxen in one day was called a yoke or acre. Towards the end of October, with which month the rainy season begins, seedtime commenced, and of course does so still. The seedtime, begun in October, extends, for wheat and some other white crops, through November and December; and barley continues to be sown until about the middle of February. The seed appears to have been sometimes ploughed in, and at other times to have been covered by harrowing. The cold winds which prevail in January and February frequently injured the crops in the more exposed and higher districts. The rainy season extends from October to April, during which time refreshing showers fall, chiefly during the night, and generally at intervals of a few days. The harvest was earlier or later as the rains towards the end of the season were more or less copious. It, however, generally began in April, and continued through May for the different crops in succession. In the south, and in the plains, the harvest, as might be expected, commenced some weeks earlier than in the northern and mountainous districts. The slopes of the hills were carefully terraced and irrigated wherever practicable, and on these slopes the vine and olive were cultivated with great success. At the same time the hill districts and neighbouring deserts afforded pasturage for numerous flocks and herds, and thus admitted of the benefits of a mixed husbandry. Not by a figure of speech but literally, every Israelite sat under the shadow of his own vine and fig-tree; whilst the country as a whole is described (2 Kings xviii. 32) as ``a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land Of oil olive and of honey.''

The earliest known forms of intensive husbandry were based chiefly upon the proximity of rivers and irrigation. The

Greece.

agriculture of classical ages was slightly more developed in so far as the husbandman of Greece and Rome was less likely to leave to nature the fertilization of the soil. Greece being a mountainous land was favourable to the culture of the vine rather than to that of cereals. Scanty information on its agriculture is to be derived from the Works and Days of Hesiod (about the 8th century B.C.), the Oeconomicus of Xenophon (4th century B.C.), the History o/ Plants and the Origin o/. Plants of Theophrastus (4th century B.C..)The latter is the first writer on botany, and his works also contain interesting remarks on manures, the mixing of soils and other agricultural topics (see also GEOPONICI.) Greek husbandry had no salient characteristics. The summer fallow with repeated ploughing was its basis. The young crop was hoed, reaping was performed with a sickle, and a high stubble left on the ground as manure. The methods of threshing and winnowing were the same as those in use in ancient Egypt. Wheat, barley and spelt were the leading crops. Meadows were pastured rather than mown. Attica was famous for its olives and figs, but general agriculture excelled in Peloponnesus, where, by means of irrigation and drainage, all the available land was utilized.

In the early days of the Roman republic land in Italy was held largely by small proprietors, and agriculture was highly esteemed

Rome.

and classed with war as an occupation becoming a free man. The story of Cincinnatus, twice summoned from the plough to the highest offices in the state, illustrates the status of the Roman husbandman. The later tendency was towards the absorption of smaller holdings into large estates. As wealth increased the peasant-farmer gave way before the large landowner, who cultivated his property by means of slave-labour, superintended by slave-bailiffs. The low price of grain, which was imported in huge quantities from Sicily and other Roman provinces, operated to crush the small holder, at the same time as it made arable farming unremunerative. Sheep-raising, involving larger holdings, less supervision and less labour, was preferred by the capitalist land-holder to the cultivation of the wheat, spelt, vines or olives which were the chief crops of the country. Lupine, beans, peas and vetches were grown for fodder, and meadows, often artificially watered, supplied hay. Swine and poultry were used for food to a greater extent than oxen, which were bred chiefly for ploughing. The following epitome of Virgil's advice to the husbandman in the first book of the Georgics suggests the outline of Roman husbandry: ``First learn the peculiarities of your soil and climate. Plough the fallow in early spring, and plough frequently--twice in winter, twice in summer unless your land is poor, when a light ploughing in September will do. Either let the land lie fallow every other year or else let spelt follow pulse, vetches or lupine. Repetition of one crop exhausts the ground; rotation will lighten the strain, only the exhausted soil must be copiously dressed with manure or ashes. It often does good to burn the stubble on the ground. Harrow down the clods, level the ridges by cross ploughing, work the land thoroughly. Irrigation benefits a sandy soil, draining a marshy soil. It is well to feed down a luxuriant crop when the plants are level with the ridge tops. Geese and cranes, chicory, mildew, thistles, cleavers, caltrops, darnel and shade are farmer's enemies. Scare off the birds, harrow up the weeds, cut down all that shades the crop. Ploughs, waggons, threshing-sledges, harrows, baskets, hurdles, winnowing-fans are the farmer's implements. The plough consists of several parts made of seasoned wood. The threshing-floor must be smooth and rammed hard to leave no crevices for weeds and small animals to get through. Some steep seed in soda and oil lees to get a larger produce. Careful annual selection by hand of the best seed is the only way to prevent degeneration. It is best to mow stubble and hay at night when they are moist.''

In addition to the use of several kinds of animal and other manures, green crops were sometimes ploughed in by the Romans. The shrewdness which, more than inventiveness, characterized their husbandry comes out well in the following quotation from the 18th book of the Natural History of Pliny:--``Cato would have this point especially to be considered, that the soil of a farm be good and fertile; also, that near it there be plenty of labourers and that it be not far from a large town; moreover, that it have sufficient means for transporting its produce, either by water or land. Also that the house be well built, and the land about it as well managed. They are in error who hold the opinion that the negligence and bad husbandry of the former owner is good for his successor. Now, I say there is nothing more dangerous and disadvantageous to the buyer than land so left waste and out of heart; and therefore Cato counsels well to purchase land of one who has managed it well, and not rashly to despise and make light of the skill and knowledge of another.''

Roman writers on agriculture (see GEOPONICI) are more numerous than those of Greece. The earliest important treatises are the De re Rustica of Cato (234-149 B.C.) and the Rerum Rusticarum Libri of Varro. More famous than either are the Georgics of Virgil, published about 30 B.C., and treating of tillage, horticulture, cattle-breeding and bee-keeping. The works of Columella (1st century A.D.) and of Palladius (4th century A.D.) are exhaustive treatises, and the Natural History of the elder Pliny (A.D. 23-70) contains considerable information on husbandry. Under the later empire agriculture sank into a condition of neglect, in which it remained throughout the Dark Ages. In Spain its revival was due to the Saracens, and by them, and their successors the Moors, agriculture was carried to a high pitch of excellence. The work on agriculture1 of Ibn-al-Awame, who lived in the 12th century A.D., treats of the varieties of soils, manuring, irrigation, ploughing, sowing, harvesting, stock, horticulture, arboriculture and plant diseases, and is a lasting record of their skill and industry.

The subsequent history of agriculture is treated in the following pages primarily from the British standpoint. Doubtless Flanders may claim to be the pioneer of ``high farming'' in medieval times, other countries following her lead in many respects. It is not, however, necessary to deal with the agricultural evolution of continental Europe, the gradual progress of agriculture as a whole being well enough typified in the story of its development in England, which indeed has led the way in modern times. After sections on the history and chief modern features of British agriculture, a separate account is given of the general features of American agriculture.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

The ``combined'' or ``common-field'' system of husbandry practised by the village community or township (see VILLAGE COMMUNITIES) may be taken as the starting-point of English agriculture, in which, till the end of the 18th century, it is a dominant influence. The territory of the ``township'' consisted of arable land, meadow, pasture and waste. The arable land was divided into two or, more usually, three fields, which were cut up into strips bounded by balks and allotted to the villagers in such a way that one holding might include several disconnected strips in each field--a measure designed to prevent the whole of the best land falling to one man. The fields were fenced in from seed-time to harvest, after which the fences were taken down and the cattle turned in to feed on the stubble. According to early methods of cropping, which were destined to prevail for centuries, wheat, the chief article of food, was sown in one autumn, reaped the next August; the following spring, oats or barley were sown, and the year following the harvest was a period of fallow. This procedure was followed on each of the three fields so that in every year one of them was fallow. In addition to the cereals, beans, peas and vetches were grown to some extent. The meadow-land was also divided into strips from which the various holders drew their supply of hay. The pasture-land was common to all, though the number of beasts which one man might turn into it was sometimes limited. Rough grazing could also be had on the outlying waste lands. In the absence of artificial grasses and roots, hay was very valuable; it constituted almost the only winter food for live stock, which were consequently in poor condition in spring.

Under the manorial system, the rise of which preceded the Norman Conquest, communal methods of husbandry remained, but the position of the cultivator was radically altered. ``Villeins,'' instead of free-holders, formed the most numerous class of the population. They were bound to the soil and occupied holdings of scattered strips (amounting usually to a virgate or 30 acres) in return for a payment partly in labour and partly in kind. A portion of the manor, generally about a third, constituted the lord's demesne, which, though sometimes separate, usually consisted of strips intermingled with those of his villeins. It thus formed part of the common farm and was cultivated by the villeins and their oxen under the superintendence of a bailiff. Below the villeins in the social scale came the cottiers possessing smaller holdings, sometimes only a garden, and no oxen. Free tenants and, after the Norman Conquest, slaves formed small proportions of the population. During the middle ages cattle and sheep were the chief farm animals, but the intermixture of stock consequent on the common-field system was a barrier to improvement in the breed and conduced to the propagation of disease. Oxen, usually yoked in teams of eight, were used for ploughing. Sheep were small and their fleeces light, nevertheless, owing to the meagreness of the yields of cereals2 and the demand for wool for export, sheep-farming was looked to, as early as the 12th century, as the chief source of profit. Pigs and poultry were universally kept. The treatise on husbandry of Walter of Henley, dating from the early 13th century, is very valuable as describing the management of the demesne under the two- or three-field system. The following are typical passages:--

``April is a good season for fallowing, if the earth breaks up behind the plough: for second fallowing after St John's Day when the dust rises behind the plough; for seed-ploughing when the earth is well settled and not too cracked; however, the busy man cannot be always waiting on the seasons.'' ``At sowing do not plough large furrows, but little and well laid together, that the seed may fall evenly.''

``Know that an acre sown with wheat takes three ploughings, except lands that are sown each year, and that each ploughing costs 6d. more or less and the harrowing 1d. It is well to sow at least two bushels to the acre.''

``Change your seed every year at Michaelmas, for the seed grown on other land will bring you more than that grown on your own.''

``Neither sell your stubble nor move it from the ground unless you need it for thatching. Have manure put up in heaps and mixed with earth.''

``Ridge marshy ground so as to let the water run off.''

During the 13th century there arose a tendency to commute labour-rents for money payments. This change led to the gradual disappearance of tenants in villeinage--the villeins and cottiers--and the rise on the one hand of the small independent farmer, on the other of the hired labourer. The plague of 1348 marks an epoch in English agriculture. The diminution of the population by one-half led to a scarcity of labour and an increase of wages which deprived the landowner of his narrow margin of profit. To meet this situation, the Statute of Labourers (1351) enacted that no man should refuse to work at the same rate of wages as prevailed before the plague. In addition the landowners attempted to revive the disappearing system of labour-rents. The bitter feelings engendered between employer and employed culminated in the peasants' revolt of 1381. Meanwhile large numbers of landowners were forced to adopt one of two alternatives. In some cases they ceased to farm their own land and let it out on lease often together with the stock upon it; or else they abandoned arable culture, laid down their demesnes to pasture, enclosed the waste lands and devoted themselves to sheep-farming. In the latter course they were encouraged by the high prices of wool during the 14th century, and by Edward III.'s policy of fostering both the export of wool and the home manufacture of woollen goods. The 15th century, barren of progress in methods of husbandry, was in its early years moderately prosperous. Later on the increasing abandonment of arable husbandry for sheep-farming brought about a less demand for labour, and rural depopulation was accelerated as the peasant was deprived of his grazing-ground by the enclosure of more and more of the waste land.3

From the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. to the end of Elizabeth's, a number of statutes were made for the

Agriculture under the Tudors and Stuarts.

encouragement of tillage, though probably to little purpose. ``Where in some towns,'' says the statute 4th Henry VII. (1488), ``two hundred persons were occupied and lived of their lawful labours. now there are occupied two or three herdsmen, and the residue fall into idleness''; therefore it is ordained that houses which within three years have been let for farms, with twenty acres of land lying in tillage or husbandry, shall be upheld, under the penalty of half the profits, to be forfeited to the king or the lord of the fee. Almost half a century afterwards the practice had become still more alarming; and in 1534 a new act was tried, apparently with as little success. ``Some have 24,000 sheep, some 20,000 sheep, some 10,000, some 6000, some 4000, and some more and some less''; and yet it is alleged the price of wool had nearly doubled, ``sheep being come to a few persons' hands.'' A penalty was therefore imposed on all who kept above 2000 sheep; and no person was to take in farm more than two tenements of husbandry. By the 39th Elizabeth (1597) arable land made pasture since the 1st Elizabeth shall be again converted into tillage, and what is arable shall not be converted into pasture.

The literature of agriculture, in abeyance since the treatise of Walter of Henley, makes another beginning in the 16th century. The best of the early works is the Book of Husbandry (1st ed. 1523), commonly ascribed to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, a judge of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry VIII., but more probably written by his elder brother John. This was followed by the Book of Surveying and Improvements (1523), by the same author. In the former treatise we have a clear and minute description of the rural practices of that period, and from the latter may be learned a good deal of the economy of the feudal system in its decline.

The Book of Husbandry begins with a description of the plough and other implements, after which about a third part of it is occupied with the several operations as they succeed one another throughout the year. Among other passages in this part of the work, the following deserve notice:--

``Somme (ploughs) wyll tourn the sheld bredith at every landsende, and plowe all one way''; the same kind of plough that is now found so useful on hilly grounds. Of wheel-ploughs he observes, that ``they be good on even grounde that lyeth lyghte''; and on such lands they are still most commonly employed. Cart-wheels were sometimes bound with iron; of which he greatly approves. On the much agitated question about the employment of horses or oxen in labour, the most important arguments are distinctly stated.

``In some places,'' he says, ``a horse plough is better,'' and in others an oxen plough, to which, upon the whole, he gives the preference. Beans and peas seem to have been common crops. He mentions the different kinds of wheat, barley and oats; and after describing the method of harrowing ``all maner of cornnes,'' we find the roller employed. ``They used to role their barley grounde after a showr of rayne, to make the grounde even to mowe.'' Under the article ``To falowe,'' he observes, ``the greater clottes (clods) the better wheate, for the clottes kepe the wheat warme all wynter; and at March they will melte and breake and fal in manye small peces, the whiche is a new dongynge and refreshynge of the corne.'' This is agreeable to the present practice, founded on the very same reasons. ``In May, the shepe folde is to be set out''; but Fitzherbert does not much approve of folding, and points out its disadvantages in a very judicious manner. ``In the latter end of May and the begynnynge of June, is tyme to wede the corne''; and then we have an accurate description of the different weeds, and the instruments and mode of weeding. Next comes a second ploughing of the fallow; and afterwards, in the latter end of June, the mowing of the meadows begins. Of this operation, and of the forks and rakes and the haymaking there is a very good account. The corn harvest naturally follows: rye and wheat were usually shorn, and barley and oats cut with the scythe. The writer does not approve of the common practice of cutting wheat high and then mowing the stubbles. ``In Somersetshire,'' he says, ``they do shere theyr wheat very lowe; and the wheate strawe that they purpose to make thacke of, they do not threshe it, but cut off the ears, and bynd it in sheves, and call it rede, and therewith they thacke theyr houses.'' He recommends the practice of setting up corn in shocks, with two sheaves to cover eight, instead of ten sheaves as at present--probably owing to the straw being then shorter. The corn was commonly housed; but if there be a want of room, he advises that the ricks be built on a scaffold and not upon the ground. The fallow received a third ploughing in September, and was sown about Michaelmas. ``Wheat is moost commonlye sowne under the forowe, that is to say, cast it uppon the falowe, and then plowe it under''; and this branch of his subject is concluded with directions about threshing, winnowing and other kinds of barn-work.

Fitzherbert next proceeds to live stock. ``An housbande,'' he says, ``can not well thryue by his corne without he have other cattell, nor by his cattell without corne. And bycause that shepe, in myne opynyon, is the mooste profytablest cattell that any man can haue, therefore I pourpose to speake fyrst of shepe.'' His remarks on this subject are so accurate that one might imagine they came from a storemaster of the present day.

In some places at present ``they neuer seuer their lambes from their dammes''; ``and the poore of the peeke (high) countreye, and such other places, where, as they vse to mylke theyr ewes, they vse to wayne theyr lambes at 12 weekes olde, and to mylke their ewes fiue or syxe weekes''; but that, he observes, ``is greate hurte to the ewes, and wyll cause them that they wyll not take the ramme at the tvme of the yere for pouertye, but goo barreyne.'' ``In June is tyme to shere shepe; and ere they be shorne, they must be verye well washen, the which shall be to the owner greate profyte in the sale of his wool, and also to the clothe-maker.''

His remarks on horses, cattle, &c., are not less interesting; and there is a very good account of the diseases of each species, and some just observations on the advantage of mixing different kinds on the same pasture. Swine and bees conclude this branch of the work.

The author then points out the great advantages of enclosure; recommends ``quycksettynge, dychynge and hedgeyng''; and gives particular directions about settes, and the method of training a hedge, as well as concerning the planting and management of trees. Fitzherbert throws some light on the position of women in the agriculture of his day. ``It is a wyues occupation,'' he says, ``to wynowe all maner of cornes, to make malte, to washe and wrynge, to make heye, shere corne, and, in time of nede, to helpe her husbande to fyll the mucke wayne or dounge carte, dryue the ploughe, to loode heye, corne and suche other; and to go or ride to the market to sel butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekyns, capons, hennes, pygges, gese, and all maner of cornes.''

The Book of Surveying adds considerably to our knowledge of the rural economy of that age. ``Four maner of commens'' are described; several kinds of mills for corn and other purposes, and also ``quernes that goo with hand''; different orders of tenants, down to the ``boundmen,'' who ``in some places contynue as yet''; ``and many tymes, by colour thereof, there be many freemen taken as boundmen, and their lands and goods is taken from them.'' Lime and marl are mentioned as common manures, and the former was sometimes spread on the surface to destroy heath. Both draining and irrigation are noticed, though the latter but slightly. And the work concludes with an inquiry ``how to make a township that is worth XX. marke a yere, worth XX.li. a year,'' advocating the transition from communal or open field to individual or enclosure farming.

``It is undoubted, that to every townshyppe that standeth in tyllage in the playne countrey, there be errable landes to plowe and sowe, and leyse to tye or tedder theyr horses and mares upon, and common pasture to kepe and pasture their catell, beestes and shepe upon; and also they have medowe grounde to get their hey upon. Than to let it be known how many acres of errable lande euery man hath in tyllage, and of the same acres in euery felde to chaunge with his neyghbours, and to leve them toguyther, and to make hym one seuerall close in euery felde for his errable lands; and his leyse in euery felde to leve them togyther in one felde, and to make one seuerall close for them all. And also another seuerall close for his portion of his common pasture, and also his porcion of his medowe in a seuerall close by itselfe, and al kept in seureall both in wynter and somer; and euery cottage shall haue his portion assigned hym accordynge to his rent, and than shall nat the ryche man ouerpresse the poore man with his cattell; and euery man may eate his oun close at his pleasure. And vndoubted, that hay and strawe that will find one beest in the house wyll finde two beestes in the close, and better they shall lyke. For those beestis in the house have short heare and thynne, and towards March they will pylle and be bare; and therefore they may nat abyde in the fylde before the heerdmen in wintertyme for colde. And those that lye in a close under a hedge haue longe heare and thyck, and they will neuer pylle nor be bare: and by this reason the husbande maye keoe twyse so many catell as he did before.

``This is the cause of this approwment. Nowe euery husbande hath sixe seuerall closes, whereof iii. be for corne, the fourthe for his leyse, the fyfte for his commen pastures, and the sixte for his haye; and in wynter time there is but one occupied with corne, and than hath the husbande other fyue to occupiy tyll lente come, and that he hath his falowe felde, his ley felde, and his pasture felde al sommer. And when he hath mowen his medowe, then he hath his medowe grounde, soo that if he hath any weyke catell that wold be amended, or dyvers maner of catell, he may put them in any close he wyll, the which is a great advantage; and if all shulde lye commen, than wolde the edyche of the corne feldes and the aftermath of all the medowes be eaten in X. or XII. dayes. And the rych men that hath moche catell wold have the advantage, and the poore man can have no help nor relefe in wynter when he hath moste nede; and if an acre of lande be worthe sixe pens, or it be enclosed, it will be worth VIII. pens, when it is enclosed by reason of the compostying and dongyng of the catell that shall go and lye upon it both day and nighte; and if any of his thre closes that he hath for his corne be worne or ware bare, than he may breke and plowe up his close that he hadde for his layse, or the close that he hadde for his commen pasture, or bothe, and sowe them with corne, and let the other lye for a time, and so shall he have always reist grounde, the which will bear moche corne with lytel donge; and also he shall have a great profyte of the wod in the hedges whan it is growen; and not only these profytes and advantages beforesaid, but he shall save moche more than al these, for by reason of these closes he shall save meate, drinke and wages of a shepherde, the wages of the heerdmen, and the wages of the swine herde, the which may fortune to be as chargeable as all his holle rente; and also his corne shall be better saved from eatinge or destroyeng with catel. For dout ye nat but heerdemen with their catell, shepeherdes with their shepe, and tieng of horses and mares, destroyeth moch corne, the which the hedges wold save. Paraduenture some men would say that this shuld be against the common weale, bicause the shepeherdes, heerdmen and swyne-herdes shuld than be put out of wages. To that it may be answered. though these occupations be not used, there be as many newe occupations that were not used before; as getting of quicke settes. diching, hedging and plashing, the which the same men may use and occupye.''

The next author who writes professedly on agriculture is Thomas Tusser, whose Five Hundred Points of Husbandry, published in 1562, enjoyed such lasting repute that in 1723 Lord Molesworth recommended that it should be taught in schools. In it the book of husbandry consists of 118 pages, and then follows the Point of Housewifrie, occupying 42 pages more. It is written in verse. Amidst much that is valueless there are some useful notices concerning the state of agriculture at the time in different parts of England. Hops, which had been introduced in the early part of the 16th century, and on the culture of which a treatise was published in 1574 by Reginald Scott, are mentioned as a well-known crop. Buckwheat was sown after barley. Hemp and flax are mentioned as common crops. Enclosures must have been numerous in some counties; and there is a very good comparison between ``champion (open fields) country and several,'' which Blith afterwards transcribed into his Improver Improved. Carrots, cabbages, turnips and rape, not yet cultivated in the fields, are mentioned among the herbs and roots for the kitchen. There is nothing to be found in Tusser about serfs or bondmen, as in Fitzherbert's works.

In 1577 appeared the Foure Bookes of Husbandry, translated, with augmentation, from the work of Conrad Heresbach. Much stress is laid on the value of manure, and mention is made of clover.

Fitzherbert, in deploring the gradual discontinuance of the practice of marling land, had alluded to the grievance familiar in modern times of tenants ``who, if they should marl and make their holdings much better, fear lest they should be put out, or make a great fine or else pay more rent.'' This subject is treated at length in Sir John Norden's Surveyor's Dialogue (1st ed. 1607), the next agricultural work demanding notice. The author, writing from the landowner's point of view, ascribes the rise in rents and the rise in the price of corn4 to the ``emulation'' of tenants in competing for holdings, a practice implying that the agriculture of the period was prosperous. Norden's work contains many judicious observations on the ``different natures of grounds, how they may be employed, how they may be bettered, reformed and amended.'' The famous meadows near Salisbury are mentioned, where, when cattle have fed their fill, hogs, it is said, ``are made fat with the remnant--namely, with the knots and sappe of the grasse.'' ``Clouer grasse, or the grasse honey suckle'' (white clover), is directed to be sown with other hay seeds. ``Carrot rootes'' were then raised in several parts of England, and sometimes by farmers. London street and stable dung was carried to a distance by water, and appears from later writers to have been got for the trouble of removing. Leases of 21 years are recommended for persons of small capital as better than employing it in purchasing land. The works of Gervase Markham, Leonard Mascall, Gabriel Plattes and other authors of the first half of the 17th century may be passed over, the best part of them being preserved by Blith and Hartlib, who are referred to below.

Sir Richard Weston's Discourse on the Husbandry of Brabant and Flanders was published by Hartlib in 1645, and its title indicates the source to which England owed much of its subsequent agricultural advancement. Weston was ambassador from England to the elector palatine in 1619, and had the merit of being the first who introduced the Great Clover, as it was then called, into English agriculture, about 1652, and probably turnips also. Clover thrives best, he says, when you sow it on the barrenest ground, such as the worst heath ground in England. The ground is to be pared and burnt, and unslacked lime must be added to the ashes. It is next to be well ploughed and harrowed; and about 10 lb. of clover seed must be sown on an acre in April or the end of March. If you intend to preserve seed, then the second crop must be let stand till it come to a full and dead ripeness, and you shall have at the least five bushels per acre. Being once sown, it will last five years; the land, when ploughed, will yield, three or four years together, rich crops of wheat, and after that a crop of oats, with which clover seed is to be sown again. It is in itself an excellent manure, Sir Richard adds; and so it should be, to enable land to bear this treatment. Before 1655 the culture of clover, exactly according to the present method, seems to have been well known in England, and it had also made its way to Ireland.

A great many works on agriculture appeared during the time of the Commonwealth, of which Walter Blith's Improver Improved and Samuel Hartlib's Legacie are the most valuable. The first edition of the former was published in 1649, and of the latter in 1651; and both of them were enlarged in subsequent editions. In the first edition of the Improver Improved no mention is made of clover, nor in the second of turnips, but in the third, clover is treated of at some length, and turnips are recommended as an excellent cattle crop, the culture of which should be extended from the kitchen garden to the field. Sir Richard Weston must have cultivated turnips before this; for Blith says that Sir Richard affirmed to himself that he fed his swine with them. They were first given boiled, but afterwards the swine came to eat them raw, and would run after the carts, and pull them forth as they gathered them--an expression which conveys an idea of their being cultivated in the fields.

Blith's book is the first systematic work in which there are some traces of alternate husbandry or the practice of interposing clover and turnip between culmiferous crops. He is a great enemy to commons and common fields, and to retaining land in old pasture, unless it be of the best quality. His description of the different kinds of ploughs is interesting; and he justly recommends such as were drawn by two horses (some even by one horse) in preference to the weighty and clumsy machines which required four or more horses or oxen. The following passage indicates the contemporary theory of manuring:---``In thy tillage are these special opportunities to improve it, either by liming, marling, sanding, earthing, mudding, snayl-codding, mucking, chalking, pidgeons-dung, hens-dung, hogs-dung or by any other means as some by rags, some by coarse wool, by pitch marks, and tarry stuff, any oyly stuff, salt and many things more, yea indeed any thing almost that hath any liquidness, foulness, saltness or good moysture in it, is very naturall inrichment to almost any sort of land.'' Blith speaks of an instrument which ploughed, sowed and harrowed at the same time; and the setting of corn was then a subject of much discussion. Blith was a zealous advocate of drainage and holds that drains to be efficient must be laid 3 or 4 ft. deep. The drainage of the Great Level of the Fens was prosecuted during the 17th century, but lack of engineering skill and the opposition of the fen-men hindered the reclamation of a now fertile region.

Hartlib's Legacie contains, among some very judicious directions, a great deal of rash speculation. Several of the deficiencies which the writer complains of in English agriculture must be placed to the account of climate, and never have been or can be supplied. Some of his recommendations are quite unsuitable to the state of the country, and display more of general knowledge and good intention than of either the theory or practice of agriculture. Among the subjects deserving notice may be mentioned the practice of steeping and liming seed corn as a preventive of smut; changing every year the Species of grain, and bringing seed corn from a distance; ploughing down green crops as manure; and feeding horses with broken oats and chaff. This writer seems to differ a good deal from Blith about the advantage of interchanging tillage and pasture. ``It were no losse to this island,'' he says, ``if that we should not plough at all, if so be that we could certainly have corn at a reasonable rate, and likewise vent for all our manufactures of wool''; and one reason for this is, that pasture employs more hands than tillage, instead of depopulating the country, as was commonly imagined. The Grout, which he mentions as ``coming over to us in Holland ships,'' about which he desires information, was probably the same as shelled barley; and mills for manufacturing it were introduced into Scotland from Holland towards the beginning of the 18th century.

Among the other writers previous to the Revolution mention must be made of John Ray the botanist and of John Evelyn, both men of great talent and research, whose works are still in high estimation.

The first half of the 17th century was a period of agricultural

## activity, partly due, no doubt, to the increase of enclosed

farms. Marling and liming are again practised, new agricultural implements and manures introduced, and the new crops more widely used. But the Civil War and the subsequent politicaldisturbances intervened to prevent the continuance of this progress, and the agriculture of the end of the century seems to have relapsed into stagnation.

Scottish agriculture of the 17th century.

Of the state of agriculture in Scotland in the 16th and the greater part of the 17th century very little is known; no professed treatise on the subject appeared till after the Revolution. The south-eastern counties were the earliest improved, and yet in 1660 their condition seems to have been very wretched. Ray, who made a tour along the eastern coast in that year, says, ``We observed little or no fallow ground in Scotland; some ley ground we saw, which they manured with sea wreck. The men seemed to be very lazy, and may be frequently observed to plough in their cloaks. It is the fashion of them to wear cloaks when they go abroad, but especially on Sundays. They have neither good bread, cheese nor drink. They cannot make them, nor will they learn. Their butter is very indifferent, and one would wonder how they could contrive to make it so bad. They use much pottage made of coal-wort, which they call kail, sometimes broth of decorticated barley. The ordinary country-houses are pitiful cots, built of stone and covered with turfs, having in them but one room, many of them no chimneys, the windows very small holes and not glazed. The ground in the valleys and plains bear very good corn, but especially bears barley or bigge, and oats, but rarely wheat and rye.''

It is probable that no great change had taken place in Scotland from the end of the 15th century, except that tenants gradually became possessed of a little stock of their own, instead of having their farm stocked by the landlord. ``The minority of James V., the reign of Mary Stuart, the infancy of her son, and the civil wars of her grandson Charles I., were all periods of lasting waste. The very laws which were made during successive reigns for protecting the tillers of the soil from spoil are the best proofs of the deplorable state of the husbandman.''5

In the 17th century those laws were made which paved the way for an improved system of agriculture in Scotland. By a statute of 1633 landholders were enabled to have their tithes valued, and to buy them either at nine or six years' purchase, according to the nature of the property. The statute of 1685, conferring on landlords a power to entail their estates, was indeed of a very different tendency in regard to its effects on agriculture. But the two Acts in 1695, for the division of commons and separation of intermixed properties, facilitated improvements.

Progress of agriculture from 1688 to 1760.

From the Revolution to the accession of George III. the progress of agriculture was by no means so considerable as might be imagined from the great exportation of corn. It is probable that very little improvement had taken place, either in the cultivation of the soil or in the management of live stock, from the Restoration down to the middle of the 18th century. Clover and turnips were confined to a few districts, and at the latter period were scarcely cultivated at all by common farmers in the northern part of the island. Of the writers of this period, therefore, it is necessary to notice only such as describe some improvement in the modes of culture, or some extension of the practices that were formerly little known.

In John Houghton's Collections on Husbandry and Trade, a periodical work begun in 1681, there is one of the earliest notices of turnips being eaten by sheep:----``Some in Essex have their fallow after turnips, which feed their sheep in winter, by which means the turnips are scooped, and so made capable to hold dews and rain water, which, by corrupting, imbibes the nitre of the air, and when the shell breaks it runs about and fertilizes. By feeding the sheep, the land is dunged as if it had been folded; and those turnips, though few or none be carried off for human use, are a very excellent improvement, nay, some reckon it so, though they only plough the turnips in without feeding.'' This was written in February 1694. Ten years before, John Worlidge, one of his correspondents, and the author of the Systema Agriculturae (1669), observes, ``Sheep fatten very well on turnips, which prove an excellent nourishment for them in hard winters when fodder is scarce; for they will not only eat the greens, but feed on the roots in the ground, and scoop them hollow even to the very skin. Ten acres (he adds) sown with clover, turnips, &c., will feed as many sheep as one hundred acres thereof would before have done.''

The next writer of note is John Mortimer, whose Whole Art of Husbandry, a regular, systematic work of considerable merit, was published in 1707.

From the third edition of Hartlib's Legacie we learn that clover was cut green and given to cattle; and it appears that this practice of soiling, as it is now called, had become very common about the beginning of the 18th century, wherever clover was cultivated. Rye-grass was now sown along with it. Turnips were hand-hoed and extensively employed in feeding sheep and cattle.

The first considerable improvement in the practice of that period was introduced by Jethro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who about the year 1701 invented the drill, and whose Horse-hoeing Husbandry, published in 1731, exhibits the first decided step in advance upon the principles and practices of his predecessors. Not contented with a careful attention to details, Tull set himself, with admirable skill and perseverance, to investigate the growth of plants, and thus to arrive at a knowledge of the principles by which the cultivation of field-crops should be regulated. Having arrived at the conclusion that the food of plants consists of minute particles of earth taken up by their rootlets, it followed that the more thoroughly the soil in which they grew was disintegrated, the more abundant would be the ``pasture'' (as he called it) to which their fibres would have access. He was thus led to adopt that system of sowing his crops in rows or drills, so wide apart as to admit of tillage of the intervals, both by ploughing and hoeing, being continued until they had well-nigh arrived at maturity. Such reliance did he place in the pulverization of the soil that he grew as many as thirteen crops of wheat on the same field without manure.

As the distance between his rows appeared much greater than was necessary for the range of the roots of the plants, he begins by showing that these roots extend much farther than is commonly believed, and then proceeds to inquire into the nature of their food. After examining several hypotheses, he decides this to be fine particles of earth. The chief and almost the only use of dung, he thinks, is to divide the earth, to dissolve ``this terrestrial matter, which affords nutriment to the mouths of vegetable roots''; and this can be done more completely by tillage. It is therefore necessary not only to pulverize the soil by repeated ploughings before it be seeded, but, as it becomes gradually more and more compressed afterwards, recourse must be had to tillage while the plants are growing; and this is hoeing, which also destroys the weeds that would deprive the plants of their nourishment.

The leading features of Tull's husbandry are his practice of laying the land into narrow ridges of 5 or 6 ft., and upon the middle of these drilling one, two, or three rows, distant from one another about 7 in. when there were three, and 10 in. when only two. The distance of the plants on one ridge from those on the contiguous one he called an interval; the distance between the rows on the same ridge, a space or partition; the former was stirred repeatedly by the horse-hoe, the latter by the hand-hoe.

``Hoeing,'' he says, ``may be divided into deep, which is our horse-hoeing; and shallow, which is the English hand-hoeing; and also the shallow horse-hoeing used in some places betwixt rows, where the intervals are very narrow, as 16 or 18 inches. This is but an imitation of the hand-hoe, or a succenadeum to it, and can neither supply the use of dung nor fallow, and may be properly called scratch-hoeing.'' But in his mode of forming ridges his practice seems to have been original; his implements, especially his drill, display much ingenuity; and his claim to the title of founder of the present horse-hoeing husbandry of Great Britain seems indisputable.

Contemporary with Tull was Charles, 2nd Viscount Townshend, a typical representative of the large landowners to whom the strides made by agriculture in the 18th century were due. The class to which he belonged was the only one which could afford to initiate improvements. The bulk of the land was still farmed by small tenants on the old common-field system, which made it impossible for the individual to adopt a new crop rotation and hindered innovation of every kind. On the other hand, the small farmers who occupied separated holdings were deterred from improving by the fear of a rise in rent. Townshend's belief in the growing of turnips gained him the nickname of ``Turnip Townshend.'' In their cultivation he adopted Tull's practice of drilling and horse-hoeing, and he was also the founder of the Norfolk or four-course system, the first of those rotations which dispense with the necessity of a summer-fallow and provide winter-keep for live-stock (see below, Rotation of Crops). The spread of these principles in Norfolk made it, according to Arthur Young (writing in 1770), one of the best cultivated counties in England. In the latter half of the century another Norfolk farmer, Thomas William Coke of Holkham, earl of Leicester, (1752-1842), figures as a pioneer of high-farming. He was one of the first to use oil-cake and bone-manure, to distinguish the feeding values of grasses, to appreciate to the full the beneficial effects of stock on light lands and to realize the value of long leases as an incentive to good farming.

Agriculture in Scotland in the 18th century.

Of the progress of the art in Scotland, till towards the end of the 17th century, we are almost entirely ignorant. The first work, written by James Donaldson, was printed in 1697, under the title of Husbandry Anatomized; or, Inquiry into the Present Manner of Tilling and Manuring the Ground in Scotland. It appears from this treatise that the state of the art was not more advanced at that time in North Britain than it had been in England in the time of Fitzherbert. Farms were divided into infield and outfield; corn crops followed one another without the intervention of fallow, cultivated herbage or turnips, though something is said about fallowing the outfield; enclosures were very rare; the tenantry had not begun to emerge from a state of great poverty and depression; and the wages of labour, compared with the price of corn, were much lower than at present, though that price, at least in ordinary years, must appear extremely moderate in our times. Leases for a term of years, however, were not uncommon; but the want of capital rendered it impossible for the tenantry to attempt any spirited improvements.

The next work on the husbandry of Scotland is The Countryman's Rudiments, or Advice to the Farmers in East Lothian, how to labour and improve their Grounds, said to have been written by John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven about the time of the Union, and reprinted in 1723. The author bespeaks the favour of those to whom he addresses himself in the following significant terms:---``Neither shall I affright you with hedging, ditching, marling, chalking, paring and burning, draining, watering and such like, which are all very good improvements indeed, and very agreeable with the soil and situation of East Lothian, but I know ye cannot bear as yet a crowd of improvements, this being only intended to initiate you in the true method and principles of husbandry.'' The farm-rooms in East Lothian, as in other districts, were divided into infield and outfield.

``The infield (where wheat is sown) is generally divided by the tenant into four divisions or breaks, as they call them, viz. one of wheat, one of barley, one of pease and one of oats, so that the wheat is sowd after the pease, the barley after the wheat and the oats after the barley. The outfield land is ordinarily made use of promiscuously for feeding of their cows, horse, sheep and oxen; 'tis also dunged by their sheep who lay in earthen folds; and sometimes, when they have much of it, they fauch or fallow a part of it yearly.''

Under this management the produce seems to have been three times the seed; and yet, says the writer, ``if in East Lothian they did not leave a higher stubble than in other places of the kingdom, their grounds would be in a much worse condition than at present they are, though bad enough.'' ``A good crop of corn makes a good stubble, and a good stubble is the equalest mucking that is.'' Among the advantages of enclosures, he observes, ``you will gain much more labour from your servants, a great part of whose time was taken up in gathering thistles and other garbage for their horses to feed upon in their stables; and thereby the great trampling and pulling up and other destruction of the corns while they are yet tender will be prevented.'' Potatoes and turnips are recommended to be sown in the yard (kitchen-garden). Clover does not seem to have been in use. Rents were paid in corn; and for the largest farm, which he thinks should employ no more than two ploughs, the rent was about six chalders of victual ``when the ground is very good, and four in that which is not so good. But I am most fully convinced they should take long leases or tacks, that they may not be straitened with time in the improvement of their rooms; and this is profitable both for master and tenant.''

Such was the state of the husbandry of Scotland in the early part of the 18th century. The first attempts at improvement cannot be traced farther back than 1723, when a number of landholders formed themselves into a society, under the title of the Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland. John, 2nd earl of Stair, one of their most

## active members, is said to have been the first who cultivated

turnips in that country. The Select Transactions of this society were collected and published in 1743 by Robert Maxwell, who took a large part in its proceedings. It is evident from this book that the society had exerted itself with success in introducing cultivated herbage and turnips, as well as in improving the former methods of culture. But there is reason to believe that the influence of the example of its numerous members did not extend to the common tenantry, who not unnaturally were reluctant to adopt the practices of those by whom farming was perhaps regarded as primarily a source of pleasure rather than of profit. Though this society, the earliest probably in the United Kingdom, soon counted upwards of 300 members, it existed little more than 20 years.

In the introductory paper in Maxwell's collection we are told that--

``The practice of draining, enclosing, summer fallowing, sowing flax, hemp, rape, turnip and grass seeds, planting cabbages after, and potatoes with, the plough, in fields of great extent, is introduced; and that, according to the general opinion, more corn grows now yearly where it was never known to grow before, these twenty years last past, than perhaps a sixth of all that the kingdom was in use to produce at any time before.''

In 1757 Maxwell issued another work entitled The Practical Husbandman; being a collection of miscellaneous papers on Husbandry, &c. In it the greater part of the Select Transactions is republished, with a number of new papers, among which an Essay on the Husbandry of Scotland, with a proposal for the improvement of it, is the most valuable. In this he lays it down as a rule that it is bad husbandry to take two crops of grain successively, which marks a considerable progress in the knowledge of modern husbandry; though he adds that in Scotland the best husbandmen after a fallow take a crop of wheat; after the wheat, peas; then barley, and then oats; and after that they fallow again. The want of enclosures was still a matter of complaint. The ground continued to be cropped so long as it produced two seeds; the best farmers were contented with four seeds, which was more than the general produce.

1760 to 1815.

The gradual advance in the price of farm produce soon after the year 1760, occasioned by the increase of population and of wealth derived from manufactures and commerce, gave a powerful stimulus to rural industry, augmented agricultural capital and called forth a more skilful and enterprising race of farmers.

A more rational system of cropping now began to take the place of the thriftless and barbarous practice of sowing successive crops of corn until the land was utterly exhausted, and then leaving it foul with weeds to recover its pover by an indefinite period of rest. Green crops, such as turnips, clover and rye. grass, began to be alternated with grain crops, whence the name alternate husbandry.

The writings of Arthur Young (q.v.), secretary to the Board of Agriculture, describe the transition from the old to the new agriculture. In many places turnips and clover were still unknown or ignored. Large districts still clung to the old common-field system, to the old habits of ploughing with teams of four or eight, and to slovenly methods of cultivation. Young's condemnation of these survivals was as pronounced as his support of the methods of the large farmers to whom he ascribed the excellence of the husbandry of Kent, Norfolk and Essex. He realized that with the enclosure of the waste lands and the absorption of small into large holdings, the common-field farmer must migrate to the town or become a hired labourer; but he also realized that to feed a rapidly growing industrial population, the land must be improved by draining, marling, manuring and the use of better implements, in short by the investment of the capital which the yeoman farmer, content to feed himself and his own family, did not possess. The enlargement of farms, and in Scotland the letting of them under leases for a considerable term of years, continued to be a marked feature in the agricultural progress of the country until the end of the century, and is to be regarded both as a cause and a consequence of that progress. The passing of some 3500 enclosure bills, affecting between 5 and 5 1/2 million acres, during the reign of George III., before which the whole number was between 200 and 250, shows how rapidly the break-up of the common-field husbandry and the cultivation of new land now proceeded. The disastrous American War for a time interfered with the national prosperity; but with the return of peace in 1783 the cultivation of the country made more rapid progress. The quarter of a century immediately following 1760 is memorable for the introduction of various important improvements. It was during this period that the genius of Robert Bakewell produced an extraordinary change in the character of our more important breeds of live stock, more especially by the perfecting of a new race of sheep--the well-known Leicesters. Bakewell's fame as a breeder was for a time enhanced by the improvement which he effected on the Long-horned cattle, then the prevailing breed of the midland counties of England. These, however, were ere long rivalled and afterwards superseded by the Shorthorn or Durham breed, which the brothers Charles and Robert Colling obtained from the useful race of cattle that had long existed in the valley of the Tees, by applying to them the principle of breeding which Bakewell had already established. To this period also belong George and Matthew Culley--the former a pupil of Bakewell-- who left their paternal property on the bank of the Tees and settled on the Northumbrian side of the Tweed, bringing with them the valuable breeds of live stock and improved husbandry of their native district. The improvements introduced by these energetic and skilful farmers spread rapidly, and exerted a most beneficial influence upon the border counties.

From 1784 to 1795 improvements advanced with steady steps. This period was distinguished for the adoption and working out of ascertained improvements. Small's swing plough and Andrew Meikle's threshing-machine, although invented some years before this, were now perfected and brought into general use, to the great furtherance of agriculture. Two important additions were about this time made to the field crops, viz. the Swedish turnip and potato oat. The latter was accidentally discovered in 1788, and both soon came into general cultivation. In the same year Merino sheep were introduced by George III., who was a zealous farmer. For a time this breed attracted much attention, and sanguine expectations were entertained that it would prove of national importance. Its unfitness for the production of mutton, and increasing supplies of fine clothing wool from other countries, soon led to its total rejection.

In Scotland the opening up of the country by the construction of practicable roads, and the enclosing and subdividing of farms by hedge and ditch, was now in active progress. The former admitted of the general use of wheel-carriages, of the ready conveyance of produce to markets, and in

## particular of the extended use of lime, the application

of which was immediately followed by a great increase of produce. The latter, besides its more obvious advantages, speedily freed large tracts of country from stagnant water and their inhabitants from ague, and prepared the way for the underground draining which soon after began to be practised. Dawson of Frogden in Roxburghshire is believed to have been the first who grew turnips as a field crop to any extent. It is on record that as early as 1764 he had 100 acres of drilled turnips on his farm in one year. An Act passed in 1770, which relaxed the rigour of strict entails and afforded power to landlords to grant leases and otherwise improve their estates, had a beneficial effect on Scottish agriculture.

The husbandry of the country was thus steadily improving, when suddenly the whole of Europe became involved in the wars of the French Revolution. In 1795, under the joint operation of a deficient harvest and the diminution in foreign supplies of grain owing to outbreak of war, the price of wheat, which, for the twenty preceding years, had been under 50s. a quarter, suddenly rose to 81s. 6d., and in the following year reached 96s. In 1797 the fear of foreign invasion led to a panic and run upon the banks, in which emergency the Bank Restriction Act, suspending cash payment, was passed, and ushered in a system of unlimited credit transactions. Under the unnatural stimulus of these extra-ordinary events, every branch of industry extended with unexampled rapidity. But in nothing was this so apparent as in agriculture; the high prices of produce holding out a great inducement to improve lands then arable, to reclaim others that had previously lain waste, and to bring much pasture-land under the plough. Nor did this increased tillage interfere with the increase of live stock, as the green crops of the alternate husbandry more than compensated for the diminished pasturage. This extraordinary state of matters lasted from 1795 to 1814, the prices of produce even increasing towards the close of that period. The average price of wheat for the whole period was 89s. 7d. per quarter; but for the last five years it was 107s., and in 1812 it reached 126s. 6d. The agriculture of Great Britain, as a whole, advanced with rapid strides during this period; but nowhere was the change so great as in Scotland. Indeed, its progress there, during these twenty years, is probably without parallel in the history of any other country. This is accounted for by a concurrence of circumstances. Previous to this period the husbandry of Scotland was still in a backward state as compared with the best districts of England, where many practices, only of recent introduction in the north, had been in general use for generations. This disparity made the subsequent contrast the more striking. The land in Scotland was now, with trifling exceptions, let on leases for terms varying from twenty to thirty years, and in farms of sufficient size to employ at the least two or three ploughs. The unlimited issues of government paper and the security afforded by these leases induced the Scottish banks to afford every facility to landlords and tenants to embark capital in the improvement of the land. The substantial education supplied by the parish schools, of which nearly the whole population could then avail themselves, had diffused through all ranks such a measure of intelligence as enabled them promptly to dhscern and skilfully and energetically to take advantage of this spring-tide of prosperity, and to profit by the agricultural information now plentifully furnished by means of the Bath and West of England Society, established in 1777; the Highland Society, instituted in 1784; and the National Board of Agriculture, in 1793.

1815 to 1875.

The restoration of peace to Europe, and the re-enactment of the Corn Laws in 1815, mark the beginning of another era in the history of agriculture. The sudden return to peace-prices was followed by a time of severe depression, low wages, diminished rents and bad farming. The fall in prices was aggravated, first by the unpropitious weather and deficient harvest of the years 1816, 1817, and still more by the passing in 1819 of the bill restoring cash payments, which, coming into operation in 1821, caused serious embarrassment to all persons who had entered into engagements at a depreciated currency, which had now to be met with the lower prices of an enhanced one. The frequency of select-committees and commissions, which sat in 1814, 1821 and 1822, 1833 and 1836, testifies to the gravity of the crisis. The years 1830-1833 are especially memorable for a disastrous outbreak of sheep-rot and for agrarian outrages, caused partly by the dislike of the labourers to the introduction of agricultural machines.

During this period of depression, which lasted till the 'forties, want of confidence prevented any general improvement in agricultural methods. At the same time, certain developments destined to exercise considerable influence in later times are to be noted. Before the close of the 18th century, and during the first quarter of the 19th, a good deal had been done in the way of draining the land, either by open ditches or by James Elkington's system of deep covered drains. In 1834 James Smith of Deanston promulgated his system of thorough draining and deep ploughing, the adoption of which immeasurably improved the clay lands of the country. The early years of the reign of Queen Victoria witnessed the strengthening of the union between agriculture and chemistry. The Board of Agriculture in 1803 had commissioned Sir Humphry Davy to deliver a course of lectures on the connexion of chemistry with vegetable physiology. In 1840 the appearance of Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology by Justus von Liebig set on foot a movement in favour of scientific husbandry, the most notable outcome of which was the establishment by Sir John Bennet Lawes in 1843 of the experimental station of Rothamsted. Since Blith's time bone was the one new fertilizer that had come into use. Nitrate of soda, Peruvian guano and superphosphate of lime in the form of bones dissolved by sulphuric acid were now added to the list of manures, and the practice of analysing soils became more general. Manual labour in farming operations began to be superseded by the use of drills, hay-makers and horse-rakes, chaff-cutters and root-pulpers. The reaping-machine, invented in 1812 by John Common, improved upon by the Rev. Patrick Bell in England and by Cyrus H. McCormick and others in America, and finally perfected about 1879 by the addition of an efficient self-binding apparatus, is the most striking example of the application of mechanics to agriculture. Improvements in the plough, harrow and roller were introduced, adapting those implements to different soils and purposes. The steam-engine first took the place of horses as a threshing power in 1803, but it was not until after 1850 that it was applied to the plough and cultivator. The employment of agricultural machines received considerable impetus from the Great Exhibition of 1851. The much-debated Corn Laws, after undergoing various modifications, and proving the fruitful source of business uncertainty, social discontent and angry partisanship, were finally abolished in 1846, although the act was not consummated until three years later. Several other acts of the legislature passed during this period exerted a beneficial influence on agriculture. Of these, the first in date and importance is the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. Improvement was also stimulated by the Public Money Drainage Acts 1846-1856, under which government was empowered to advance money on certain conditions for the improvement of estates. Additional facilities were granted by the act passed in 1848 for disentailing estates, and for burdening such as are entailed with the share of the cost of certain specified improvements.

Meanwhile much had been done in the organization of agricultural knowledge. Mention has already been made of the institution of the Highland Society and the National Board of Agriculture. These institutions were the means of collecting a vast amount of statistical and general information connected with agriculture, and by their publications and premiums made known the practices of the best-farmed districts and encouraged their adoption elsewhere. These associations were soon aided in their important labours by numerous local societies which sprang up in all parts of the kingdom. After a highly useful career, under the presidency till 1813 of Sir John Sinclair, the Board of Agriculture was dissolved in 1819, but left in its statistical account, county surveys and other documents much interesting and valuable information regarding the agriculture of the period. In 1800 the original Farmer's Magazine came into existence under the editorship of Robert Brown of Markle, the author of the well-known treatise on Rural Affairs. The Highland Society having early extended its operations to the whole of Scotland, by and by made a corresponding addition to its title, and as the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland gradually extended its operations. In 1828, shortly after the discontinuance of the Farmers' Magazine, its Prize Essays and Transactions began to be issued statedly in connexion with the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. This society early began to hold a great show of live stock, implements, &c. In 1842 certain Midlothian tenant-farmers had the merit of originating an Agricultural Chemistry Association (the first of its kind), by which funds were raised for the purpose of conducting such investigations as the title of the society implies. After a successful trial of a few years this association was dissolved, transferring its functions to the Highland and Agricultural Society.

In England the Agricultural Society was founded in 1838, with the motto ``Practice with Science,'' and shortly afterwards incorporated by royal charter. In 1845 the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester was incorporated. This era of revival was not, however, without its calamities. The foot-and-mouth disease first appeared about 1840, having been introduced, as is supposed, by foreign cattle. It spread rapidly over the country, affecting all domesticated animals except horses, and although seldom attended by fatal results, caused everywhere great alarm and loss. It was soon followed by the more terrible lung-disease, or pleuro-pneumonia. In 1865 the rinderpest, or steppe murrain, originating amongst the vast herds of the Russian steppes, had spread westward over Europe, until it was brought to London by foreign cattle. Several weeks elapsed before the true character of the disease was known, and in this brief space it had already been carried by animals purchased in Smithfield market to all parts of the country. After causing the most frightful losses, it was at last stamped out by the resolute slaughter of all affected animals and of all that had been in contact with them. Severe as were the losses in flocks and herds from these imported diseases, they were eclipsed by the ravages of the mysterious potato blight, which, first appearing in 1845, pervaded the whole of Europe, and in Ireland especially proved the precursor of famine and pestilence.

A short period of low prices followed the repeal of the Corn Laws, wheat averaging only 38s. 6d. a quarter in 1851, but the years from 1852 to 1875 were the most prosperous of the century. The letters written by Sir James Caird to The Times during 1850, and republished in 1852 under the title English Agriculture in 1850-1851, give a general review of English agriculture at the time. The scientific and mechanical improvements of the first half of the century were widely adopted, while the prices of the protectionist period showed little decline. Amelioration in all breeds of domesticated animals was manifested, not so much in the production of individual specimens of high merit as in the diffusion of these and other good breeds over the country, and in the improved quality of live stock as a whole. The fattening of animals was conducted on more scientific principles. Increased attention was successfully bestowed on the improvement of field crops. Improved varieties, obtained by cross-impregnation either naturally or artificially brought about, were carefully propagated and generally adopted, and increased attention was bestowed on the cultivation of the natural grasses. The most important additions to the list of field crops were Italian rye-grass, winter beans, white Belgian carrot and alsike clover.

Agriculture since 1875.

The last quarter of the 19th century proved, however, a fateful period for British agriculture. The great future that seemed to await the application of steam power to the tillage of the soil proved illusory. The clay soils of England, the latent fertility of which was to be brought into play in a fashion that should mightily augment the home-grown supplies of food, remained intractable, and the extent of land devoted to the cultivation of corn crops, instead of expanding, diminished in a marked degree. British farmers of long experience look back to 1874 as the last of the really good years, and consider that the palmy days of British agriculture began to dwindle at about that time. The shadow of the approaching depression had already fallen upon the land before the year 1875 had run its course, and the outlook became ominous as the decade of the 'seventies neared its close. One memorable feature was associated with 1877 in that this was the last year in which the dreaded cattle plague (rinderpest) made its appearance in England. The same year, 1877, was the last also in which the annual average price of English wheat (then 56s. 9d.) exceeded 50s. a quarter. With declining prices for farm produce came that year of unhappy memory, 1879, when persistent rains and an almost sunless summer ruined the crops and reduced many farmers to a state of destitution. Much of the grain was never harvested, whilst owing mainly to the excessive floods there commenced an outbreak of liver-rot in sheep, due to the ravages of the fluke parasite. This continued for several years, and the mortality was so great that its adverse effects upon the ovine population of the country were still perceptible ten years afterwards. A fall in rents was the necessary sequel of the agricultural distress, to inquire into which a royal commission was appointed in 1879, under the chairmanship of the duke of Richmond and Gordon. Its report, published in 1882, testified to ``the great extent and intensity of the distress which has fallen upon the agricultural community. Owners and occupiers have alike suffered from it. No description of estate or tenure has been exempted. The owner in fee and life tenant, the occupier, whether of large or of small holding, whether under lease, or custom, or agreement, or the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings Act--all without distinction have been involved in a general calamity.'' The two most prominent causes assigned for the depression were bad seasons and foreign competition, aggravated by the increased cost of production and the heavy losses of live stock. Abundant evidence was forthcoming as to the extent to which agriculture had been injuriously affected ``by an unprecedented succession of bad seasons.'' As regards the pressure of foreign competition, it was stated to be greatly in excess of the anticipations of the supporters, and of the apprehensions of the opponents of the repeal of the Corn Laws. Whereas formerly the farmer was to some extent compensated by a higher price for a smaller yield, in recent years he had had to compete with an unusually large supply at greatly reduced prices. On the other hand, he had enjoyed the advantage of an extended supply of feeding-stuffs---such as maize, linseedcake and cotton-cake---and of artificial manures imported from abroad. The low price of agricultural produce, beneficial though it might be to the general community, had lessened the ability of the land to bear the proportion of taxation which had heretofore been imposed upon it. The legislative outcome of the findings of this royal commission was the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, a measure which continued in force in its entirety till 1901, when a new act came into operation.

The apparently hopeless outlook for corn-growing compelled farmers to cast about for some other means of subsistence, and to rely more than they had hitherto done upon the possibilities of stock-breeding. It was in particular the misfortunes of the later 'seventies that gave the needed fillip to that branch of stock-farming concerned with the production of milk, butter and cheese, and from this period may be said to date the revival of the dairying industry, which received a powerful impetus through the introduction of the centrifugal cream separator, and was fostered by the British Dairy Farmers' Association (formed in 1875). The generally wet character of the seasons in 1879 and the two or three years following was mainly responsible for the high prices of meat, so that the supplies of fresh beef and mutton from Australia which now began to arrive found a ready market, and the trade in imported fresh meat which was thus commenced has practically continued to expand ever since. The great losses arising from spoilt hay crops served to stimulate experimental inquiry into the method of preserving green fodder known as ensilage, with the result that the system eventually became successfully incorporated in the ordinary routine of agricultural practice. A contemporaneous effort in the direction of drying hay by artificial means led to nothing of practical importance. By 1882 the cry as to land going out of cultivation became loud and general, and the migration of the rural population into the towns in search of work continued unchecked (see below, Agricultural Population) . In 1883 foot-and-mouth disease was terribly rampant amongst the herds and flocks of Great Britain, and was far more prevalent than it has ever been since. It was about this time that the first experiments were made (in Germany) with basic slag, a material which had hitherto been regarded as a worthless by-product of steel manufacture. A year or two later field trials were begun in England, with the final result that basic slag has become recognized as a valuable source of phosphorus for growing crops, and is now in constant demand for application to the soil as a fertilizer.

In 1883 the veterinary department of the Privy Council--which had been constituted in 1865 when the country was ravaged by cattle plague---was abolished by order in council, and the ``Agricultural Department'' was substituted, but no alteration was effected in the work of the department, so far as it related to animals. In 1889 the Board of Agriculture (for Great Britain) was formed under an act of parliament of that year (see AGRICULTURE, BOARD OF). The election took place in the same year (1889) of the first county councils, and the allotment to them of various sums of money under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890 enabled local provision to be made for the promotion of technical instruction in agriculture (see below, Agricultural Education.) It was about this time that the value of a mixture of lime and sulphate of copper (bouillie bordelaise), sprayed in solution upon the growing plants, came to be recognized as a check upon the ravages of potato disease.

The general experience of the decade of the 'eighties was that of disappointing summers, harsh winters, falling prices, declining rents and the shrinkage of land values. It is true that one season of the series, that of 1887, was hot and droughty, but the following summer was exceedingly wet. Nevertheless, the decade closed more hopefully than it opened, and found farmers taking a keener interest in grass land, in live stock and in dairying. Cattle-breeders did well in 1889, but sheep-breeders fared better; on the other hand, owing to receding prices, corn growers were more disheartened than ever. With the incoming of the last decade of the century there seemed to be some justifiable hopes of the dawn of better times, but they were speedily doomed to disappointment. In 1891 excessively heavy autumn rains washed the arable soils to such an extent that the next season's corn crops were below average. Wheat in particular was a poor crop in 1892, and the low yield was associated with falling prices due to large imports. The hay crop was very inferior, and in some cases it was practically ruined. This gave a stimulus to the trade in imported hay, which rose from 61,237 tons in 1892 to 263,050 tons in 1893, and despite some large home-grown crops in certain subsequent years (1897 and 1898) this expansion has never since been wholly lost.

The misfortunes of 1892 proved to be merely a preparation for the disasters of 1893, in which year occurred the most destructive drought within living memory. Its worst effects were seen upon the light land farms of England, and so deplorable was the position that a royal commission on agricultural depression was appointed in September of that year under the chairmanship of Mr Shaw Lefevre (afterwards Lord Eversley). Thus, within the last quarter of the 19th century--and, as a matter of fact, only fourteen years apart--two royal commissions on agriculture were appointed, the one in a year of memorable flood, 1879, and the other in a year of disastrous drought, 1893. The report of the commission of 1893 was issued in March 1896. Amongst its chief recommendations were those relating to amendments in the Agricultural Holdings Acts, and to tithe rent-charge, railway rates, damage by game, sale of adulterated products, and sale of imported goods (meat, for example) as home produce. Two legislative enactments arose out of the work of this commission. In the majority report it was stated ``that, in order to place agricultural lands in their right position as compared with other ratable properties, it is essential that they should be assessed to all local rates in a reduced proportion of their ratable value.'' The Agricultural Rates Act 1896 gave effect to this recommendation. Its objects were to relieve agricultural land from half the local rates, and to provide the means of making good out of imperial funds the deficiency in local taxation caused thereby. It was provided that the act should continue in force only till the 31st of March 1902, but a further act in 1901 extended the period by four years, and in 1905 its operation was extended to the 31st of March 1910. The other measure arising out of the report of the royal commission of 1893 was the Agricultural Holdings Act 1900. This was an amending act and not a consolidating act; consequently it had to be read as if incorporated into the already existing acts. As affecting agricultural practice there were three noteworthy improvements in respect of the making of which, without the consent of or notice to his landlord, a tenant might claim compensation---(1) the consumption on the holding ``by horses, other than those regularly employed on the holding,'' of corn, cake or other feeding-stuff not produced on the holding; (2) the ``consumption on the holding by cattle, sheep, or pigs, or by horses other than those regularly employed on the holding, of corn proved by satisfactory evidence to have been produced and consumed on the holding''; (3) ``laying down temporary pasture with clover, grass, lucerne, sainfoin or other seeds sown more than two years prior to the determination of the tenancy.'' A further act was passed in 1906 (the Agricultural Holdings Act 1906) which improved the tenant's position in respect of freedom of cropping, disposal of produce and compensation for disturbance.

After 1894, in which year the brilliant prospects of a bountiful harvest were ultimately extinguished by untimely and heavy rains, all the remaining seasons of the closing decade of the 19th century were dominated by drought. A fact that was amply illustrated, moreover, is that the period of incidence of a drought is not less important than its duration, and the same is true of abnormal rainfall. A spring drought, a summer drought, an autumn drought, each has its distinctive characteristics in so far as the effect upon the crops is concerned. The hot drought of 1893 extended over the spring and summer months, but there was an abundant rainfall in the autumn; correspondingly there was an unprecedentedly bad yield of corn and hay crops, but a moderately fair yield of the main root crops (turnips and swedes). In 1899 the drought became most intense in the autumn after the corn crops had been harvested, but during the chief period, of growth of the root crops; correspondingly the corn crops of that year rank very well amongst the crops of the decade, but the yield of turnips and swedes was the worst on record. It is quite possible for a hot dry season to be associated with a large yield of corn, provided the drought is confined to a suitable period, as was the case in 1896 and still more so in 1898; the English wheat crops in those years were probably the biggest in yield per acre that had been harvested since 1868, which is always looked back upon as a remarkable year for wheat. The drought of 1898 was interrupted by copious rains in June, and these falling on a warm soil led to a rapid growth of grass and, as measured by yield per acre, an exceedingly heavy crop of hay.

With the exceptions of 1891 and 1894, every year in the period 1891-1900 was stricken by drought. The two meteorological events of the decade which will probably live longest in the recollection were, however, the terrible drought of 1893, resulting in a fodder famine in the succeeding winter, and the severe frost of ten weeks' duration at the beginning of 1895. Between these two occurrences came the disastrous decline in the value of grain in the autumn of 1894, when the weekly average price of English wheat fell to the record minimum of 17s. 6d. per imperial quarter. As a consequence, the extent of land devoted to wheat in the British Isles receded in 1895 to less than 1 1/2 million acres. The year 1903 was memorable for a very heavy rainfall, comparable though not equal in its disastrous effects to that of 1879. Successful trials of sulphate of copper solution as a means of destroying charlock in corn crops took place in the years 1898-1900. Charlock is a most persistent cruciferous weed, but if sprayed when young with the solution named it is killed, the corn plants being uninjured. In 1901 the formation of the Agricultural Organization Society marked the first systematic attempt to organize co-operation among the farmers of Great Britain. In the subsequent years the principle, which had already made great progress in Ireland, began to obtain a hold in England and Wales, where, in 1906, there were 145 local co-operative societies with a turn-over of

Amongst legislative measures of importance to agriculturists mention should be made, in addition to those that have been referred to, of the Tithe Rent-charge Recovery Act 1891, which transfers the liability for payment of tithe from the occupier to the owner. In the same year was passed the Markets and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) Act. The object of the Small Holdings Act 1892 was to facilitate the acquisition of small agricultural holdings. It provided that a county council might acquire any suitable land, with the object of allotting from one to fifty acres, or, if more than fifty acres, of an annual value not exceeding L. 50, to persons who desired to buy, and would themselves cultivate, the holdings. If, owing to proximity to a town or otherwise, the prospective value were too high, the council might hire such land for the purpose of letting it. (See ALLOTMENTS AND SMALL HOLDINGS for this and other acts.) The Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs

## Act 1893 compelled sellers of fertilizers (i.e. manures),

manufactured or imported, to state the percentage of the nitrogen, of the soluble and insoluble phosphates, and of the potash in each article sold, and this statement was to have the effect of a warranty. Similar stringent conditions applied as regards the sale of feeding-stuffs for live stock. The Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act 1906, amending and re-enacting the act of 1893, provided for the compulsory appointment by county councils of official samplers. It also provides penalties for breaches of duty by the seller, but grants him protection in cases where he is not morally responsible. The Finance Act of 1894, with its great changes in the death duties, overshadowed all other acts of that year both in its immediate effects and in its far-reaching consequences. The Copyhold Consolidation Act 1894 supersedes six previous copyhold statutes, but does not effect any alteration in the law concerning enfranchisement. The Diseases of Animals Act 1896 provided for the compulsory slaughter of imported live stock at the place of landing. The Light Railways Act and the Locomotives on Highways Act were added to the statute book in 1896, and various clauses in the Finance Act effected reforms in respect of the death duties, the land-tax, farmers' income-tax and the beer duty. The Chaff-cutting Machines (Accidents) Act 1897 is a measure very similar in its intention to the Threshing Machines Act 1878, and provides for the automatic prevention of accidents to persons in charge of chaff-cutting machines. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1899 has special reference in its earlier sections to the trade in dairy produce and margarine. In 1899 was also passed the act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland.

The year 1900 saw the passing of a Workmen's Compensation Act, which extended the benefits of the act of 1807 to agricultural labourers.

Acreage and Yields of British Crops.

The most notable feature in connexion with the cropping of the land of the United Kingdom between 1875 and 1905 was the lessened cultivation of the cereal crops associated with an expansion in the area of grass land. At the beginning of the period the aggregate area under wheat, barley and oats was nearly 10 1/2 million acres; at the close it did not amount to 8 million acres. There was thus a withdrawal during the period of over 2 1/2 million acres from cereal cultivation. From Table I., showing the acreages at intervals of five years, it will be learnt that the loss fell chiefly upon the wheat crop, which at the close of the period

TABLE 1.--Areas of Cereal Crops in the United Kingdom -- Acres

YEAR. WHEAT. BARLEY. OATS. TOTAL.

1875 3,514,088 2,751,362 4,176,177 10,441,627 1880 3,065,895 2,695,000 4,191,716 9,952,611 1885 2,553,092 2,447,169 4,282,594 9,282,855 1890 2,483,595 2,300,994 4,137,790 8,922,379 1895 1,456,042 2,346,367 4,527,899 8,330,308 1900 1,901,014 2,172,140 4,145,633 8,218,787 1905 1,836,598 1,872,305 4,137,406 7,846,309

occupied barely more than half the area assigned to it at the beginning. If the land taken from wheat had been cropped with one or both of the other cereals, the aggregate area would have remained about the same. This, however, was not the case, for a fairly uniform decrease in the barley area was accompanied by somewhat irregular fluctuations in the acreage of oats. To the decline in prices of home-grown cereals the decrease in area is largely attributable. The extent of this decline is seen in Table II., wherein are given the annual average prices from 1875 to 1905, calculated upon returns from the 190 statutory markets of England and Wales (Corn Returns Act 1882). These prices are per imperial quarter,---that is, 480 lb. of wheat, 400 lb. of barley and 312 lb. of oats, representing 60 lb, 50 lb. and 39 lb. per bushel respectively. After 1883 the annual average price of English wheat was never so high as 40s. per quarter, and only twice after 1892 did it exceed 30s. In one of these exceptional years, 1898, the average rose to 34s., but this was due entirely to a couple of months of inflated prices in the early half of the year, when the outbreak of war between Spain and the United States of America coincided with a huge speculative deal in the latter country. The

TABLE II.--Gazette Annual Average Prices per Imperial Quarter of British Cereals in England and Wales, 1875-1905.

Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats.

s. d. s. d. s. d. 1875 45 2 38 5 28 8 1876 46 2 35 2 26 3 1877 56 9 39 8 25 [] 1878 46 5 40 2 24 4 1879 43 10 34 0 21 9 1880 44 4 33 1 23 1 1881 45 4 31 11 21 9 1882 45 1 31 2 21 10 1883 41 7 31 10 21 5 1884 35 8 30 8 20 3 1885 32 10 30 1 20 7 1886 31 0 26 7 19 0 1887 32 6 25 4 16 3 1888 31 10 27 10 16 9 1889 29 9 25 10 17 9 1890 31 11 28 8 18 7 1891 37 0 28 2 20 0 1892 30 3 26 2 19 10 1893 26 4 25 7 18 9 1894 22 10 24 6 17 1 1895 23 1 21 11 14 6 1896 26 2 22 11 14 9 1897 30 2 23 6 16 11 1898 34 0 27 2 18 5 1899 25 8 25 7 17 0 1900 26 11 24 11 17 7 1901 26 9 25 2 18 5 1902 28 1 25 8 20 2 1903 26 9 22 8 17 2 1904 28 4 22 4 16 4 1905 29 8 24 4 17 4

weekly average prices of English wheat in 1898 fluctuated between 48s. 1d. and 25s. 5d. per quarter, the former being the highest weekly average since 1882. The minimum annual average was 22s. 10d. in 1894, in the autumn of which year the weekly average sank to 17s. 6d. per quarter, the lowest on record. Wheat was so great a glut in the market that various methods were devised for feeding it to stock, a purpose for which it is not specially suited; in thus utilizing the grain, however, a smaller loss was often incurred than in sending it to market. In 1894 the monthly average price for October, the chief month for wheat-sowing in England, was only 17s. 8d. per quarter, and farmers naturally shrank from seeding the land freely with a crop which could not be grown except at a heavy loss. The result was that in the following year the wheat crop of the United Kingdom was harvested upon the smallest area on record--less than 1 1/2 million acres. In only one year, 1878, did the annual average price of English barley touch 40s. per quarter; it never reached 30s. after 1885, whilst in 1895 it fell to so low a level as 21s. 11d. The same story of declining prices applies to oats. An average of 20s. per quarter was touched in 1891 and 1902, but with those exceptions this useful feeding grain did not reach that figure after 1885. In 1895 the average price of 480 lb. of wheat, at 23s. 1d., was identical with that of 312 lb. of oats in 1880, and it was less in the preceding year. The declining prices that have operated against the growers of wheat should be studied in conjunction with Table III., which shows, at intervals of five years, the imports of

TABLE III.--Imports into the United Kingdom of Wheat Grain, and of Wheat Meal and Flour--Cwt.

Year. Wheat Grain. Meal and Flour. Total.

1875 51,876,517 6,136,083 58,012,600 1880 55,261,924 10,558,312 65,820,236 1885 61,498,864 15,832,843 77,331,707 1890 60,474,180 15,773,336 76,247,516 1895 81,749,955 18,368,410 100,118,365 1900 68,669,490 21,548,131 90,217,621 1905 97,622,752 11,954,763 109,577,515

wheat grain and of wheat meal and flour into the United Kingdom. The import of the manufactured product from 1875 to 1900 increased at a much greater ratio than that of the raw grain, for whilst in 1875 the former represented less than one-ninth of the total, by 1900 the proportion had risen to nearly one-fourth. The offal, which is quite as valuable as the flour itself, was thus retained abroad instead of being utilized for stock-feeding purposes in the United Kingdom. In the five subsequent years the proportion was fundamentally altered, so that with a greatly increased importation of grain, that of meal and flour was in the proportion of about one-ninth. The highest and lowest areas of wheat, barley and oats in the United Kingdom during the period 1875-1905 were the

Wheat . 3,514,088 acres in 1875; 1,407,618 acres in 1904. Barley . 2,931,809 acres in 1879; 1,872,305 acres in 1905. Oats . 4,527,899 acres in 1895; 3,998,200 acres in 1879.

These show differences amounting to 2,106,470 acres for wheat, 1,059,504 acres for barley, and 529,699 acres for oats. The acreage of wheat, therefore, fluctuated the most, and that of oats the least. Going back to 1869, it is found that the extent of wheat in that year was 3,981,989 acres or very little short of four million acres.

The acreage of rye grown in the United Kingdom as a grain crop is small, the respective maximum and minimum areas during the period 1875-1905 having been 102,676 acres in 1894 and 47,937 acres in 1880. Rye is perhaps more largely grown as a green crop to be fed off by sheep, or cut green for soiling, in the spring months.

Of corn crops other than cereals, beans and peas are both less cultivated than formerly. In the period 1875-1905 the area of beans in the United Kingdom fluctuated between 574,414 acres in 1875 and 230,429 acres in 1897, and that of peas between 318,410 acres in 1875 and 155,668 acres in 1901. The area of peas (175,624 acres in 1905) shrank by nearly one-half, and that of beans (256,583 acres in 1905) by more than one-half. Taking cereals and pulse corn together, the aggregate areas of wheat, barley, oats, rye, beans and peas in the United Kingdom varied as follows over the six quinquennial intervals embraced in the period

Year. Acres. | Year. Acres. 1875 . . 11,399,030 | 1890 . . 9,574,249 1880 . . 10,672,086 | 1895 . . 8,865,338 1885 . . 10,014,625 | 1900 . . 8,707,602 | 1905 . . 8,333,770

Disregarding minor fluctuations, there was thus a loss of corn land over the 30 years of 3,065,260 acres, or 27%.

The area withdrawn from corn-growing is not to be found under the head of what are termed ``green crops.'' In 1905 the total area of these crops in the United Kingdom was 4,144,374 acres, made up

Crop. Acres. Potatoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,236,768 Turnips and swedes . . . . . . . . . 1,879,384 Mangel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477,540 Cabbage, kohl-rabi and rape . . . . 225,315 Vetches or tares . . . . . . . . . . 139,285 Other green crops . . . . . . . . . 186,082

The extreme aggregate areas of these crops during the thirty years were 5,057,029 acres in 1875 and 4,109,394 acres in 1904. At five-year intervals the areas

Year. Acres. | Year. Acres. 1875 . . 5,057,029 | 1890 . . 4,534,145 1880 . . 4,746,293 | 1895 . . 4,399,949 1885 . . 4,765,195 | 1900 . . 4,301,774 | 1905 . . 4,144,374

These crops, therefore, which, except potatoes, are used mainly for stock-feeding, have like the corn crops been grown on gradually diminishing areas.

The land that has been lost to the plough is found to be still further augmented when an inquiry is instituted into the area devoted to clover, sainfoin and grasses under rotation. The areas of five-year intervals are given in Table IV. Under the old Norfolk or four-course rotation (roots, barley, clover, wheat) land thus seeded with clover or grass seeds was intended to be ploughed up at the end of a year. Labour difficulties, low prices of produce, bad seasons and similar causes provided inducements for leaving the land in grass for two years, or over three years or more, before breaking it up for wheat. In many cases it would be decided to let such land remain under grass indefinitely, and thus it would no longer be enumerated in the Agricultural Returns as temporary grass land, but would pass into the category of permanent grass land, or what is often spoken of as ``permanent pasture.'' Whilst much grass land has been laid down with the intention from the outset that it should be permanent, at the same time some considerable areas have through stress of circumstances been allowed to drift from the temporary or rotation grass area to the permanent list, and have thus still further diminished the area formerly under the dominion of the plough. The column relating to permanent grass in Table IV. shows clearly enough how the British Isles became

TABLE IV.--Areas of Grass Land (excluding Heath and Mountain Land) in the United Kingdom--Acres.

Permanent Year. Temporary (i.e. (i.e. not broken up Total. under rotation). in rotation).

1875 6,337,953 23,772,602 30,110,555 1880 6,389,232 24,717,092 31,106,324 1885 6,738,206 25,616,071 32,354,277 1890 6,097,210 27,115,425 33,212,635 1895 6,061,139 27,831,117 33,892,256 1900 6,025,025 28,266,712 34,291,737 1905 5,779,323 28,865,373 34,644,696

more pastoral, while the figures already given demonstrate the extent to which they became less arable. In the period 1875-1905 the extreme areas returned as ``permanent pasture''--a term which, it should be clearly understood, does not include heath or mountain land, of which there are in Great Britain alone about 13 million acres used for grazing---were 23,772,602 acres in 1875, and 28,865,373 acres in 1905. Comparing 1905 with 1875 the increase in permanent grass land amounted to over five million acres, or about 21%.

On account of the greater humidity and mildness of its climate, Ireland is more essentially a pastoral country than Great Britain. The distribution between the two islands of such important crops of arable land as cereals and potatoes is indicated in Table V. The figures are those for 1905, but, though the absolute acreages

TABLE V.--Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in Great Britain and Ireland in 1905.

Wheat. Barley.

Acres. Acres. Great Britain . 1,796,993 1,713,664 Ireland . . . . 37,860 154,645

Total . . . . . 1,834,853 1,868,309

Oats. Potatoes. Great Britain . 3,051,376 608,473 Ireland . . . . 1,066,806 616,755

Total . . . . . 4,118,182 1,225,228

vary somewhat from year to year, there is not much variation in the proportions. The comparative insignificance of Ireland in the case of the wheat and barley crops, represented by 2 and 8% respectively, receives some compensation when oats and potatoes are considered, about one-fourth of the area of the former and more than half that of the latter being claimed by Ireland. It is noteworthy, however, that Ireland year by year places less reliance upon the potato crop. In 1888 the area of potatoes in Ireland was 804,566 acres, but it continuously contracted each year, until in 1905 it was only 616,755 acres, or 187,811 acres less than 17 years previously.

A similar comparison for the several sections of Great Britain, as set forth in Table VI., shows that to England belong about 95% of the wheat area, over 80% of the barley area, over 60% of the oats area, and over 70% of the potato area, and these proportions do not vary much from year to year. The figures for cereals are important, as they indicate that it is the farmers of England who are the chief sufferers through the diminishing prices of corn; and

## particularly is this true of East Anglia, where corn-growing

is more largely pursued than in any other part of the

TABLE VI.--Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in England, Wales and Scotland, and in Great Britain, in 1905.

Wheat. Barley.

Acres. Acres. England . . . . 1,704,281 1,410,287 Wales . . . . . 44,073 91,243 Scotland . . . 48,641 212,134

Great Britain . 1,796,995 1,713,664

Oats. Potatoes. England . . . . 1,880,475 434,773 Wales . . . . . 207,929 29,435 Scotland . . . 962,972 144,265

Great Britain . 3,051,376 608,473

country. Scotland possesses nearly one-third of the area of oats and nearly one-fourth of that of potatoes. Beans are almost entirely confined to England, and this is even more the case with peas. The mangel crop also is mainly English, the summer in most parts of Scotland being neither long enough nor warm enough to bring it to maturity.

The Produce of British Crops.

Whilst the returns relating to the acreage of crops and the number of live stock in Great Britain have been officially collected in each year since 1866, the annual official estimates of the produce of the crops in the several sections of the kingdom do not extend back beyond 1885. The practice is for the Board of Agriculture to appoint local estimators, who report in the autumn as to the total production of the crops in the localities respectively assigned to them. By dividing the total production, say of wheat, in each county by the number of acres of wheat as returned by the occupiers on June 4, the estimated average yield per acre is obtained. It is important to notice that the figures relating to total production and yield per acre are only estimates, and it is not claimed for them that they are anything more. The fact that much of the wheat to which the figures apply is still in the stack after the publication of the figures shows that the latter are essentially estimates. The total produce of any crop in a given year must depend mainly upon the acreage grown, whilst the average yield per acre will be determined chiefly by the character of the season. In Table VII. are shown, in thousands

TABLE VII.--Estimated Annual Total Produce of Corn Crops in the United Kingdom, 1890-1905 --Thousands of Bushels.

Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas.

1890 75,994 80,794 171,295 11,860 6313 1891 74,743 79,555 166,472 10,694 5777 1892 60,775 76,939 168,181 7,054 5028 1893 50,913 65,746 168,588 4,863 4756 1894 60,704 78,601 190,863 7,198 6229 1895 38,285 75,028 174,476 5,626 4732 1896 58,247 77,825 162,860 6,491 4979 1897 56,296 72,613 163,556 6,650 5250 1898 74,885 74,731 172,578 7,267 4858 1899 67,261 74,532 166,140 7,566 4431 1900 54,322 68,546 165,137 7,469 4072 1901 53,928 67,643 161,175 6,154 4017 1902 58,278 74,439 184,184 7,704 5106 1903 48,819 65,310 172,941 7,535 4812 1904 37,920 62,453 176,755 5,901 4446 1905 60,333 65,004 166,286 8,262 4446

of bushels, the estimated produce of the corn crops of the United Kingdom in the years 1890-1905. The largest area of wheat in the period was that of 1890, and the smallest was that of 1904; the same two years are seen to have been respectively those of highest and lowest total produce. It is noteworthy that in 1895 the country produced about half as much wheat as in any one of the years 1890, 1891 and 1898. The produce of barley, like that of oats, is less irregular than that of wheat, the extremes for barley being 80,794,000 bushels (1890) and 62,453,000 bushels (1904), and those for oats 190,863,000 bushels (1894) and 161,175,000 bushels (1901). Similar details for potatoes, roots and hay, brought together in Table VIII., show that the

TABLE VIII.--Estimated Annual Total Produce of Potatoes, Roots and Hay in the United Kingdom, 1890-1905--Thousands of Tons.

Year. Potatoes. Turnips. Mangels. Hay.

1890 4622 32,002 6709 14,466 1891 6090 29,742 7558 12,671 1892 5634 31,419 7428 11,567 1893 6541 31,110 5225 9,082 1894 4662 30,678 7310 15,699 1895 7065 29,221 6376 12,238 1896 6263 28,037 5875 11,416 1897 4107 29,785 7379 14,043 1898 6225 26,499 7228 15,916 1899 5837 20,370 7604 12,898 1900 4577 28,387 9650 13,742 1901 7043 25,298 9224 11,358 1902 5920 29,116 10,809 15,246 1903 5277 23,523 8212 14,955 1904 6230 28,033 8813 14,860 1905 7186 26,563 9493 13,554

production of potatoes varies much from year to year. The imports of potatoes into the United Kingdom vary, to some extend inversely; thus, the low production in 1897 was accompanied by an increase of import from 3,921,205 cwt. in 1897 to 6,751,728 cwt. in 1898. No very great reliance can be placed upon the figures relating to turnips (which include swedes), as these are mostly fed to sheep on the ground, so that the estimates as to yield are necessarily vague. Mangels are probably more closely estimated, as these valuable roots are carted and stored for subsequent use for feeding stock. Under hay are included the produce of closer, sainfoin and rotation grasses, and also that of permanent meadow. The extent to which the annual production of the leading fodder crop may vary is shown in the table by the two consecutive years 1893 and 1894; from only nine million tons in the former year the production rose to upwards of fifteen million tons in the latter, an increase of over 70%.

Turning to the average yields per acre, as ascertained by dividing the number of acres into the total produce, the results of a decade are collected in Table IX. The effects of a prolonged

TABLE IX.--Estimated Annual Average Yield per Acre of Crops in United Kingdom, 1895-1904.

Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas. Potatoes.

Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Tons. 1895 26.33 32.09 38.67 22.98 22.62 5.64 1896 33.63 34.16 37.97 25.69 25.34 4.93 1897 29.07 32.91 38.84 28.91 27.55 3.47 1898 34.75 36.24 42.27 31.13 27.60 5.23 1899 32.76 34.64 40.57 30.19 27.22 4.82 1900 28.61 31.67 39.97 28.18 25.89 3.77 1901 30.93 31.70 39.35 24.29 25.97 5.81 1902 32.91 35.83 44.50 31.49 28.51 4.92 1903 30.15 32.38 40.81 31.27 26.56 4.45 1904 26.97 31.25 40.80 23.23 25.75 5.24

Mean, 10 Years 30.85 33.28 20.35 27.68 26.24 4.84

1905 32.88 34.79 40.38 32.33 25.71 5.86

Turnips and Hay, Hay, Year. Swedes. Mangels. Rotation. Permanent.

Tons. Tons. Cwt. Cwt. 1895 13.11 16.44 29.08 25.21 1896 12.79 14.99 27.95 24.14 1897 13.90 18.03 32.53 30.71 1898 12.74 17.71 36.49 34.27 1899 9.97 17.41 31.04 29.11 1900 14.29 19.97 32.42 30.98 1901 12.95 19.37 28.98 23.85 1902 15.35 20.85 35.29 32.57 1903 12.44 17.19 33.07 31.27 1904 14.83 18.57 33.43 31.04

Mean, 10 Years 13.21 18.18 32.06 29.32

1905 14.19 19.91 32.24 28.37

spring and summer drought, like that of 1893, are exemplified in the circumstance that four corn crops and the two hay crops all registered very low average yields that year, viz. wheat 26.08 bushels, barley 29.30 bushels, oats 38.14 bushels, beans 19.61 bushels, rotation hay 23.55 cwt., permanent hay 20.41 cwt. On the other hand, the season of 1898 was exceptionally favourable to cereals and to hay. The effects of a prolonged autumn drought, as distinguished from spring and summer drought, are shown in the very low yield of turnips in 1899. Mangels are sown earlier and have a longer period of growth than turnips; if they become well established in the summer they are less susceptible to autumn drought. The hay made from closer, sainfoin and grasses under rotation generally gives a bigger average yield than that from permanent grass land. The mean values at the foot of the table--they are not, strictly speaking, exact averages--indicate the average yields per acre in the United Kingdom to be about 31 bushels of wheat, 33 bushels of barley, 40 bushels of oats, 28 bushels of neams, 26 bushels of peas, 4 3/4 tons of potatoes, 13 1/4 tons of turnips and swedes, 18 1/4 tons of mangels, 32 cwt. of hay from temporary grass, and 29 cwt. of hay from permanenet grass. Although enormous single crops of

TABLE X. Decennial Average Yields in Great Britain of Wheat, Barley and Oats--Bushels per Acre.

10-Year Periods. Wheat. Barley. Oats.

1885-1894 29.32 33.02 38.21 1886-1895 28.81 32.68 38.23 1887-1896 29.49 32.82 38.13 1888-1897 29.19 32.97 38.51 1889-1898 29.86 33.26 38.86 1890-1899 30.15 33.50 38.81 1891-1900 29.92 33.13 38.46 1892-1901 29.83 32.80 38.26 1893-1902 30.53 32.83 38.64 1894-1903 30.95 33.16 39.05 1895-1904 30.56 32.82 38.81 1896-1905 31.21 33.04 38.92

mangels are sometimes grown, amounting occasionally to 100 tons per acre, the general average yield of 18 1/4 tons is about 5 tons more than that of turnips and swedes. Again, although from the richest old permanent meadow-lands very heavy crops of hay are taken season after season, the general average yield of permanent grass is about 3 cwt. of hay per acre less than that from clover, sainfoin and grasses under rotation. The general average yields of the corn crops are not fairly comparable one with the other, because they are given by measure and not by weight, whereas the weight per bushel varies considerably. For purposes of comparison it would be much better if the yields of corn crops were estimated in cwt. per acre. This, indeed, is the practice in Ireland, and in order to incorporate the Irish figures with those for Great Britain so as to obtain average values for the United Kingdom, the Irish yields are calculated into bushels at the rate of 60lb to the bushel of wheat, of beans and peas, 50lb to the bushel of barley and 39lb to the bushel of oats.

The figure denoting the general average yield per acre of any class of crop need re-adjustment after every successive harvest. If a decennial period be taken, then--for the purpose of the new calculation--the earliest year is omitted and the latest year added, the number of years continuing at ten. Adopting this course in the case of the cereal crops of Great Britain the decennial averages recorded in Table X. are obtained, the period 1885-1894 being the earliest decade for which the official figures are available. It thus appears that the average yield of wheat in Great Britain, as calculated upon the crops harvested during the ten years (1896-1905), exceeded 31 bushels to the acre, whereas, for the ten years ended 1895, it fell below 29 bushels. A large expansion in the acreage of the wheat crop would probably be attended by a decline in the average yield per acre, for when a crop is shrinking in area the tendency is to withdraw from it first the land least suited to its growth. The general average for the United Kingdom might then recede to rather less than 28 bushels of 60 lb. per bushel, which was for a long time the accepted average--unless, of course, improved methods of cultivating and manuring the soil were to increase its general wheat-yielding capacity.6

Crops and Cropping.

The greater freedom of cropping and the less close adherence to the formal system of rotation of crops, which characterize the early years of the 20th century, rest upon a scientific basis. Experimental inquiry has done much to enlighten the farmer as to the requirements of plant-life, and to enable him to see how best to meet these requirements in the case of field crops. He cannot afford to ignore the results that have been gradually accumulated--the truths that have been slowly established--at the agricultural experiment stations in various parts of the world. Of these stations the greatest, and the oldest now existing, is that at Rothamsted, Harpenden, Herts, England, which was founded in 1843 by Sir John Bennet Lawes (q.v.). The results of more than half a century of sustained experimental inquiry were communicated to the world by Lawes and his collaborator, Sir J. H. Gilbert, in about 130 separate papers or reports, many of which were published, from 1847 onwards, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.7

In the case of plants the method of procedure was to grow some of the most important crops of rotation, each separately year after year, for many years in succession on the same land, (a) without manure, (b) with farmyard manure and (c) with a great variety of chemical manures; the same description of manure being, as a rule, applied year after year on the same plot. Experiments on an actual course of rotation, without manure, and with different manures, have also been made. Wheat, barley, oats, beans, clover and other leguminous plants, turnips, sugar beet, mangels, potatoes and grass crops have thus been experimented upon. Incidentally there have been extensive sampling and analysing of soils, investigations into rainfall and the composition of drainage waters, inquiries into the amount of water transpired by plants, and experiments on the assimilation of free nitrogen.

Cereals--Amongst the field experiments there is, perhaps, not one of more universal interest than that in which wheat was grown for fifty-seven years in succession, (a) without manure, (b) with farmyard manure and (c) with various artificial manures. The results show that, unlike leguminous crops such as beans or clover, wheat may be successfully grown for many years in succession on ordinary arable land, provided suitable manures be applied and the land be kept clean. Even without manure the average produce over forty-six years, 1852-1897, was nearly thirteen bushels per acre, or about the average yield per acre of the wheat lands of the whole world. Mineral manures alone give very little increase, nitrogenous manures alone considerably more than mineral manures alone, but the mixture of the two considerably more than either separately. In one case, indeed, the average produce by mixed minerals and nitrogenous manure was more than that by the annual application of farmyard manure; and in seven out of the ten cases in which such mixtures were used the average yield per acre was from over two to over eight bushels more than the average yield of the United Kingdom (assuming this to be about twenty-eight bushels of 60 lb. per bushel) under ordinary rotation. It is estimated that the reduction in yield of the unmanured plot over the forty years, 1852-1891, after the growth of the crops without manure during the eight preceding years, was, provided it had been uniform throughout, equivalent to a decline of one-sixth of a bushel from year to year due to exhaustion--that is, irrespectively of fluctuations due to season. It is related that a visitor from the United States, talking to Sir John Lawes, said, ``Americans have learnt more from this field than from any other agricultural experiment in the world.''

Experiments upon the growth of barley for fifty years in succession on rather heavy ordinary arable soil resulted in showing that the produce by mineral manures alone is larger than that without manure; that nitrogenous manures alone give more produce than mineral manures alone; and that mixtures of mineral and nitrogenous manure give much more than either used alone--generally twice, or more than twice, as much as mineral manures alone. Of mineral constituents, whether used alone or in mixture with nitrogenous manures, phosphates are much more effective than mixtures of salts of potash, soda and magnesia. The average results show that, under all conditions of manuring--excepting with farmyard manure--the produce was less over the later than over the earlier periods of the experiments, an effect partly due to the seasons. But the average produce over forty years of continuous growth of barley was, in all cases where nitrogenous and mineral manures (containing phosphates) were used together, much higher than the average produce of the crop grown in ordinary rotation in the United Kingdom, and very much higher than the average in most other countries when so grown. The requirements of barley within the soil, and its susceptibility to the external influences of season, are very similar to those of its near ally, wheat. Nevertheless there are distinctions of result dependent on differences in the habits of the two plants, and in the conditions of their cultivation accordingly. In the British Isles wheat is, as a rule, sown in the autumn on a heavier soil, and has four or five months in which to distribute its roots, and so it gets possession of a wide range of soil and subsoil before barley is sown in the spring. Barley, on the other hand, is sown in a lighter surface soil, and, with its short period for root-development, relies in a much greater degree on the stores of plant-food within the surface soil. Accordingly it is more susceptible to exhaustion of surface soil as to its nitrogenous, and especially as to its mineral supplies; and in the common practice of agriculture it is found to be more benefited by direct mineral manures, especially phosphatic manures, than is wheat when sown under equal soil conditions. The exhaustion of the soil induced by both barley and wheat is, however, characteristically that of available nitrogen; and when, under the ordinary conditions of manuring and cropping, artificial manure is still required, nitrogenous manures are, as a rule, necessary for both crops, and, for the spring-sown barley, superphosphate also. Although barley is appropriately grown on lighter soils than wheat, good crops, of fair quality, may be grown on the heavier soils after another grain crop by the aid of artificial manures, provided that the land is sufficiently clean. Experiments similar to the foregoing were carried on for many years in succession at Rothamsted upon oats, and gave results which were in general accordance with those on the other cereal crops.

Additional significance to the value of the above experiments on wheat and barley is afforded by the fact that the same series, with but slight modifications, has also been carried out since 1876 at the Woburn (Bedfordshire) experimental farm of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the soil here being of light sandy character, and thus very different from the heavy soil of Rothamsted. The results for the thirty years, 1877-1906, are in their general features entirely confirmatory of those obtained at Rothamsted.

Root-Crops.--Experiments upon root-crops--chiefly white turnips, Swedish turnips (swedes) and mangels--have resulted in the establishment of the following conclusions. Both the quantity and the quality of the produce, and consequently its feeding value, must depend greatly upon the selection of the best description of roots to be grown, and on the character and the amount of the manures, and especially on the amount of nitrogenous manure employed. At the same time, no hard-and-fast rules can be laid down concerning these points. Independently of the necessary consideration of the general economy of the farm, the choice must be influenced

## partly by the character of the soil, but very much more

by that of the climate. Judgment founded on knowledge and aided by careful observation, both in the field and in the feeding-shed, must be relied upon as the guide of the practical farmer. Over and above the great advantage arising from the opportunity which the growth of root-crops affords for the cleaning of the land, the benefits of growing the root-crop in rotation are due (1) to the large amount of manure applied for its growth, (2) to the large residue of the manure left in the soil for future crops, (3) to the large amount of matter at once returned as manure again in the leaves, (4) to the large amount of food produced, and (5) to the small proportion of the most important manurial constituents of the roots which is retained by store or fattening animals consuming them, the rest returning as manure again; though, when the roots are consumed for the production of milk, a much larger proportion of the constituents is lost to the manure.

Leguminous Crops and the Acquisition of Nitrogen.--The fact that the growth of a leguminous crop, such as red clover, leaves the soil in a higher condition for the subsequent growth of a grain crop--that, indeed, the growth of such a leguminous crop is to a great extent equivalent to the application of a nitrogenous manure for the cereal crop--was in effect known ages ago. Nevertheless it was not till near the approach of the closing decade of the 19th century that the explanation of this long-established point of agricultural practice was forthcoming. It was in the year 1886 that Hellriegel and Wilfarth first published in Germany the results of investigations in which they demonstrated that, through the agency of micro-organisms dwelling in nodular outgrowths on the roots of ordinary leguminous plants, the latter are enabled to assimilate the free nitrogen of the air. The existence of the root nodules had long been recognized, but hitherto no adequate explanation had been afforded as to their function.

Since Hellriegel's striking discovery farm crops have been conveniently classified as nitrogen-accumulating and nitrogen-consuming. To the former belong the ordinary leguminous crops--the clovers, beans, peas, vetches or tares, sainfoin, lucerne, for example--which obtain their nitrogen from the air, and are independent of the application of nitrogenous manures, whilst in their roots they accumulate a store of nitrogen which will ultimately become available for future crops of other kinds. It is, in fact, fully established that these leguminous crops acquire a considerable amount of nitrogen by the fixation of the free nitrogen of the atmosphere under the influence of the symbiotic growth of their root-nodule-microbes and the higher plant. The cereal crops (wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize); the cruciferous crops (turnips, cabbage, kale, rape, mustard); the solanaceous crops (potatoes); the chenopodiaceous crops (mangels, sugar-beets), and other non-leguminous crops have, so far as is known, no such power, and are therefore more or less benefited by the direct application of nitrogenous manures. The field experiments on leguminous plants at Rothamsted have shown that land which is, so to speak, exhausted so far as the growth of one leguminous crop is concerned, may still grow very luxuriant crops of another plant of the same natural order, but of different habits of growth, and especially of different character and range of roots. This result is doubtless largely dependent on the existence, the distribution and the condition of the appropriate microbes for the due infection of the different descriptions of plant, for the micro-organism that dwells symbiotically with one species is not identical with that which similarly dwells with another. It seems certain that success in any system involving a more extended growth of leguminous crops in rotations must be dependent on a considerable variation in the description grown. Other essential conditions of success will commonly include the liberal application of potash and phosphatic manures, and sometimes chalking or liming for the leguminous crop. As to how long the leguminous crop should occupy the land, the extent to which it should be consumed on the land, or the manure from its consumption be returned, and under what conditions the whole or part of it should be ploughed in--these are points which must be decided as they arise in practice. It seems obvious that the lighter and poorer soils would benefit more than the heavier or richer soils by the extended growth of leguminous crops.

Remarkable as Hellriegel's discovery was, it merely furnished the explanation of a fact which had been empirically established by the husbandman long before, and had received most intelligent application when the old four-course (or Norfolk) rotation was devised. But it gave some impetus to the practice of green manuring with leguminous crops, which are equally capable with such a crop as mustard of enriching the soil in humus, whilst in addition they bring into the soil from the atmosphere a quantity of nitrogen available for the use of subsequent crops of any kind. In Canada and the United States this rational employment of a leguminous crop for ploughing in green is largely resorted to for the amelioration of worn-out wheat lands and other soils, the condition of which has been lowered to an unremunerative level by the repeated growth year after year of a cereal crop. The well-known paper of Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh (1861), ``On the Sources of the Nitrogen of Vegetation with special reference to the Question whether Plants assimilate free or uncombined Nitrogen,'' answered the question referred to in the negative. The attitude taken up later on with regard to this problem is set forth in the following words, which are quoted from the Memoranda of the Rothamsted Experiments, 1900 (p. 7):--

``Experiments were commenced in 1857, and conducted for several years in succession, to determine whether plants assimilate free or uncombined nitrogen, and also various collateral points. Plants of the gramincous, the leguminous and of other families were operated upon. The late Dr Pugh took a prominent part in this inquiry. The conclusion arrived at was that our agricultural plants do not themselves directly assimilate the free nitrogen of the air by their leaves.

``In recent years, however, the question has assumed quite a new aspect. It now is--whether the free nitrogen of the atmosphere is brought into combination under the influence of micro-organisms, or other low forms, either within the soil or in symbiosis with a higher plant, thus serving indirectly as a source of nitrogen to plants of a higher order. Considering that the results of Hellriegel and Wilfarth on this point were, if confirmed, of great significance and importance, it was decided to make experimenis at Rothamsted on somewhat similar lines. Accordingly, a preliminary series was undertaken in 1888; more extended series were conducted in 1889 and in 1890; and the investigation was continued up to the commencement of the year 1893. Further experiments relating to certain aspects of the subject were begun in 1898. The resuits have shown that, when a soil growing leguminous plants is infected with appropriate organisms, there is a development of the so-called leguminous nodules on the roots of the plants, and, coincidenrly, increased growth and gain of nitrogen.''

The conclusions of Hellriegel and Wilfarth have thus been confirmed by the later experiences of Rothamsted, and since that time efforts have been directed energetically to the practical application of the discovery. This has taken the form of inoculating the soil with the particular organism required by the

## particular kind of leguminous crop. To this end the endeavour

has been made to produce preparations which shall contain in portable form the organisms required by the several plants, and though, as yet, it can hardly be claimed that they have been generally successful, the work done justifies hopes that the problem will eventually be solved in a practical direction.

Grass.--Another field experiment of singular interest is that relating to the mixed herbage of permanent meadow, for which seven acres of old grass land were set apart in Rothamsted Park in 1856. Of the twenty plots into which this land is divided, two were left without manure from the outset, two received ordinary farmyard manure for a series of years, whilst the remainder each received a different description of artificial or chemical manure, the same being, except in special cases, applied year after year on the same plot. During the growing season the field affords striking evidence of the influence of different manurial dressings. So much, indeed, does the character of the herbage vary from plot to plot that the effect may fairly be described as kaleidoscopic. Repeated analyses have shown how greatly both the botanical constitution and the chemical composition of the mixed herbage vary according to the description of manure applied. They have further shown how dominant is the influence of season. Such, moreover, is the effect of different manures that the gross produce of the mixed herbage is totally different on the respective plots according to the manure employed, both as to the proportion of the various species composing it and as to their condition of development and maturity.

The Rotation of Crops.

The growth, year after year, on the same soil of one kind of plant unfits it for bearing further crops of the kind which has exhausted it, and renders them less vigorous and more liable to disease. The farmer therefore arranges his cropping in such a way that roots, or leguminous crops, succeed the cereal crops.

It is not only the conditions of growth, but the uses to which the different crops are put, that have to be considered in the case of rotation. Thus the cereal crops, when grown in rotation, yield more produce for sale in the season of growth than when grown continuously. Moreover, the crops alternated with the cereals accumulate very much more of mineral constituents and of nitrogen in their produce than do the cereals themselves. By far the greater proportion of those constituents remains in circulation in the manure of the farm, whilst the remainder yields highly valuable products for sale in the forms of meat and milk. For this reason these crops are known as ``restorative,'' cereals the produce of which is sold off the farm being classed as ``exhaustive.'' With a variety of crops, again, the mechanical operations of the farm, involving horse and hand labour, are better distributed over the year, and are therefore more economically performed. The opportunities which rotation cropping affords for the cleaning of the land from weeds is another distinct element of advantage. Although many different rotations of crops are practised, they may for the most part be considered as little more than local adaptations of the system of alternating root-crops and leguminous crops with cereal crops, as exemplified in the old four-course rotation--roots, barley, clover, wheat.

Under this system the clover is ploughed up in the autumn, the nitrogen stored up in its roots being left in the soil for the nourishment of the cereal crop. The following summer the wheat crop is harvested, and an opportunity is afforded for extirpating weeds which in the three previous years have received little check. Or, where the climate is warm and the soil light, a ``catch-crop,'' i.e. rye, vetches, winter-oats or some other rapidly-growing crop may be sown in autumn and fed off or otherwise disposed of prior to the root-sowing. On heavy soils, however, the farmer cannot afford to curtail the time necessary for thorough cultivation of the land. The cleaning process is carried on through.the next summer by means of successive hoeings of the spring-sown root-crop. As turnips or swedes may occupy the ground till after Christmas little time is left for the preparation of a seed-bed for barley, but as the latter is a shallow-rooted crop only surface-stirring is required. Clover is sown at the same time or shortly after the cereal and thus occupies the land for two years.

The rotations extending to five, six, seven or more years are, in most cases, only adaptations of the principle to variations of soil, altitude, aspect, climate, markets and other local conditions. They are effected chiefly by some alteration in the description of the root-crop, and perhaps by the introduction of the potato crop; by growing a different cereal, or it may be more than one cereal consecutively; by the growth of some other leguminous crop than clover, since ``clover-sickness'' may result if that crop is grown at too short intervals, or the intermixture of grass seeds with the clover, and perhaps by the extension by one or more years of the period allotted to this member of the rotation. Whatever the specific rotation, there may in practice be deviations from the plan of retaining on the farm the whole of the root-crops, the straw of the grain crops and the leguminous fodder crops (clover, vetches, sainfoin, &c;) for the production of meat or milk, and, coincidently, for that of manure to be returned to the land. It is equally true that, when under the influence of special local or other demand--proximity to towns, easy railway or other communication, for example--the products which would otherwise be retained on the farm are exported from it, the import of town or other manures is generally an essential condition of such practice. This system of free sale, indeed, frequently involves full compensation by purchased manures of some kind. Such deviations from the practice of merely selling grain and meat off the farm have much extended in recent years, and will probably continue to do so under the altered conditions of British agriculture, determined by very large imports of grain, increasing imports of meat and of other products of stock-feeding, and very large imports of cattle-food and other agricultural produce. More attention is thus being devoted to dairy produce, not only on grass farms, but on those that are mainly arable.

The benefits that accrue from the practice of rotation are well illustrated in the results obtained from the investigations at Rothamsted into the simple four-course system, which may fairly be regarded as a self-supporting system. Reference may first be made to the important mineral constituents of different crops of the four-course rotation. Of phosphoric acid, the cereal crops take up as much as, or more than, any other crops of the rotation, excepting clover; and the greater portion thus taken up is lost to the farm in the saleable product--the grain. The remainder, that in the straw, as well as that in the roots and the leguminous crops, is supposed to be retained on the farm, excepting the small amount exported in meat and milk. Of potash, each of the rotation crops takes up very much more than of phosphoric acid. But much less potash than phosphoric acid is exported in the cereal grains, much more being retained in the straw, whilst the other products of the rotation--the root and leguminous crops--which are also supposed to be retained on the farm, contain very much more potash than the cereals, and comparatively little of it is exported in meat and milk. Thus the whole of the crops of rotation take up very much more of potash than of phosphoric acid, whilst probably even less of it is ultimately lost to the land. Of lime, very little is taken up by the cereal crops, and by the root-crops much less than of potash; more by the leguminous than by the other crops, and, by the clover especially, sometimes much more than by all the other crops of the rotation put together. Very little of the lime of the crops, however, goes off in the saleable products of the farm in the case of the self-supporting rotation under consideration. Although, therefore, different, and sometimes very large, amounts of these typical mineral constituents are taken up by the various crops of rotation, there is no material export of any in the saleable products, excepting of phosphoric acid and of potash; and, so far at least as phosphoric acid is concerned, experience has shown that it may be advantageously supplied in purchased manures.

Of nitrogen, the cereal crops take up and retain much less than any of the crops alternated with them, notwithstanding the circumstance that the cereals are very characteristically benefited by nitrogenous manures. The root-crops, indeed, may contain two or more times as much nitrogen as either of the cereals, and the leguminous crops, especially the clover, much more than the root-crops. The greater part of the nitrogen of the cereals is, however, sold off the farm; but perhaps not more than 10 or 15% of the of either the root-crop of the clover (or other forage leguminous crop) is sold off in the animal increase of in milk. Most of the nitrogen is the straw of the cereals, and a very large proportion of that of the much more highly nitrogen-yielding crops, returns to the land as manure, for the benefit of future cereals and other crops. As to the source of the nitrogren of the root-crops--the so-called ``restorative crops''--these are as dependent as any crop that is grown on available nitrogen within the soil, which is generally supplied by the direct application of nitrogenous manures, natural or artificial. Under such conditions of supply, however, the root-crops, gross feeders as they are, and distributing a very large extent of fibrous feeding root within the soil, avail themselves of a much larger quantity of the nitrogen supplied than the cereal crops would do in similar circumstances. This result is partly due to their period of accumulation of nitrates in it is the greatest. When a full supply of both mineral constituents and nitrogen is at command, these root-crops assimilate a very large amount of

TABLE XI.--The Weight and Average Composition of Ordinary Crops, in lb. per Acre.

Weight of Crop. Total Nitro Sul- Crop. At Pure -gen. phur. Potash. Harvest. Dry. Ash.

Wheat, grain, 30 bushels 1,800 1530 30 34 2.7 9.3 Wheat, straw 3,158 2653 142 16 5.1 19.5

Total crop 4,958 4183 172 50 7.8 28.8

Barley, grain, 40 bushels 2,080 1747 46 35 2.9 9.8 Barley, straw 2,447 2080 111 14 3.2 25.9

Total crop 4,527 3827 157 49 6.1 35.7

Oats, grain, 45 bushels 1,890 1625 51 34 3.2 9.1 Oats, straw 2,835 2353 140 18 4.8 37.0

Total crop 4,725 3978 191 52 8.0 46.1

Maize, grain, 30 bushels 1,680 1500 22 28 1.8 6.5 Maize, stalks, &c. 2,208 1877 99 15 .. 29.8

Total crop 3,888 3377 121 43 .. 36.3

Meadow hay, 1 1/2 ton 3,360 2822 203 49 5.7 50.9

Red Clover hay, 2 tons 4,480 3763 258 98 9.4 83.4

Beans, grain, 30 bushels 1,920 1613 58 78 4.4 24.3 Beans, straw 2,240 1848 99 29 4.9 42.8

Total crop 4,160 3461 157 107 9.3 67.1

Turnip, root, 17 tons 38,080 3126 218 61 15.2 108.6 Turnip, leaf 11,424 1531 146 49 5.7 40.2

Total crop 49,504 4657 346 110 20.9 148.8

Swedes, root, 14 tons 31,360 3349 163 70 14.6 63.3 Swedes, leaf 4,704 706 75 28 3.2 16.4

Total crop 36,064 4055 238 98 17.8(*) 79.7

Mangels, root, 22 tons 49,280 5914 426 98 4.9 222.8 Mangels, leaf 18,233 1654 254 51 9.1 77.9

Total crop 67,513 7568 680 149 14.0 300.7

Potatoes, tubers, 6 tons 13,440 3360 127 46 2.7 76.5

Mag- Phosph- Chlor- Crop. Soda. Lime. nesia. ric Acid. ine. Silica. Wheat, grain, 30 bushels 0.6 1.0 3.6 14.2 0.1 0.6 Wheat, straw 2.0 8.2 3.5 6.9 2.4 96.3

Total crop 2.6 9.2 7.1 21.1 2.5 96.9

Barley, grain, 40 bushels 1.1 1.2 4.0 16.0 0.5 11.8 Barley, straw 3.9 8.0 2.9 4.7 3.6 56.8

Total crop 5.0 9.2 6.9 20.7 4.1 68.6

Oats, grain, 45 bushels 0.8 1.8 3.6 13.0 0.5 19.9 Oats, straw 4.6 9.8 5.1 6.4 6.1 65.4

Total crop 5.4 11.6 8.7 19.4 6.6 85.3

Maize, grain, 30 bushels 0.2 0.5 3.4 10.0 0.2 0.5 Maize, stalks, &c. .. .. .. 8.0 .. ..

Total crop .. .. .. 18.0 .. ..

Meadow hay, 1 1/2 ton 9.2 32.1 14.4 12.3 14.6 56.9

Red Clover hay, 2 tons 5.1 90.1 28.2 22.9 9.8 7.0

Beans, grain, 30 bushels 0.6 2.9 4.2 22.8 1.1 0.4 Beans, straw 1.7 26.3 5.7 6.3 4.3 6.9

Total crop 2.3 29.2 9.9 29.1 5.4 7.3

Turnip, root, 17 tons 17.0 25.5 5.7 22.4 10.9 2.6 Turnip, leaf 7.5 48.5 3.8 10.7 11.2 5.1

Total crop 24.5 74.0 9.5 33.1 22.1 7.7

Swedes, root, 14 tons 22.8 19.7 6.8 16.9 6.8 3.1 Swedes, leaf 9.2 22.7 2.4 4.8 8.3 3.6

Total crop 32.0 42.4 9.2 21.7 15.1 6.7

Mangels, root, 22 tons 69.4 15.9 18.3 36.4 42.5 8.7 Mangels, leaf 49.3 27.0 24.2 16.5 40.6 9.2

Total crop 118.7 42.9 42.5 52.9 83.1 17.9

Potatoes, tubers, 6 tons 3.8 3.4 6.3 21.5 4.4 2.6

(*) Calculated from a single analysis only.

carbon from the atmosphere, and produce, besides nitrogenous food materials, a very large amount of the carbohydrate sugar, as respiratory and fat-forming food for the live stock of the farm. The still more highly nitrogenous leguminous crops, although not characteristically benefited by nitrogenous manures, nevertheless contribute much more nitrogen to the total produce of the rotation than any of the other crops comprised in it. It is the leguminous fodder crops--especially clover, which has a much more extended period of growth, and much wider range of collection within the soil and subsoil, than any of the other crops of the rotation--that yield in their produce the largest amount of nitrogen per acre. Much of this is, doubtless taken up as nitrate, yet the direct application of nitrate of soda has comparatively little beneficial influence on their growth. The nitric acid is most likely taken up chiefly as nitrate of lime, but probably as nitrate of potash also, and it is significant that the high nitrogen-yielding clover takes up, or at least retains, very little soda. Table XI., from Warington's Chemistry of the Farm, 19th edition (Vinton and Co.), will serve to illustrate the subjects that have been discussed in this section.

For further information on the routine and details of farming, reference may be made to the articles under the headings of the various crops and implements.

British Live Stock.

The numbers of live stock in the United Kingdom are shown at five-yearly intervals in Table XII. Under horses are embraced only unbroken horses and horses used solely for agriculture (including mares kept for breeding). The highest and lowest annual totals for the United Kingdom in the period 1875-1905 were the following:--

Highest. Lowest. Difference

Horses 2,116,800 in 1905 1,819,687 in 1875 295,113 Cattle 11,674,019 in 1905 9,731,537 in 1877 1,942,482 Sheep 33,642,808 in 1892 27,448,220 in 1882 6,194,588 Pigs 4,362,040 in 1890 2,863,488 in 1880 1,498,552

After 1892 cattle, which in that year numbered 11,119,417, and sheep declined continuously for three years to the totals of 1895, the diminution being mainly the result of the memorable drought of 1803. Sheep, which numbered 32,571,018 in 1878, declined continuously to 27,448,220 in 1882--a loss of over five million head in five years. This was chiefly attributable to the ravages of the liver fluke which began in the disastrously wet season of 1879. Pigs, being prolific breeders, fluctuate more widely in numbers than cattle or sheep, for the difference of 1,498,552 in their case represents one-third of the highest total, whereas the difference is less than one-seventh for horses. less than one-sixth for cattle, and less than one-fifth for sheep. The

TABLE XII.--Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the United Kingdom.

Year. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.

1875 1,819,687 10,162,787 33,491,948 3,495,167 1880 1,929,680 9,871,533 30,239,620 2,865,488 1885 1,909,200 10,868,760 30,086,200 3,686,628 1890 1,964,911 10,789,858 31,667,195 4,362,040 1895 2,112,207 10,753,314 29,774,853 4,238,870 1900 2,000,402 11,454,902 31,054,547 3,663,669 1905 2,116,800 11,674,019 29,076,777 3,601,659

relative proportions--as distinguished from the actual numbers --in which stock are distributed over the several sections of the United Kingdom do not vary greatly from year to year. Table XIII., in which the totals for the United Kingdom include those for the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, illustrates the preponderance of the sheep-breeding industry in the drier climate of Great Britain, and of the cattle-breeding industry in the more humid atmosphere of Ireland. In Great Britain in 1905, for every head of cattle there were about four head of sheep, whereas in Ireland the cattle outnumbered the sheep. Again. whilst Great Britain possessed only half as many cattle more than

TABLE XIII.--Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the United Kingdom in 1905.

1905. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.

England 1,204,124 5,020,936 14,698,018 2,083,226 Wales 161,923 738,789 3,534,967 211,479 Scotland 206,386 1,227,295 7,024,211 130,214

Great Britain 1,572,433 6,987,020 25,257,196 2,424,919

Ireland 534,875 4,645,215 3,749,352 1,164,316

United Kingdom8 2,116,800 11,674,019 29,076,777 3,601,659

Ireland, she possessed six times as many sheep. The cattle population of England alone slightly exceeded that of Ireland. but cattle are more at home on the broad plains of England than amongst the hills and mountains of Wales and Scotland. which are suitable for sheep. Hence, whilst in England sheep were not three times as numerous as cattle, in Wales they were nearly five times, and in Scotland nearly six times as many. Great Britain had twice as many pigs as Ireland, but the swine industry is mainly English and Irish, and England possessed more than six times as many pigs as Wales and Scotland together. the number in the last-named country being particularly small. One English county alone, Suffolk, maintained more pigs than the whole of Scotland.

British Imports of Live Animals and Meat.

The stock-breeders and graziers of the United Kinudom have, equally with the corn-growers, to face the brunt of foreign competition.

Up tp 1896 store cattle were admitted into the United Kingdom for the purpose of being fattened, but under the Diseases of Animals Act of that year animals imported since then have to be slaughtered at the place of landing. The dimensions of this trade are shown in Table XIV.

TABLE XIV.--Numbers of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs Imported into the United Kingdom, 1891-1905.

Year. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.

1891 507,407 344,504 542 1892 502,237 79,048 3826 1993 340,045 62,682 138 1894 475,440 484,597 8 1895 415,565 1,065,470 321 1896 562,553 769,592 4 1897 618,321 611,504 .. 1898 569,066 663,747 450 1899 503,504 607,755 .. 1900 495,645 382,833 .. 1901 495,635 383,594 .. 1902 419,488 293,203 .. 1903 522,546 354,241 .. 1904 549,532 382,240 .. 1905 565,139 183,084 150

The animals come mainly from the United States of America, Canada and Argentina, and the traffic in cattle is more uniform than that in sheep, whilst that in pigs seems practically to have reached extinction. The quantities of dead meat imported increased with great rapidity from 1891 to 1905, a circumstance largely due to the rise of the trade in chilled and frozen meat. Fresh beef in this form is imported chiefly from the United States and Australasia, fresh mutton from Australasia and Argentina.

Table XV. shows how rapidly this trade expanded during the decade of the 'nineties. The column headed bacon and hams indicates clearly enough that the imports of fresh meat did not displace those of preserved pig meat, for the latter expanded from 4,715,000 cwt. to 7,784,000 cwt. during the decade. The column for all dead meat includes not only the items tabulated, but also

TABLE XV.--Quantities of Dead Meat Imported into the United Kingdom, 1891-1905--Thousands of Cwt.

Year. Fresh Fresh Fresh Bacon All Beef. Mutton. Pork. and Hams. Dead Meat.

1891 1921 1663 128 4715 9,790 1892 2080 1700 132 5135 10,300 1893 1808 1971 182 4187 9,305 1894 2104 2295 180 4819 10,610 1895 2191 2611 288 5353 11,977 1896 2660 2895 299 6009 13,347 1897 3010 3193 348 6731 14,729 1898 3101 3314 558 7684 16,445 1899 3803 3446 669 7784 17,658 1900 4128 3393 695 7444 17,912 1901 4509 3608 792 7633 18,764 1902 3707 3660 655 6572 16,971 1903 4160 4017 706 6298 17,498 1904 4350 3495 610 6696 17,517 1905 5038 3811 506 6817 18,680

the following, the quantities stated being those for 1905:--Beef, salted, 142,806 cwt.; beef, otherwise preserved, 598,030 cwt.; preserved mutton, 30,111 cwt.; salted pork, 205,965 cwt.; dead rabbits, 656,078 cwt.; meat, unenumerated, 875,032 cwt. The quantities of these are relatively small, and, excepting rabbits from Australia, they show no general tendency to increase. The extent to which these growing imports were associated with a decline in value is shown in Table XVI.

The trend of the import trade in meat, live and dead (exclusive of rabbits), may be gathered from Table XVII., in which are given the annual average imports from the eight quinquennial periods embraced between 1866 and 1905. An increase in live cattle accompanied a decrease in live sheep and pigs, but the imports of dead meat expanded fifteen-fold over the period,

The rate at which the trade in imported frozen mutton increased as compared with the industry in home-grown mutton is illustrated in the figures published annually by Messrs W. Weddel and Company, from which those for 1885 and 1890 and for each year from 1895 to 1906 are given in Table XVIII. The home-grown is the estimated dead weight of sheep and lambs slaughtered, which is taken at 40% of the total number of sheep and lambs returned each year in the United Kingdom. In the

TABLE XVI.--Average Values of Fresh Meat, Bacon and Hams Imported into the United Kingdom, 1891-1905--per Cwt.

Year. Fresh Fresh Fresh Bacon. Hams. Beef. Mutton. Pork.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

1891 42 1 39 6 47 6 37 11 46 4 1892 42 5 40 6 46 11 40 10 47 4 1893 42 4 39 3 50 0 53 0 58 5 1894 40 0 37 10 48 5 43 10 49 1 1895 39 0 35 2 46 1 39 0 44 11 1896 37 10 32 7 45 11 34 6 43 0 1897 38 5 30 3 44 0 35 5 42 8 1898 38 2 29 7 41 10 36 2 39 6 1899 38 8 31 7 41 11 35 10 41 5 1900 39 7 34 5 43 0 41 9 46 10 1901 39 6 36 7 43 4 47 1 48 8 1902 42 8 37 9 44 2 52 9 52 1 1903 40 3 39 0 44 1 52 10 55 1 1904 37 1 39 3 45 2 47 1 49 11 1905 35 6 38 6 46 0 46 6 47 4

imported column is given the weight of fresh (frozen) mutton and lamb imported, plus the estimated dead weight of the sheep imported on the hoof for slaughter. The quantity imported in 1899 was double that in 1890, and quadruple that in 1885. Moreover, in 1885 the imported product was only about one-seventh

TABLE XVII.--Average Annual Imports of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs, and of Dead Meat, into the United Kingdom over eight 5-yearly periods.

Period. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Dead Meat.

No. No. No. Cwt. 1866-1870 194,947 610,300 64,827 1,155,867 1871-1875 215,990 864,516 74,040 3,134,175 1876-1880 272,745 938,704 44,613 5,841,913 1881-1885 387,282 974,316 24,355 6,012,495 1886-1890 438,098 800,599 19,437 7,681,729 1891-1895 448,139 407,260 967 10,436,549 1896-1900 549,818 607,086 91 15,785,354 1901-1905 510,468 319,272 30 17,384,366

as much as the home-grown. whereas in 1890 it was more than one-fourth, and in 1906 close on two-thirds. This large import trade in fresh meat, which sprang up entirely within the last quarter of the 19th century, has placed an abundance of cheap and wholesome food well within the reach of the great industrial

TABLE XVIII.--Home Product and Imports of Sheep and Mutton into the United Kingdom--Thousands of Tons.

Year. Home- Imported. Year. Home- Imported. grown. grown.

1885 322 47 1900 332 179 1890 339 92 1901 330 191 1895 319 157 1902 322 191 1896 329 164 1903 318 2109 1897 327 175 1904 311 185 1898 333 182 1905 312 195 1899 339 187 1906 313 207

populations of the United Kingdom. At the same time it cannot. be gainsaid that it has opened the way to fraud. Butchers have palmed off upon their customers imported fresh meat as home-grown, and secured a dishonest profit by charging for it the prices of the latter, which are considerably in excess of those of the imported product.

Sale of Cattle by Live Weight

In connexion with the internal live stock trade of Great Britain attention must be directed to the Markets and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) Act 1891. The object of this measure is to replace the old-fashioned system of guessing at the weight of an animal by the sounder method of obtaining the exact weight by means of the weighbridge. The grazier buys and sells cattle much less frequently than the butcher buys them, so that the latter is naturally more skilled in estimating the weight of a beast through the use of the eye and the hand. The resort to the weighbridge should put both on an equality, and its use tends to increase. Under the act, as supplemented by an order of the Board of Agriculture in 1905, there were in that year 26 scheduled places in England and 10 in Scotland, or 36 altogether, from which returns were obtained. The numbers of cattle (both fat and store) weighed at scheduled places in 1893 and 190510 were respectively 7.59 and 18% of those entering those markets. The numbers for Scotland are greater throughout than those for England, 72% of the fat cattle entering the scheduled markets in Scotland in 1905 (2) having been weighed, while in England the proportion was only 20%. Little use is made of the weighbridge in selling store-cattle, sheep or swine. As the main object of the act is to obtain records of prices, it follows that only in so far as statements of the prices realized, together with the description of the animals involved, are obtained, is the full advantage of the statute secured. In 1905 the average price per cwt. for fat cattle in Great Britain was 32s. 11d. as compared with 35s. 2d. in 1900.

Food Values and Early Maturity.

In the feeding experiments which have been carried on at Rothamsted it has been shown that the amount consumed both for a given live weight of animal within a given time, and for the production of a given amount of increase, is, as current food stuffs go, measurable more by the amounts they contain of digestible and available non-nitrogenous constituents than by the amounts of the digestible and available nitrogenous constituents they supply. The non-nitrogenous substance (the fat) in the increase in live weight of an animal is, at any rate in great part, if not entirely, derived from the non-nitrogenous constituents of the food. Of the nitrogenous compounds in food, on the other hand, only a small proportion of the whole consumed is finally stored up in the increase of the animal--in other words, a very large amount of nitrogen passes through the body beyond that which is finally retained in the increase, and so remains for manure. Hence it is that the amount of food consumed to produce a given amount of increase in live weight, as well as that required for the sustentation of a given live weight for a given time, should--provided the food be not abnormally deficient in nitrogenous substance--be characteristically dependent on its supplies of digestible and available non-nitrogenous constituents. It has further been shown that, in the exercise of force by animals, there is a greatly increased expenditure of the non-nitrogenous constituents of food, but little, if any, Of the nitrogenous. Thus, then, alike for maintenance, for increase, and for the exercise of force, the exigencies of the system are characterized more by the demand for the digestible non-nitrogenous or more specially respiratory and fat-forming constituents than by that for the nitrogenous or more specially flesh-forming ones. Hence, as current fattening food-stuffs go--assuming, of course, that they are not abnormally low in the nitrogenous constituents--they are, as foods, more valuable in proportion to their richness in digestible and available non-nitrogenous than to that of their nitrogenous constituents. As, however, the manure of the animals of the farm is valuable largely in proportion to the nitrogen it contains, there is, so far, an advantage in giving a food somewhat rich in nitrogen, provided it is in other respects a good one, and, weight for weight, not much more costly.

The quantity of digestible nutritive matter in 1000 lb. of ordinary feeding-stuffs when supplied to sheep or oxen is shown in Table XIX. This table is taken from Warington's Chemistry of the Farm, 10th edition (Vinton and Co.), to which reference may be made for a detailed discussion of the feeding of animals.

In the fattening of animals for the butcher the principle of early maturity has received full recognition. If the sole purpose for which an animal is reared is to prepare it for the block--and this is the case with steers amongst cattle and with wethers amongst sheep--the sooner it is ready for slaughter the less should be the outlay involved. During the whole time the animal is living the feeder has to pay what has been termed the ``life tax''--that is, so much of the food has to go to the maintenance of the animal as a living organism into what will subsequenctly be available in the form of beef or mutton. If a bullock can be rendered fit for the butcher at the age of two or three years, will the animal repay another year's feeding? It has been proved at the Christmas fat stock shows that the older a bullock gets the less will he gain in weight per day as a result of the feeding. With regard to this point the work of the Smithfield Club deserves recognition. This body was instituted in 1798 as the Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society, the title being

TABLE XIX.--Digestible Matter in 1000 lb. of Various Foods.

Total Nitrogeneaous Soluble Organic Substances. Fat. Carbo- Fibre Matter. Alba- Amides, hydrates minoids. etc. Cotton cake (decorticated) 691 374 18 128 158 13 (undecorticated) 422 150 13 50 177 32 Linseed cake 655 230 11 103 266 45 Peas 747 175 25 12 499 36 Beans 733 196 28 12 446 51 Wheat11 786 92 13 15 656 10 Oats 600 81 7 45 441 26 Barley 715 70 4 19 607 15 Maize 786 73 6 44 651 12 Rice meal 612 67 10 102 411 22 Wheat bran 585 90 20 27 426 22 Malt sprouts 681 114 71 11 379 106 Brewers' grains 137 34 2 14 67 20 '' (dried) 529 136 8 57 266 62 Pasture grass 156 19 11 6 84 36 Clover (bloom beginning) 123 17 8 5 63 30 Clover hay (medium) 440 47 25 13 242 113 Meadow hay (best) 511 60 18 13 269 151 (medium) 485 40 12 12 269 152 (poor) 460 29 5 10 242 174 Maize silage 124 1 7 7 75 34 \ / Bean straw 412 40 6 211 155 Oat straw 381 7 5 7 163 199 Barley straw 426 4 3 6 211 202 \ / Wheat straw 351 4 4 150 193 Potatoes 213 5 9 1 195 3 Mangels (large) 89 1 8 1/2 74 6 (small) 109 2 6 1/2 96 5 Swedes 87 2 7 1/2 71 6 Turnips 68 1 5 1/2 56 5

changed to that of the Smithfield Club in 1802. The original object--the supply of the cattle markets of Smithfield and other places with the cheapest and best meat--is still kept strictly in view. The judges, in making their awards at the show held annually in December, at Islington, North London (since 1862), are instructed to decide according to quality of flesh, lightness of offal, age and early maturity, with no restrictions as to feeding, and thus to promote the primary aim of the club in encouraging the selection and breeding of the best and most useful animals for the production of meat, and testing their capabilities in respect of early maturity. At the first show, held at Smithfield in 1799, two classes were provided for cattle and two for sheep, the prizes offered amounting to L. 52 : 10s. In 1839 the classes comprised seven for cattle, six for sheep, and one for pigs, with prizes to the amount of L. 300. By 1862 the classes had risen to 29 for cattle, 17 for sheep and 4 for pigs, and the prize money to L. 2072. At the centenary show in 1898 provision was made for 40 classes for cattle, 29 for sheep, 18 for pigs, and 7 for animals to be slaughtered, whilst to mark the importance of the occasion the prizes offered amounted to close upon L. 5000 in value. In 1907 there were 38 classes for cattle, 29 for sheep, 20 or pigs and 12 for carcase competitors, and the value of the prizes was L. 4113. The sections provided for cattle are properly restricted to what may be termed the beef brands; in the catalogue order they are Devon, South Devon, Hereford, Shorthorn, Sussex, Red Polled, Aberdeen-Angus, Galloway, Welsh, Highland, Cross-bred, Kerry and Dexter, and Small Cross-bred.

It will be noticed that such characteristically milking breeds as the Ayrshire, Jersey and Guernsey have no place here. Provision is made, however, for all the well-known breeds of sheep and swine. In the cattle classes, aged beasts of huge size and of considerably over a ton in weight used to be common, but in recent years the tendency has been to reduce the upper limit of age, and thus to bring out animals ripe for the butcher in a shorted time than was formerly the case. An important step in this direction was taken in 1896, when the senior class for steers, viz. animals three to four years old, was abolished, the maximum age at which steers were allowed to compete for prizes being reduced to three years. The cow classes were abolished in 1897, and in the schedule of the 1905 exhibition the classes for each breed of cattle were (1) for steers not exceeding two years old, (2) for steers above two years and not exceeding three years old, and (3) for heifers not exceeding three years old. The single exception is provided by the slowly-maturing Highland breed of cattle, for which classes were allotted to (1) steers not exceeding three years old, (2) steers or oxen above three years old (with no maximum limit), and (3) heifers not exceeding four years old. As illustrating heavy weights, there were in the 1893 show, out of 310 entries of cattle, four beasts which weighed over a ton. They were all steers of three to four years old, one being a Hereford weighing 20 cwt. 2 qr. 4 lb, and the others Shorthorns weighing respectively 20 cwt. 2 qr., 20 cwt. 3 qr. 21 lb, and 22 cwt. 2 qr. 18 lb. In the 1895 show, out of 356 entries of cattle, there were seven beasts of more than a ton in weight. They were all three to four years old, and comprised four Shorthorns (top weight 21 cwt. 1 qr. 18 lb), one Sussex (22 cwt. 3 qr. 7 lb), and two cross-breds (top weight 20 cwt. 3 qr. 24 lb). In the 1899 show, with 311 entries of cattle, and the age limited to three years, no beast reached the weight of a ton, the heaviest animal being a crossbred (Aberdeen-Angus and Shorthorn) which, at three years old, turned the scale at 19 cwt. 1 qr. 5 lb. Out of 301 entries in 1905 the top weight was 19 cwt. 1 qr. 25 lb in the case of a Shorthorn steer. Useful figures for purposes of comparison are obtained by dividing the weight of a fat beast by the number of days in its age, the weight at birth being thrown in. The average daily gain in live weight is thus arrived at, and as the animal increases in age this average gradually diminishes, until the daily gain reaches a stage at which it does not afford any profitable return upon the food consumed. At the centenary show of the Smithfield Club in 1898 the highest average daily gains in weight amongst prize-winning cattle were providrd by a Shorthorn-Aberdeen cross-bred steer (age, one year seven months; daily gain 2.47 lb); a Shorthorn steer (age, one year seven months; daily gain, 2.44 lb); and an Aberdeen-Shorthorn cross-bred steer (age, one year ten months; daily gain, 2.33 lb). These beasts, it will be observed, were all under two years old. Amongst prize steers of two and a half to three years old, on the same occasion, the three highest daily average gains in live weight were 2.07 lb. for an Aberdeen-Angus, 1.99 lb. for a Shorthorn-Aberdeen cross-bred and 1.97 lb. for a Sussex. In the sheep section of the Smithfield show the classes for ewes were finally abolished in 1898, and the classes restricted to wethers and wether lambs, whose function is exclusively the production of meat. At the 1905 show, sheep of each breed, and also cross-breds, competed as (1) wether lambs under twelve months old, and (2) wether sheep above twelve and under twenty-four months old. The only exception was in the case of the slowly-maturing Cheviot and mountain breeds, for which the second class was for wether sheep of any age above twelve months. Of prize sheep at the centenary show the largest average daily gain was 0.77 lb. per head given by Oxford-Hampshire cross-bred wether lambs, aged nine months two weeks. In the case of wether sheep, twelve to twenty-four months old, the highest daily increase was 0.56 lb per head as yielded by Lincolns, aged twenty-one months. Within the last quarter of the 19th century the stock-feeding practices of the country were much modified in accordance with these ideas of early maturity. The three-year-old wethers and older oxen that used to be common in the fat stock markets are now rarely seen, excepting perhaps in the case of mountain breeds of sheep and Highland cattle. It was in 1875 that the Smithfield Club first provided the competitive classes for lambs, and in 1883 the champion plate offered for the best pen of sheep of any age in the show was for the first time won by lambs, a pen of Hampshire Downs. The young classes for bullocks were established in 1880. The time-honoured notion that an animal must have completed its growth before it could be profitably fattened is no longer held, and the improved breeds which now exist rival one another as regards the early period at which they may be made ready for the butcher by appropriate feeding and management.

In 1895 the Smithfield Club instituted a carcase competition in association with its annual show of fat stock, and it has been continued each year since. The cattle and sheep entered for this competition are shown alive on the first day, at the close of which they are slaughtered and the carcases hung up for exhibition, with details of live and dead weights. The competition thus constitutes what is termed a ``block test,'' and it is instructive in affording the opportunity of seeing the quality of the carcases furnished by the several animals, and in particular the relative proportion and distribution of fat and lean meat. The live animals are judged and subsequently the carcases, and, though the results sometimes agree, more often they do not. Tables are constructed showing the fasted live weight, the carcase weight, and the weight of the various parts that are separated from and not included with the carcase. An abundance of lean meat and a moderate amount of fat well distributed constitutes a better carcase, and a more economical one for the consumer, than a carcase in which gross accumulations of fat are prominent. To add to the educational value of the display, information as to the methods of feeding would be desirable, as it would then be possible to correlate the quality of the meat with the mode of its manufacture. A point of high practical interest is the ratio of carcase weight to fasted live weight, and in the case of prize-winning carcases these ratios usually fluctuate within very narrow limits. At the 1890 show, for example, the highest proportion of the carcase weight to live weight was 68% in the case of an Aberdeen-Angus steer and of a Cheviot wether, whilst the lowest was 61%, afforded alike by a Shorthorn-Sussex cross-bred heifer and a mountain lamb. A familiar practical method of estimating carcase weight from live weight is to reckon one Smithfield stone (8 lb) of carcase for each imperial stone (14 lb) of live weight. This gives carcase weight as equal to 57% of live weight, a ratio much inferior to the best results obtained at the carcase competition promoted by the Smithfield Club.

Breed societies.

A noteworthy feature of the closing decades of the 19th century was the formation of voluntary associations of stockbreeders, with the object of promoting the interests of the respective breeds of live stock. As a typical example of these organizations the Shire Horse Society may be mentioned. It was incorporated in 1878 to improve and promote the breeding of the Shire or old English race of cart-horses, and to effect the distribution of sound and healthy sires throughout the country. The society holds annual shows, publishes annually the Shire Horse Stud Book and offers gold and silver medals for competition amongst Shire horses at agricultural shows in different parts of the country, The society has carried on a work of high national importance, and has effected a marked improvement in the character and quality of the Shire horse. What has thus voluntarily been done in England would in most other countries be left to the state, or would not be attempted at all. It is hardly necessary to say that the Shire Horse Society has never received a penny of public money, nor has any other of the voluntary breeders' societies. The Hackney Horse Society and the Hunters' Improvement Society are conducted on much the same lines as the Shire Horse Society, and, like it, they each hold a show in London in the spring of the year and publish an annual volume. Other horsebreeders' associations, all doing useful work in the interests of their respective breeds, are the Suffolk Horse Society, the Clydesdale Horse Society, the Yorkshire Coach Horse Society, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society, the Polo Pony Society, the Shetland Pony Stud Book Society, the Welsh Pony and Cob Society and the New Forest Pony Association. Thoroughbred race-horses are registered in the General Stud Book. The Royal Commission on Horse Breeding, which dates from 1887, is, as its name implies, not a voluntary organization. Through the commission the money previously spent upon Queen's Plates is offered in the form of ``King's Premiums'' (to the number of twenty-eight in 1907) of L. 150 each for thoroughbred stallions, on condition that each stallion winning a premium shall serve not less than fifty half-bred mares, if required. The winning stallions are distributed in districts throughout Great Britain, and the use of these selected sires has resulted in a decided improvement in the quality of half-bred horses. The annual show of the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding is held in London jointly. and concurrently with that of the Hunters' Improvement Society.

Of organizations of cattle-breeders the English Jersey Cattle Society, established in 1878, may be taken as a type. It offers prizes in butter-test competitions and milking trials at various agricultural shows, and publishes the English Herd Book and Register of Pure-Bred Jersey Cattle. This volume records the births in the herds of members of the society, and gives the pedigrees of cows and bulls, besides furnishing lists of prize-winners at the principal shows and butter-test awards, and reports of sales by auction of Jersey cattle. Other cattle societies, all well caring for the interest of their respective breeds, are the Shorthorn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn Association, the Hereford Herd Book Society, the Devon Cattle Breeders' Society, the South Devon Herd Book Society, the Sussex Herd Book Society, the Long-horned Cattle Society, the Red Polled Society, the English Guernsey Cattle Society, the English Kerry and Dexter Cattle Society, the Welsh Black Cattle Society, the Polled Cattle Society (for the Aberdeen-Angus breed), the English Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Association, the Galloway Cattle Society, the Ayrshire Cattle Herd Book Society, the Highland Cattle Society of Scotland and the Dairy Shorthorn Association.

In the case of sheep the National Sheep Breeders' Association looks after the interests of flockmasters in general, whilst most of the pure breeds are represented also by separate organizations. The Hampshire Down Sheep Breeders' Association may be taken as a type of the latter, its principal object being to encourage the breeding of Hampshire Down sheep at home and abroad, and to maintain the purity of the breed. It publishes an annual Flock Book, the first volume of which appeared in 1890. In this book are named the recognized and pure-bred sires which have been used, and ewes which have been bred from, whilst there are also registered the pedigrees of such sheep as are proved to be eligible for entry. Prizes are offered by the society at various agricultural shows where Hampshire Down sheep are exhibited. Other sheep societies include the Leicester Sheep Breeders' Association, the Cotswold Sheep Society, the Lincoln Longwool Sheep Breeders' Association, the Oxford Down Sheep Breeders' Association, the Shropshire Sheep Breeders' Association and Flock Book Society, the Southdown Sheep Society, the Suffolk Sheep Society, the Border Leicester Sheep Breeders' Society, the Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders' Association and Flock Book Society, the Incorporated Wensleydale Blue-faced Sheep Breeders' Association and Flock Book Society, the Kent Sheep Breeders' Association, the Devon Longwool Sheep Breeders' Society, the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association, the Cheviot Sheep Society and the Roscommon Sheep Breeders' Association.

The interests of pig-breeders are the care of the National Pig Breeders' Association, in addition to which there exist the British Berkshire, the Large Black Pig, and the Lincoln Curly-Coated White Pig Societies, and the Incorporated Tamworth Pig Breeders' Association.

The addresses of the secretaries of the various live-stock societies in the United Kingdom are published annually in the Live Stock Journal Almanac.

The Maintenance of the Health of Live Stock.

It was not till the closing decade of the 19th century that the stock-breeders of the United Kingdom found themselves in a position to prosecute their industry free from the fear of the introduction of contagious disease through the medium of store animals imported from abroad for fattening on the native pastures. By the Diseases of Animals Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 15) it was provided that cattle, sheep and pigs imported into the United Kingdom should be slaughtered at the place of landing. The effect was to reduce to a minimum the risk of the introduction of disease amongst the herds and flocks of the country, and at the same time to confine the trade in store stock exclusively to the breeders of Great Britain and Ireland. This arrangement makes no difference to the food-supply of the people, for dead meat continues to arrive at British ports in ever-increasing quantity. Moreover, live animals are admitted freely from certain countries, provided such animals are slaughtered at the place of landing. At Deptford, for example, large numbers of cattle and sheep which thus arrive--mainly from Argentina, Canada and the United States--are at once slaughtered, and so furnish a steady supply of fresh-killed beef and mutton. The animals which are shipped in this way are necessarily of the best quality, because the freight on a superior beast is no more costly than on an inferior one, and the proportion of freight to sale price is therefore less. With this superior description of butchers' stock all classes of home-grown stock--good, bad and indifferent--have, of course, to compete. The Board of Agriculture has the power to close the ports of the United Kingdom against live animals from any country in which contagious disease is known to exist. This accounts for the circumstance that so few countries--none of them in Europe--enjoy the privilege of sending live animals to British ports. In 1900 the discovery early in the year of the existence of foot-and-mouth disease amongst cattle and sheep shipped from Argentina to the United Kingdom led to the issue of an order by which all British ports were closed against live animals from the country named. This order came into force on the 30th of April, and the result was a marked decline in the shipments of live cattle and sheep from the River Plate, but a decided increase in the quantity of frozen meat sent thence to the United Kingdom.

The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed an important change in the attitude of public opinion towards legislative control over the contagious diseases of animals. When, after the introduction of cattle plague or rinderpest in 1865, the proposal was made to resort to the extreme remedy of slaughter in order to check the ravages of a disease which was pursuing its course with ruinous results, the idea was received with public indignation and denounced as barbarous. Views have undergone profound modification since then, and the most drastic remedy has come to be regarded as the most effective, and in the long run the least costly. The Cattle Diseases Prevention Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. 2) made compulsory the slaughter of diseased cattle, and permitted the slaughter of cattle which had been exposed to infection, compensation being provided out of the rates. The Act 30 & 31 Vict. c. 125, 1867, is of historical interest, in that it contains the first mention of pleuro-pneumonia, and the exposure in any market of cattle suffering from that disease was made an offence. The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 70) revoked all former acts, and defined disease to mean cattle plague, pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, sheep-pox, sheep-scab and glanders, together with any disease which the Privy Council might by order specify. The principle of this act in regard to foreign animals was that of free importation, with power for the Privy Council to prohibit or subject to quarantine and slaughter, as circumstances seemed to require. The act of 1869 was at that time the most complete measure that had ever been passed for dealing with diseases of animals. The re-introduction of cattle plague into England in 1877 led to the passing of the Act 41 & 42 Vict. c. 74, 1878, which repealed the act of 1869, and affirmed as a principle the landing of foreign animals for slaughter only, though free importation or quarantine on the one hand and prohibition on the other were provided for in exceptional circumstances. By an order of council which came into operation in December 1878, swine fever was declared to be a disease for the purposes of the act of that year. It was not, however, till October 1886 that anthrax and rabies were officially declared to be contagious diseases for the purposes of certain sections of the act of 1878. In 1884 the Act 47 & 48 Vict. c. 13 empowered the Privy Council to prohibit the landing of animals from any country in respect of which the circumstances were not such as to afford reasonable security against the introduction of foot-and-mouth disease. After one or two other measures of minor importance came the Act 53 & 54 Vict. c. 14, known as the Pleuro-pneumonia Act 1890, which transferred the powers of local authorities to slaughter and pay compensation in cases of pleuro-pneumonia to the Board of Agriculture, and provided further for the payment of such compensation out of money specifically voted by parliament. This measure was regarded at the time as a marked step in advance, and was only carried after a vigorous campaign in its favour. In 1892 by the Act 55 & 56 Vict. c. 47 power was given to the Board of Agriculture to use the sums voted on account of pleuro-pneumonia for paying the costs involved in dealing with foot-and-mouth disease; under this act the board could order the slaughter of diseased animals and of animals in contact with these, and could pay compensation for animals so slaughtered. Under the provisions of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1893 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 43) swine fever in Great Britain was, from the 1st of November in that year, dealt with by the Board of Agriculture in the same way as pleuro-pneumonia, the slaughter of infected swine being carried out under directions from the central authority, and compensation allowed from the imperial exchequer. In 1894 was passed the Diseases of Animals Act (57 & 58 Vict. c. 57), the word ``contagious'' being omitted from the title. This was a measure to consolidate the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts 1878-1893. In it ``the expression `disease' means cattle plague (that is to say, rinderpest, or the disease commonly called cattle plague), contagious pleuro-pneumonia of cattle (in this act called pleuro-pneumonia), foot-and-mouth disease, sheep-pox, sheep-scab, or swine fever (that is to say, the disease known as typhoid fever of swine, soldier purples, red disease, hog cholera or swine plague).'' The Diseases of Animals Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 15) rendered compulsory the slaughter of imported live stock at the place of landing, a boon for which British stock-breeders had striven for many years. The ports in Great Britain at which foreign animals may be landed are Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Hull, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Animals from the Channel Islands may be landed at Southampton.

The Diseases of Animals.

Under the Diseases of Animals Acts 1894 and 1896 weekly returns are issued by the Board of Agriculture of outbreaks of anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, glanders (including farcy), pleuro-pneumonia, rabies and swine fever in the counties of Great Britain; also monthly returns of outbreaks of sheep-scab.

Cattle plague, or rinderpest, has not been recorded in Great Britain since 1877. In that year there were 47 outbreaks distributed over five counties and involving 263 head of cattle.

The course of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain between 1877 and 1905 inclusive is told in Table XX., from which the

TABLE XX.--Outbreaks of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Great Britain, 1877-1905.

Animals attacked. Out Other Year. Counties. Breaks. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Animals.

1877 55 858 5,640 7,405 2,099 1878 45 235 912 8,609 245 1879 29 137 261 15,681 5 1880 38 1,461 20,918 9,572 1,886 2 1881 49 4,833 59,484 117,152 6,330 80 1882 49 1,970 23,973 11,412 2,564 1 1883 75 18,732 219,289 217,492 24,332 32 1884 55 949 12,186 14,174 1,860 1 1885 10 30 354 34 30 1886 1 1 10 1892 15 95 1,248 3,412 107 1893 2 2 30 1894 3 3 7 261 1900 9 21 214 50 2 1901 3 12 43 626 1902 1 1 2 118

years 1887 to 1891, 1895 to 1899 and 1903 to 1905 inclusive are omitted, because there was no outbreak during those periods. The disease is seen to have attained its maximum virulence in 1883.

Sheep-scab is a loathsome skin disease due to an acarian parasite. Table XXI. shows the number of outbreaks and the number of counties over which they were distributed from 1877 to 1905. The recorded outbreaks were more numerous in the decade of the 'nineties than in that of the 'eighties, though possibly this may have been due to greater official activity in the later period. The largest number of sheep attacked was

TABLE XXI.--Outbreaks of Sheep-Scab in Great Britain, 1877-1905.

Year. Counties. Outbreaks. Year. Counties. Outbreaks.

1877 77 3214 1890 75 1506 1880 70 1556 1895 88 3092 1885 69 1512 1900 78 1939 1905 73 918

68,715 (in 1877). It is compulsory on owners to notify the authorities as to the existence of scab amongst their sheep. By the Diseases of Animals Act(1903) powers to prescribe the dipping of sheep, irrespective of the presence or otherwise of sheep scab, were conferred upon the Board of Agriculture. An inspector of the board or of the local authority was by the same act authorized to enter premises and examine sheep. Each year the disorder runs a similar course, the outbreaks dwindling to a minimum in the summer months, June to August, and attaining a maximum in the winter months, December to February. It is chiefly in the ``flying'' flocks and not in the breeding flocks that the disease is rife, and it is so easily communicable that a drove of scab-infested sheep passing along a road may leave behind them traces sufficient to set up the disorder in a drove of healthy sheep that may follow. For its size and in relation to its sheep population Wales harbours the disease to a far greater extent than the other divisions of Great Britain.

The fatal disease known as anthrax did not form the subject of official returns previous to the passing of the Anthrax Order of 1886. Isolated outbreaks are of common occurrence, and from the totals for Great Britain given in Table XXII. it would appear that there is little prospect of the eradication of this bacterial disorder.

Glanders (including farcy) was the subject during the twenty-four years 1877-1900 of outbreaks in Great Britain ranging between a minimum of 518 in 1877 and a maximum of 1657 in 1892; in the former year 758 horses were attacked, and in the latter 3001. A recrudescence of the disease marked the closing years of the 19th century, the outbreaks having been 748 in 1898, 853 in 1899 and 1119 in 1900. The counties of Great Britain over which the annual outbreaks have been distributed have ranged between 24 in 1890 and 52 in 1879. As a matter of fact,

TABLE XXII.--Outbreaks of Anthrax in Great Britain, 1895-1905.

Animals Attacked. Year. Counties. Outbreaks. Cattle. Sheep. Swine. Horses.

1895 66 434 604 158 140 32 1896 64 488 632 34 200 38 1897 67 433 521 39 284 38 1898 73 556 634 22 161 39 1899 67 534 634 69 253 30 1900 74 571 668 40 204 44 1901 63 651 708 76 152 35 1902 71 678 746 50 192 44 1903 78 767 809 48 234 51 1904 77 1049 1115 62 365 47 1905 84 970 1001 53 210 53

however, the disease is strongly centred upon the metropolitan area, more than half of the outbreaks being reported from the county of London alone.

The rabies order was passed in 1886, and the number of counties in Great Britain in which cases of rabies in dogs were reported in each subsequent year is shown in Table XXIII. In addition there have been some cases of rabies in animals other than dogs. The disease was very rife in 1895, but the extensive application of the muzzling restrictions of the Board of Agriculture was accompanied by so steady a diminution in the

TABLE XXIII.--Cases of Rabies in Dogs in Great Britain, 1887-1902.

Year. Counties. Cases. Year. Counties. Cases.

1887 28 217 1895 29 672 1888 19 160 1896 41 438 1889 20 312 1897 30 151 1890 20 129 1898 10 17 1891 17 79 1899 4 9 1892 12 38 1900 2 6 1893 18 93 1901 1 1 1894 17 248 1902 4 13

prevalence of the disease, that it was thought the latter had been extirpated. The entire revocation of the muzzling order, which accordingly followed, proved, however, to be premature, and it became necessary to reimpose it in the districts where it had last been operative, namely, certain parts of South Wales. No cases were reported in 1903, 1904 or 1905.

Pleuro-pneumonia in Great Britain was dealt with by the local authorities up to the year 1890. Between 1870 and 1889 the annual outbreaks had ranged between a minimum of 312 in 1884 and a maximum of 3262 in 1874, the largest number of cattle attacked in any one year being 7983 in 1872. The largest number of counties over which thin outbreaks were distributed was 72 in 1873. On the 1st of September 1890 the Board of Agriculture assumed powers with respect to pleuro-pneumonia under the Diseases of Animals Act of that year. Their administration was attended by success, for from 192 outbreaks in Great Britain in 1891 the total fell to 35 in 1892 and to 9 in 1893. In the four subsequent years, 1894-1897, the outbreaks numbered 2, 1, 2, and 7 respectively. In January 1898 an outbreak was discovered in a London cow-shed. This proved to be the last case in the 19th century of what at one time had been a veritable scourge to cattle-owners and a source of heavy financial loss.

Between 1879 and 1892 inclusive, administration with regard to swine-fever was entrusted to local authorities. The largest number of outbreaks neported in any one of those years was 7926 in 1885, and the smallest 1717 in 1881. In 1893 the Board of Agriculture took over the management, and Table XXIV. shows the number of counties in which swine-fever existed, the number of outbreaks confirmed and the number of swine slaughtered by order of the board in each year since. The trouble with this disease has been mainly in England, the outbreaks in Wales and Scotland being comparatively few. What are termed ``swine-fever infected areas'' are scheduled by the board when and where circumstances seem to require, and the movement

TABLE XXIV.--Outbreaks of Swine Fever in Great Britain, 1894-1905.

Swine slaughtered as Outbreaks diseased, or as having been Year. Counties. confirmed. exposed to infection.

1894 73 5682 56,296 1895 73 6305 69,931 1896 77 5166 79,586 1897 74 2155 40,432 1898 72 2514 43,756 1899 71 2322 30,797 1900 62 1940 17,933 1901 71 3140 15,237 1902 67 1688 8,263 1903 63 1478 7,933 1904 64 1196 5,603 1905 58 817 3,876

of swine within such areas is prohibited, much inconvenience to trade resulting from restrictions of this kind. Frequently, moreover, the exhibition of pigs at agricultural shows has to be abandoned in consequence of these swine-fever regulations.

The Trade in Live Stock Between Ireland and Great Britain.

The compulsory slaughter at the place of landing does not extend to animals shipped from Ireland into Great Britain, and this is a matter of the highest importance to Irish stock-breeders, who find their best market close at hand on the east of St George's Channel. Table XXV. shows the number of cattle, sheep and pigs shipped from Ireland into Great Britain in each of the fifteen years 1891-1905, the numbers of horses similarly shipped being also indicated. On the average rather more than half the total of cattle is made up of store animals for fattening or breeding purposes, the fattening of Irish stores being a business of considerable magnitude in Norfolk and other counties. Calves constitute about one-twelfth of the total number of cattle.

TABLE XXV.--Imports of Live Stock from Ireland into Great Britain, 1891-1905.

Year. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Horses.

1891 630,802 893,175 503,584 33,396 1892 624,457 1,080,202 500,951 32,481 1893 688,669 1,107,960 456,571 30,390 1894 826,954 957,101 584,967 33,589 1895 791,607 652,578 547,220 34,560 1896 681,560 737,306 610,589 39,856 1897 746,012 804,515 695,307 38,422 1898 803,362 833,458 588,785 38,804 1899 772,272 871,953 688,553 42,087 1900 745,519 862,263 715,202 35,606 1901 642,638 843,325 596,129 25,607 1902 959,241 1,055,802 637,972 25,260 1903 897,645 825,679 569,920 27,719 1904 772,363 739,266 505,080 27,500 1905 749,131 700,626 363,823 30,723

Most of the pigs sent from Ireland into Great Britain are fat, the store pigs accounting for less than one-tenth of the total number. The returns from Ireland under the Diseases of Animals Acts 1894 and 1896 are less significant than those of Great Britain. Thus, in the year ending June 1905, they included 4 outbreaks of anthrax, 219 of swine-fever and 343 of sheep-scab, while there were no cases of rabies. Compared with the export trade in live stock from Ireland to Great Britain the reciprocal trade from Great Britain to Ireland is small, and is largely restricted to animals for breeding purposes. Owing to the reappearance of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain early in 1900 the importation of cattle, sheep, goats and swine therefrom into Ireland was temporarily suspended by the authorities in the latter country.

Exports of Animals from the United Kingdom.

The general export trade of the United Kingdom in living animals represented an aggregate average annual value over the five years 1896-1900 of L. 1,017,000 as against L. 935,801 over the five years 1901-1905. To these sums the value of horses alone contributed about three-fourths, Belgium taking more than half the number of exported horses. The export trade in cattle, sheep and pigs is practically restricted to pedigree animals required for breeding purposes, and though its aggregate value

TABLE XXVI.--Quantities and Value of Home-bred Live Stock Exported from the United Kingdom, 1900-1905.

Other Year. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Animals.

1900 30,038 2,742 4,934 435 75,642 1901 27,612 1,648 2,761 378 68,012 1902 30,032 2,428 3,596 515 60,941 1903 34,798 2,736 5,579 776 52,095 1904 32,955 3,311 8,142 732 50,873 1905 47,708 3,938 8,378 931 50,307

pounds pounds pounds pounds pounds 1900 681,927 118,337 53,306 3032 45,241 1901 605,699 61,812 25,727 3437 45,476 1902 635,661 96,153 29,069 5053 56,691 1903 734,598 140,244 67,758 7053 48,335 1904 581,339 146,210 88,421 7850 43,868 1905 875,647 190,406 133,413 8024 41,061

is not large it is of considerable importance to stock-breeders, as it is a frequent occurrence for buyers for export--to Argentina, Australasia, Canada, the United States and elsewhere--to bid freely at the sale rings, and often to pay the highest prices, thus stimulating the sales and encouraging the breeding of the best types of native stock. Details for the six years 1900-1905 are summarized in Table XXVI.

Implements and Machinery.

It is the custom of the Royal Agricultural Society of England to invite competitions at its annual shows in specified classes of implements, and an enumeration of these will indicate the character of the appliances which were thus brought into prominence in the latter years of the 19th and the early years of the 20th century. These trials taking place, with few intermissions, year after year serve to direct the public mind to the development, which is continually in progress, of the mechanical aids to agriculture. The awards here summarized are quite distinct from those of silver medals which are given by the society in the case of articles possessing sufficient merit, which are entered as ``new implements for agricultural or estate purposes.''

In 1875, at Taunton, special prizes were awarded for one-horse and two-horse mowing-machines, hay-making machines, horse-rakes (self-acting and not self-acting), guards to the drums of threshing-machines, and combined guards and feeders to the drums of threshing-machines. In 1876, at Birmingham, the competitions were of self-delivery reapers, one-horse reapers and combined mowers and reapers without self-delivery. In 1878, at Bristol, the special awards were all for dairy appliances --milk-can for conveying milk long distances, churn for milk, churn for cream, butter-worker for large dairies, butterworker for small dairies, cheese-tub, curd knife, curd mill, cheese-turning apparatus, automatic means of preventing rising of cream, milk-cooler and cooling vat. A gold medal was awarded for a harvester and self-binder (McCormick's). In 1879, at Kilburn, the competition was of railway waggons to convey perishable goods long distances at low temperatures. In 1880 at Carlisle, and in 1881 at Derby, the special awards were for broadside steam-diggers and string sheaf-binders respectively. In 1882, at Reading, a gold medal was given for a cream separator for horse power, whilst a prize of 100 guineas offered for the most efficient and most economical method of drying hay or corn crops artificially, either before or after being stacked, was not awarded. In 1883, at York, a prize of L. 50 was given for a butter dairy suitable for not more than twenty cows. In 1884, at Shrewsbury, a prize of L. 100 was awarded for a sheaf-binding reaper, and one of L. 50 for a similar machine. In 1885, at Preston, the competitions were concerned with two-horse, three-horse and four-horse whipple-trees, and packages for conveying fresh butter by rail. In 1886, at Norwich, a prize of L. 25 was awarded for a thatch-making machine. In 1887, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, a prize of L. 200 went to a compound portable agricultural engine, one of L. 100 to a simple portable agricultural engine, and lesser prizes to a weighing-machine for horses and cattle, a weighing-machine for sheep and pigs, potato-raisers and one-man-power cream separators. In 1888, at Nottingham, hay and straw presses for steam-power, horse-power and hand-power were the subjects of competition. In 1889, at Windsor, prizes were awarded for a fruit and vegetable evaporator, a paring and coring machine, a dairy thermometer, parcel post butter-boxes to carry different weights. and a vessel to contain preserved butter. In 1890, at Plymouth, competitions took place of light portable engines (a) using solid fuel, (b) using liquid or gaseous fuel, grist mills for use on a farm, disintegrators, and cider-making plant for use on a farm. In 1891, at Doncaster, special prizes were given for combined portable threshing and finishing machines, and cream separators (hand and power). In 1892, at Warwick, the competitions related to ploughs--single furrow (a) for light land, (b) for strong land, (c) for press drill and broad-cast sowing; two-furrow; three-furrow; digging (a) for light land, (b) for heavy land; and one-way ploughs. In 1893, at Chester, self-binding harvesters and sheep-shearing machines (power) were the appliances respectively in competition. In 1894, at Cambridge, the awards were for fixed and portable oil engines, potato-spraying and tree-spraying machines, sheep-dipping apparatus and churns. In 1895, at Darlington, the competitions were confined to hay-making machines and clover-making machines. In 1896, at Leicester, prizes were awarded after trial to potato-planting machines, potato-raising machines and butter-drying machines. In 1897, at Manchester, special awards were made for fruit baskets and milk-testers. In 1898, at Birmingham, a prize of L. 100 was given for a self-moving vehicle for light loads, L. 100 and L. 50 for self-moving vehicles for heavy loads, and L. 10 for safety feeder to chaff-cutter, in accordance with the Chaff-cutting Machines (Accidents) Act 1897. In 1899, at Maidstone, special prizes were offered for machines for washing hops with liquid insecticides, cream separators (power and hand), machines for the evaporation of fruit and vegetables, and packages for the carriage of (a) soft fruit, (b) hard fruit. In 1900, at York, the competitions were concerned with horse-power cultivators, self-moving steam diggers, milking machines and sheep-shearing machines (power and hand). In 1901, at Cardiff, competition was invited in portable oil engines, agricultural locomotive oil engines and small ice-making plant suitable for a dairy. In the years 1903 and 1904 petrol motors adapted for ploughing and other agricultural operations formed a prominent feature of the exhibits.

The progress of steam cultivation has not justified the hopes that were once entertained in the United Kingdom concerning this method of working implements in the field. It was about the year 1870 that its advantages first came into prominent notice. At that time, owing to labour disputes, the supply of hands was short and horses were dear. The wet seasons that set in at the end of the 'seventies led to so much hindrance in the work on the land that the aid of steam was further called for, and it seemed probable that there would be a lessened demand for horse power. It was found, however, that the steam work was done with less care than had been bestowed upon the horse tillage, and the result was that steam came to be regarded as an auxiliary to horse labour rather than as a substitute for it. In this capacity it is capable of rendering most valuable assistance, for it can be utilized in moving extensive areas of land in a very short time. Accordingly, when a few days occur early in the season favourable to the working of the land, much of it can be got into a forward condition, whilst horses are set free for the lighter operations. The crops can then be sown in due time, which in wet years, and with the usual teams of horses kept on a farm, is not always practicable. Much advantage arises from the steam working of bastard fallows in summer, and after harvest a considerable amount of autumn cultivation can be done by steam power, thus materially lightening the work in the succeeding spring. On farms of moderate size it is usual to hire steam tackle as required, the outlay involved in the purchase of a set being justifiable only in the case of estates or of very big farms where, when not engaged in ploughing, or in cultivating, or in other work upon the land, the steam-engine may be employed in threshing, chaff-cutting, sawing and many similar operations which require power. The labour question again became acute in the early years of the 20th century, when, owing to the scarcity of hands and the high rate of wages, self-binding harvesters were resorted to in England for the in-gathering of the corn crops to a greater extent than ever before. For the same reason potato-planting and potato-lifting machines were also in greater requisition.

Agricultural Population and Wages.

The last half of the 19th century witnessed a remarkable diminution of the British rural population. The decrease has assumed serious proportions since 1871, as before that date the supply of rural labour exceeded the demand. A large number of agricultural labourers were thus only in

## partial employment, and their withdrawal from the land

was of minor importance as compared with the shrinkage in the number of those permanently employed. The following tables indicate the extent of rural depopulation:--

Number of ``Persons Engaged in Agriculture'' in the United Kingdom, 1851-1901.

1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 1891. 1901.

3,453,500 3,080,500 2,744,000 2,573,900 2,394,500 2,262,600

The number of ``agricultural labourers and shepherds, which affords a more precise index, declined in a still more marked degree.

1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 1891. 1901.

1,110,311 1,098,261 923,332 830,452 756,557 609,105

The decrease in the demand for labour is attributable chiefly to the reduction of the cultivated area and the laying down to pasture of land once under the plough, and to the increasing use of agricultural machinery. It may however, be noticed that the period was marked by a steady increase of the cash wages of the farm labourer, as indicated by the following table from the Report on the Earnings of Agricultural labourers issued by the Board of Trade in 1905.

Average Weekly Cash Wages of Ordinary Agricultural Labourers Employed on Certain Farms in England and Wales.

England and Wales, Eastern counties, Year. 69 Farms. 12 Farms.

s. d. s. d. 1850 9 3 1/2 8 8 1855 10 11 1/2 11 5 1860 10 11 10 8 1865 11 3 10 5 1870 11 10 1/2 11 1 1/2 1875 13 7 12 11 1/2 1880 13 2 1/2 12 1 1885 13 1 11 5 1890 13 0 1/2 11 0 1/2 1895 13 2 1/2 11 0 1900 14 5 1/2 13 1 1/2 1903 14 7 13 2 1/2

(See also ALLOTMENTS AND SMALL HOLDINGS.)

Agricultural Education.

In Great Britain agricultural education as a whole lacks the scope and co-ordination which it has in some continental countries. Centres at which higher agricultural education is given are, however, numerous. The chief are:--

The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester Aspatria Agricultural College, Carlisle. Tamworth Agricultural College. *Agricultural and Horticultural College, Uckfield, Sussex. *Agricultural and Horticultural College, Holme Chapel, Cheshire. *Midland Agricultural and Dairy College, Kingston, Derby. *Harper-Adams Agricultural College, Newport, Salop. *Lancashire County School, Harris Institute, Preston. *University College of North Wales, Bangor. *University of Leeds. *Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. *Cambridge University. *University College, Reading. *South-Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. *University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. *Agricultural Institute, Ridgmont (Bedfordshire County Council). *Essex County Technical Laboratories, Chelmsford. In the year 1904-1905 L. 10,600 was devoted by the Board of Agriculture to agricultural instruction and experiments. Of this sum the greater part was divided amongst the institutions marked with an asterisk in the above list. The first three named are private establishments. The county councils also expend sums varying at their own discretion on instruction in dairy-work, poultry-keeping, farriery and veterinary science, horticulture, agricultural experiments, agricultural lectures at various centres, scholarships at, and grants to, agricintural colleges and schools; the whole amount in 1904-1905 reaching L. 87,472.12 The sum spent by individual counties varies considerably. In 1904-1905 Lancashire (L. 8510), Kent (L. 5922) and Cheshire (L. 4310) spent most in this direction. In some instances colleges are supported entirely by one county, as is the Holmes Chapel College, Cheshire; in others a college is supported by several affiliated counties, as in the case of the agricultural department of the University College, Reading, which acts in connexion with the counties of Berks, Oxon, Hants and Buckingham. The organization and supply of county agricultural instruction is often carried out through the medium of the institution to which the county is affiliated. In Scotland higher agricultural instruction is given at:-

Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College. Edinburgh University, Agriculture Department. West of Scotland Agricultural College, Glasgow. Aberdeen and North of Scotland Agricultural College. University of St. Andrews. A typical course at one of the higher colleges lasts for two years and includes instruction under the heads of soils and manure, crops and pasture, live stock, foods and feeding, dairy work, farm and estate management and farm bookkeeping, surveying, agricultural buildings and machinery, agricultural chemistry, agricultural botany, veterinary science and agricultural entomology. Experimental farms are attached to the colleges.

The facilities for intermediate are far inferior to those for higher agricultural education. Schools for farmers' sons and daughters, and others, answering to the ecoles pratiques d'agriculture (see FRANCE), are few, the principal being the Dauntsey Agricultural School, Wiltshire, the Hampshire Farm School, Basing, and the Farm School at Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumberland, maintained by the county councils of Cumberland and Westmorland. Occasionally grammar schools have agricultural sides, and in evening continuation schools agricultural classes are sometimes held. Both elementary day schools and continuation schools are in many cases provided with gardens in which horticultmal teaching is given.

In Ireland agricultural education is under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, founded in 1899. Higher education is given at the Royal College of Science, Dublin; the Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin; and the Munster Institute, Cork, for female students, where dairying and poultry-keeping are prominent subjects. Winter classes for boys over sixteen years of age are held at centres in some counties, and there are winter schools of agriculture at Downpatrick, Monaghan and Mount Bellew (Co. Galway); while lectures are given at farmers' meetings by itinerant instructors. The Department carries on agricultural experiment-stations at Athenry (Co. Galway), Ballyhaise (Co. Cavan) and Clonakilty (Co. Cork), where farm apprentices are received and instructed.

Agriculture in the United States

Agriculture has been the chief and most characteristic work of the American people, that in which they have achieved the greatest results in proportion to the resources at command, that in which their economic superiority has been most strikingly manifest. In ten years from 1790, the mean population of the period being 4,500,000, 65,000 sq. m. were for the first time brought within the limits of settlement, crossed with roads and bridges, covered with dwellings, both public and private, much of it also cleared of primeval forest; and this in addition to keeping up and improving the whole extent of previous settlements, and building towns and cities, at a score of favoured points. In the next decade, the mean number of inhabitants being about 6,500,000, population extended itself over 98,000 sq. m. of absolutely new territory, an area eight times as large as Holland. Between 1810 and 1820, besides increasing the density of population on almost every league of the older territory, besides increasing their manufacturing capital twofold, in spite of a three years' war, the people of the United States advanced their frontier to occupy 101,000 sq. m., the mean population being 8,250,000. Between 1820 and 1830, 124,000 sq. m. were brought within the frontier and made the seat of habitation and cultivation; between 1830 and 1840, 175,000 sq. m.; between 1840 and 1850, 215,000 sq. m. The Civil War, indeed, checked the westward flow of population, though it caused no refluence, but after 1870 great progress was made in the creation of new farms and the development of old.

That which has allowed this great work to be done so rapidly and fortunately has been, first, the popular tenure of the soil, and, secondly, the character of the agricultural class. At no time have the cultivators of the soil north of the Potomac and Ohio constituted a peasantry in the ordinary sense of that term. They have been the same kind of men, out of precisely the same homes, generally with the same early training, as those who filled the learned professions or who were engaged in manufacturing or commercial pursuits. Switzerland and Scotland have, in a degree, approached the United States in this particular; but there is no other considerable country where as much mental activity and alertness has been applied to the cultivation of the soil as to trade and manufactures.

But even the causes which have been adduced would have failed to produce such effects but for the exceptional inventive ingenuity of the American. The mechanical genius which has entered into manufacturing in the United States, the engineering skill which has guided the construction of the greatest works of the continent, have been far exceeded in the hurried ``improvements'' of the pioneer farm; in the housing of women, children and live stock and gathered crops against the storms of the first few winters; in the rough-and-ready reconnaissances which determined the ``lay of the land'' and the capabilities of the soil; in the preparation for the thousand exigencies of primitive agriculture. It is no exaggeration to say that the chief manufacture of the United States, prior to 1900, was the manufacture of 5,740,000 farms, comprising 841,200,000 acres.

The people of the United States, finding themselves on a continent containing an almost limitless extent of land of fair average fertility, having at the start but little accumulated capital and urgent occasions for the economy of labour, have elected to regard the land in the earliest stages of occupation as practically of no value, and to regard labour as of high value. In pursuance of this view they have freely sacrificed the land, so far as was necessary, in order to save labour, systematically cropping the fields on the principle of obtaining the largest results with the least expenditure, limiting improvements to what was demanded for immediate uses, and caring little about returning to the soil an equivalent for the properties taken from it in the harvests of successive years. But, so far as the northern states are concerned, the enormous profits of this alleged wasteful cultivation have in the main been applied, not to personal consumption, but to permanent improvements,--not indeed to improvements of the land, but to what were still more needed in the situation, namely, improvements upon the land. The first-fruits of a virgin soil have been expended in forms which have vastly enhanced the productive power of the country. The land, doubtless, as one factor of that productive power, became temporarily less efficient than it would have been under a conservative European treatment; but the joint product of the three factors--land, labour and capital--was for the time enormously increased. Under this regimen the fertility of the land, of course, in time necessarily declined, sooner or later, according to the nature of the crops grown and to the degree of original strength in the soil. Resort was then had to new fields farther west. The granary of the continent moved first to western New York, thence into the Ohio valley, and then, again, to the banks of the Mississippi. The north and south line dividing the wheat product of the United States into two equal parts was in 1850 drawn along the 82nd meridian (81 deg. 58 minutes 49 seconds). In 1860 that line was drawn along the 86th (86 deg. 1 minute 38 seconds), in 1870 along the 89th (88 deg. 48 minutes 40 seconds), in 1880 along the 90th (90 deg. 30 minutes 46 seconds), in 1890 along the 93rd (93 deg. 9 minutes 18 seconds), and in 1900 along the 95th (94 deg. 59 minutes 23 seconds). Meanwhile one portion of the inhabitants of the earlier settlements joined in the movement across the face of the continent. As the grain centre passed on to the west they followed it, too restless by character and habit to find pleasure in the work of stable communities. A second portion of the inhabitants became engaged in raising, upon limited areas, small crops, garden vegetables and orchard fruits, and in producing butter, milk, poultry and eggs, for the suoply of the cities and manufacturing towns which had been built up out of the abundant profits of the primitive agriculture. Still another portion of the agricultural population gradually became occupied in the more careful and intense culture of the cereal crops upon the better lands, the less eligible fields being allowed to spring up in brush and wood. Deep ploughing and thorough drainage were resorted to; fertilizers were employed to bring up and to keep up the soil; and thus began the serious systematic agriculture of the older states. Something continued to be done in wheat, but not much. New York raised 13 million bushels in 1850; thirty years later she raised 11 1/2 million bushels; and fifty years later 10 1/2 million bushels. Pennsylvania raised 15 1/2 million bushels in 1850; in 1880 she raised 19 1/2 million bushels; and in 1900 20 1/2 million bushels. More is done in Indian corn (maize), that most prolific cereal, the backbone of American agriculture; still more is done relatively in buckwheat, barley and rye. Pennsylvania, though the eleventh state in wheat production in 1905, stood first in rye and second in buckwheat (ninth in oats) New York was only twenty-first in wheat, but first in buckwheat (tenth in barley), fourth in rye. We do not, however, reach the full significance of the situation until we account for the fourth portion of the former agricultural population, in noting how naturally and fortunately commercial and manufacturing cities spring up in the sites which have been prepared for them by the lavish expenditure of the enormous profits of a primitive agriculture upon permanently useful improvements of a constructive character. These towns are the gifts of agriculture.

Besides the extension of cultivated area, very little was accomplished in the way of agricultural improvement before 1850. With some few exceptions the methods of cultivation were substantially the same as those of colonial days, and were marked by crudeness, waste and a general adherence to rule-of-thumb principles. The year 1850 roughly marks the beginning of a period of improvement and development. The Irish famine of 1846 and the German political troubles of 1848 were followed by an unprecedented emigration to America of highly desirable European labourers, for whom there were cheap and abundant lands. The period from 1850 to 1870 was marked by a steady growth, which, in the western states, was highly stimulated by the Civil War. While this conflict withdrew a certain amount of productive energy from agricultural pursuits, it tended at the same time to increase the value of farm labour and of farm products and to extend the use of machinery in order to offset the deficient labour supply. Agricultural machinery had been employed before the war, but only to a very small extent. In 1864, 70,000 reapers and mowers were manufactured, twice as many as in 1862, and manufacturers were unable to supply the demand. Moreover, in the years 1860, 1861 and 1862 the wheat crops of Great Britain and the European continent were failures, while those of the United States, far removed from the theatre of military operations, were unusually large. The wheat exports to Great Britain in 1861 were three times as great as those of any previous year, and the strong demand from abroad was an additional stimulus to higher prices. In 1864 agricultural prices were from 100 to 200% higher than in 1861, while transportation charges had only slightly advanced and in some instances had actually decreased. In the middle of the war the farmers' profits were normal; toward the end they had increased enormously. This marvellous agricultural prosperity of a nation engaged in one of the world's most formidable wars has no counterpart in modern history. In the decade from 1860 to 1870 there was a steady increase in cultivated area, in agricultural products and in population. The value of the farm lands in the northern states in 1870 exceeded that of 1860 by five dollars an acre. On the other hand, the farm lands of the southern states had declined in value to an almost equal amount; but after 1870 these states also made substantial progress, and in 1880 they produced more cotton than in 1860, when the greatest crop under the slave system was grown.

Since 1870 the most important factors in this development have been the employment of more scientific methods of production and the more extensive use of machinery. The study of soils with a view of adapting to them the most suitable crops and fertilizers; the increased attention given to diversified farming and crop rotation; the introduction and successful growth of new plants (e.g. the date palm in Arizona and California, and tea in South Carolina); tile drainage; the ensilage of forage; more careful selection in breeding; the use of inoculation to prevent Texas fever in cattle and cholera in swine, of tuberculin to discover the presence of tuberculosis in cows, of organic ferments to hasten the progress of butter-making, of the ``Babcock test'' for ascertaining the amount of fat in milk, of fungicides and insecticides to destroy fruit and vegetable pests,--such are but a few manifestations of the spread of scientific knowledge among the farming population of the United States. Nearly every county has some sort of agricultural society; in 1899 there were about 1500 of these organizations, some of which, especially those holding annual fairs, received state aid.

With the improvement in technical processes of production came the conquest of the arid regions of the western states. Irrigation was first employed in the west by the Mormons in 1847; but as late as 1870 only about 20,000 acres had been irrigated. In 1880 the irrigated area was approximately 1,000,000 acres, and in the decade from 1889 to 1899 it increased from 3,631,381 to 7,539,545 acres, a gain of 107.6%. By 1902 there had been a still further increase to 9,478,852 acres, a gain of 25.7% in three years. As many of the streams available for irrigation purposes lie within more than one state, the control of water supply is a proper matter for federal jurisdiction, and in June 1902 Congress provided for an extensive system of irrigation works in thirteen states and three territories. The cost of the work is defrayed from the proceeds of the sales of government lands within the states and territories affected by the act. The measure is not paternalistic; the settlers on the lands, which are divided into farms of not less than 40 nor more than 160 acres, are required to make annual payments to the government in proportion to the water service they have received, until the original cost of the works has been met. The first of these works, the so-called Truckee-Carson project, of Nevada, was completed in June 1905, and at the end of that year eight projects, in as many different states, were under construction; bids had been received for three more, and the seven others had received the approval of the secretary of the interior. With these initial undertakings it was estimated that 1,000,859 acres could be reclaimed. In addition to supplying the soils with water, means have been found of ridding them of their alkali, or of rendering it harmless; and this is an element of reclamation hardly less important than irrigation itself. A third step in the reclamation of desert lands is arid farming--that is, the adapting to the soils of crops that require a minimum amount of moisture, and the utilization, to the fullest possible extent, of the meagre amount of rainfall in the region. Experiments conducted in this direction in Utah produced promising results.

The development of farming machinery has kept pace with the general progress in scientific agriculture. Although numerous patents were issued for such machinery before 1850, its use, with the exception of the cotton gin, was very restricted before that date. Even iron ploughs were not in general use until 1842, and a really scientific plough was practically unknown before 1870. Thirty years later the large farms of the Pacific states were ploughed, harrowed and sowed with wheat in a single operation by fifty-horse-power traction engines drawing ploughs, harrows and press drills. Since 1850 there has been a transition from the sickle and the scythe to a machine that in one operation mows, threshes, cleans and sacks the wheat, and in five minutes after touching the standing grain has it ready for the market. Hay-stackers, potato planters and diggers, feed choppers and grinders, manure-spreaders, check-row corn planters and ditch-digging machines are some of the common labour-saving devices. By the 28th of August 1907 the United States Patent Office had issued patents for 13,212 harvesting machines, 6352 threshers, 6680 harrows and diggers, 9649 seeders and planters, and 13,171 ploughs. In the manufacture of agricultural machinery the United States leads the world. The total value of the implements and machinery used by farmers of the United States in 1880 was $406,520,055; in 1890 $494,247,467; in 1900 $761,261,550, a gain in this last decade of 54%. The total value of the implements and machinery manufactured in 1850 was $6,842,611; in 1880 $68,640,486; in 1890 $81,271,651; in 1900 $101,207,428.These figures, however, are a very poor indication of the actual use of machinery, on account of the rapid decrease in prices following its manufacture on a more extensive scale and by improved methods.

The effects of the new agriculture are apparent from the following figures: By the methods of 1830 it required 64 hours and 15 minutes of man-labour and cost $3.71 to produce an acre of wheat; by the methods employed in 1896 it required 2 hours and 58 minutes of man-labour and cost 72 cents. To produce an acre of barley in 1830 required 63 hours of man-labour and cost $3.59; in 1896 it required 2 hours and 43 minutes and cost 60 cents. An acre of oats produced by the methods of 1830 required 66 hours and 15 minutes of man-labour and cost $3.73; the methods of 1893 required only 7 hours and 6 minutes and cost $1.07. With the same unit of labour the average quantity of all leading crops produced by modern methods is about five times as great as that produced by the methods employed in 1850, and the cost of production is reduced by one half. From 1880 to 1900 the average number of acres of leading crops per male worker increased from 23.3 to 31.0, or 34%; the number of horses per worker from 1.7 to 2.3, or 35%; and the value of agricultural product per person employed from $286.82 to $454.37, or 58.4%.

There are numerous other factors that have operated to the benefit of the agriculturist. Increased transportation facilities and lower freight charges have widened his market. The processes of canning, packing, preserving and refrigerating have produced a similar effect, and have also provided a means for the disposal of surplus perishable products that otherwise would be lost. The utilization of by-products, as, for example, the conversion of cotton seed into oil, fertilizers and food for live stock, has become another source of profit.

Great economic and social changes have resulted from this progress. There has been a great division of labour in agriculture. Makers of agricultural implements, of butter and cheese, cotton ginners, grist and wheat millers, are now classed in the United States census reports as manufacturers, but all their work was once done on the farm. The farmer is now more of a specialist and more dependent on other industries than formerly. He has changed from a producer for home consumption or a local market to a producer for a world market. Unfortunately, his knowledge of economic laws has lagged behind his progress in scientific agriculture. The farming class at times have experienced periods of great depression, largely on account of their inability to adjust their crops to changing conditions in the world's markets, and in such cases have been prone to seek a remedy in radical legislation. Periods of agricultural discontent at different times have been marked by the political activity of the ``Grangers'' and of the ``Farmers' Alliance.'' and even by the formation of new political parties such as the Greenback party in 1874 and the Populist or People's party in 1892--whose strength lay mainly in the agricultural states. The new industrial conditions that produced combinations among manufacturers were much slower in their effect upon the farming element, but gradually led to increasing co-operation and to the organization of the growers of various commodities for marketing their crops. The fruit growers of California and the tobacco growers of Kentucky have furnished interesting examples of such organizations. Under the improved conditions there is less drudgery on the farm; the farmer does more work, produces more, and yet has more leisure than formerly. Better roads, rural free mail delivery, telephone and electric lines are removing the isolation of country life, and to some extent are diminishing the attractions of the cities for the rural population.

Covering as it does the breadth of the North American continent, with 3,000,000 sq. m. of land surface, not including Alaska and the islands, of which over 800,000,000 acres are in farms and over 400,000,000 in actual cultivation, representing every variety of soil and all the climatic life zones of the world, except the extreme boreal and the hottest tropical, the United States affords an important subject of study in respect of agriculture. Its cotton, wheat and meat are large factors in all markets,and its many other agricultural products are distributed throughout the civilized world. To the student the equipment and methods of agriculture in the United States form as interesting a subject of examination as do its resources and production. In quantity, distribution and inter-relation of heat and moisture --the chief factors in agricultural production--the United States is greatly blessed. We find in this vast territory all the agricultural belts mapped by the biologist, producing all varieties of cereals, fruits and breeds of live stock, whilst all kinds of soils, adapted to different crops, are spread out at all altitudes from 8000 ft. down to sea-level.

The story of the vast and varied agriculture of the United States can be outlined by extracts from the figures published by the Census, the Agricultural and other government departments.

Farms.

As a result of the great supply of available land the number of farms in the United States increased between 1850 and 1900 from 1,449,073 to 5,739,657; their total acreage increased from 293,560,614 to 841,201,546 acres; their improved acreage increased from 113,032,614 to 414,793,191 acres; and their unimproved13 acreage from 180,528,000 to 426,408,355 acres. Table XXVII. exhibits the increases of number of farms, total and improved acreage by decades.

The largest percentage of increase of improved land was 50.7, from 1870 to 1880; the lowest was in the decade 1860 to 1870, the period of the Civil War, and was 15.8. The chief cause of this wonderful development of agriculture is the large area of cheap public lands which has been available for immigrants and natives alike. Up to 1906, under the Homestead Act of the 20th of May 1862, the number of entries, both final and pending, covered 185,385,000 acres. Between 1875 and 1905 the public and Indian lands sold for cash and under homestead and timber culture laws, as well as those allotted by scrip, granted to the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts and other institutions, and by military bounty land warrants, and selected by states and railroad corporations, covered about 430,000,000 acres. In addition to this, the states and railroad corporations sold a large amount of land to farmers of which we have no accurate record. This vast territory, greater

TABLE XXVII.--Percentage of Increase of Number and Acreage of Farms by Census Decades.

Number of Acreage. The United States. Farms. Total. Improved.

1850 to 1860 41.1 38.7 44.3 1860 to 1870 30.1 0.1 15.8 1870 to 1880 50.7 31.5 50.7 1880 to 1890 13.9 16.2 25.6 1890 to 1900 25.7 35.0 16.0

1850 to 1900 296.0 186.5 267.1

in extent than Germany and France combined, was added to the farms of the country in thirty years. In many cases railroad building has made the settlement of the public lands possible for the first time, and the building of branch lines, by providing means for transporting products to market, has greatly facilitated the acquisition of other lands. The mileage of railways increased 310.7% between 1870 and 1905. The interesting fact is that this increase corresponds geographically to the increase in farms.

The agricultural statistics do not include any farm of less than three acres unless it produced at least $500 worth of products in the preceding year. The census of 1900 showed that the average size of farms was 146 acres, or nine acres more than in 1890 and 57 acres less than in 1850. This fact, however, does not indicate a general tendency toward the consolidation of holdings. The increase in the average size of farms for the whole country is due to the extension of grazing lands in the Rocky Mountain region and in Texas, and to the enlargement of the wheat fields in the Mississippi valley. On the other hand, in the southern states there has been a steady breaking up of holdings and decrease in the average size of farms since the close of the Civil War. In the New England states, where dairying has become the leading agricultural industry, there was an increase of 2 acres in the size of farms during the decade 1890-1900. This increase was more than offset by the decrease in the Atlantic states from New York to Maryland inclusive (2.8 acres), where there has been a subdivision of farms following the increased attention given to the growing of fruits and vegetables for cities. The same tendency is noted in the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. As will be seen from Table XXVIII., the average farm, which steadily diminished in size from 1850 to 1880, increased between 1880 and 1900.

TABLE XXVIII.--Average Acreage of Farms and Proportion of Improved Land Therein.

Proportion of Whole Farm. Improved Land.

1850 202.6 38.5 1860 199.2 40.1 1870 153.3 46.3 1880 133.7 53.1 1890 136.5 57.4 1900 146.6 49.3

The acreage of North Atlantic farms decreased from 112.6 in 1850 to 95.3 in 1890, and increased in 1890-1900 to 96.5 acres. In the north Atlantic states the average was 376.4 acres in 1850, and there has been steady decrease, so that in 1900 it was 108.4, or one-third less than the average for the entire country. In the north central states the averages of 1850 and 1900 were nearly the same (143.3 and 144.5 respectively), with the minimum (121.9 acres) in 1880. The south central states averaged 291 acres in 1850, 321.3 in 1860, 144 in 1890, and 155.4 in 1900. The maximum decade for the western states was that ending in 1850 (694.9 acres), and the minimum 1880 (312.9); and the average in 1900 was 386.1 acres.

Table XXIX. gives the number of farms, together with their distribution, under different forms of tenure in the years 1880, 1890 and 1900.

The steady drift towards farm tenancy of late is believed to be injurious to production; but it is impossible to prove this, so great has been the aggregate increase in products.

The number of persons engaged in agriculture as a business in 1900 was 10,381,765, or 36% of all persons in gainful occupations. It is interesting to note that 977,336 of these were women. This is an increase of 2,667,890 persons over 1880. Thus, if the farm family is the same size as that of the remainder of the population--it is probably slightly larger--the agricultural population would be 36% of the whole. Statisticians usually put it at 40%, and this is probably more nrealy correct (Table XXX.).

The wages paid farm labourers, as ascertainted by the Department of Agriculture, are rather low compared with the average wages of labour, but not lower than the wages of other unskilled labour. The average monthly wage of the agricultural labourer, without board, was $19.50 in 1870, $16.42 in 1880, $18.33 in 1890, $17.70 in 1895, and $20.23 in 1899, when the maximum for any state was $45.10 in Nevada, the minimum $10.06 in South Carolina. the wages of the American farm labourer were at this last date named (1899) higher than for any other farm labourer save in Canada and the British colonies of Australasia; though lower than wages paid in American cities, they have greater purchasing power. J.R. Dodge, in ``Farm Labour in the United States'' (vol. xi., Report of Industrial Commission on Agriculture, &c., 1901), says: ``In addition to wages the married labourer has a house free of rent, a garden, firewood, pasturage and other perquisites. The enterprising labourer usually becomes a tenant and afterwards a farm-owner.''

Value of farms and products.

The figures for farm capital and the value of agricultural products are so vast that it is extremely difficult to put them in an intelligible form. The farm capital of the United States reported by the census of 1900 reached $20,514,002,000, a sum more than four times the capital invested in manufactures, the main classes being, in round numbers:--Land, fences and buildings, $16,674,690,000; machines

TABLE XXIX.--Number of Farms of Specified Tenure.

Number of farms operated by Number of Cash Share Year. Farms. Owners. 14 Tenants. Tenants. 15

1880 4,008,907 2,984,306 322,357 702,244 1890 4,564,641 3,269,728 454,659 880,254 1900 5,737,372 3,712,408 751,665 1,273,299

Percentage of farms Cash Share Year. Owners. Tenants. Tenants.

1880 74.5 8.0 17.5 1890 71.6 10.0 18.4 1900 64.7 13.1 22.2

and implements, $761,262,000; live stock $3,078,050,000. The products of the farms in the census year 1899 were valued at $4,739,119,000. Between 1850 and 1900 the aggregate farm capital increased 416%. The greatest increase of farm capital was between 1850 and 1860, 101%; the next was the decade 1880-1890, when the increase was 32%. Between 1890 and 1900 the increase was 28%.

TABLE XXX.--Number of Persons of Ten Years of Age and over in the different Agricultural Pursuits in 1900.

Occupation. Total Persons.

Dairymen and women 10,875 Farmers and farm superintendents 5,674,875 Farm labourers 4,410,877 Gardeners, nurserymen and viticulturists 61,788 Lumbermen and raftsmen 72,020 Stock-raisers, herders, &c 84,988 Turpentine-farmers and labourers 24,737 Wood-choppers 36,075 Other pursuits 5,530 Total 10,381,765

The growth of farm are and of capital invested in agriculture was followed by a proportionate increase in the chief crops (Table XXXI.).

The distinguishing feature of the period 1870-1880 was the rate of increase of barley, Indian corn, wheat and oats. Since 1870 the production of nearly all of the farm crops increased more rapidly than the population, the most absolute proof of the substantial prosperity of the people. The increase in population for the fifty years from 1840 to 1890 was 267%; from 1870 to 1880, 30%; from 1880 to 1890, 25%; from 1890 to 1900, 21%; but the food and other supplies far exceeded the demands of even this great population.

TABLE XXXI.--Production of Certain Farm Crops from 1870 to 1905 --Millions of Bushels.

Indian Corn. Wheat. Oats. Barley. 1870 1094 235 247 26 1880 1717 498 418 45 1890 1489 399 523 67 1900 2105 522 809 58 1905 2707 693 953 136

Table XXXII. gives important facts with regard to the cereal production of the United States between 1870 and 1905.

The average farm price of wheat declined, as is shown in that table, from $1.05 per bushel for the decade 1870-1880 to 65.3 cents for the period 1890-1899. The farm prices of the other cereals declined less during the thirty years. Corn declined from an average farm price of 42.6 cents per bushel for 1870-1880 to 34.4. cents in 1890-1899. The average production per acre shows nothing conclusice with regard to the fertility of the soil of the country. The expansion of the crop area usually causes a lowering of the average yield per acre by distributing the culture, fertilizers, &c., over more surface. Likewise the contraction of crop area will usually increase the average yield per acre of the entire country.

TABLE XXXII.--Average Yield and Value of Cereal Crops in the United States, by Periods of Years, 1870-1905.

Average Average Average Average Farm Price Yield Per Farm Price Yield Per Period. per Bushel. Acre. per Bushel. Acre.

Dollars. Bushels. Dollars. Bushels.

Indian Corn. Wheat. 1870 to 1880 0.426 27.1 1.05 12.4 1880 to 1889 .393 24.1 .827 12.1 1890 to 1899 .344 24.1 .653 13.1 1900 to 1905 .440 24.9 .706 13.6

Barley. Rye. 1870 to 1880 0.738 22.1 0.701 14.1 1880 to 1889 .589 21.7 .622 11.9 1890 to 1899 .433 23.3 .522 14.0 1900 to 1905 .433 25.9 .570 15.7

Oats. 1870 to 1880 0.353 28.4 0.715 17.7 1880 to 1889 .309 26.6 .642 12.8 1890 to 1899 .277 26.2 .507 16.8 1900 to 1905 .318 30.7 .588 17.9

The average yield of wheat per acre was 12.4 bushels in the decade 1870-1880, and 13.1 in the period 1890-1899; of Indian corn, 27.1 in 1870-1880, and 24.1 in 1880-1899 continuously. Oats fell off from 28.4 in 1870-1880 to 26.2 bushels per acre in 1890- 1899. The averages for the years 1900-1905 show an increase over the previous decade both in yields and (with the exception of the price of barley) in prices of all the cereals.

The agricultural returns for 1890-1905 may be taken as an illustration of the cereal production of the United States. The figures for wheat, oats and Indian corn are presented in Tables XXXIII., XXXIV. and XXXV.

TABLE XXXIII.--Acreage, Production, Value, Price and Exports of Wheat in the United States in 1890-1905.

Average Average Farm Price Yield per per Bushel, Farm Value, Year. Acreage. Acre. Production. 1st Dec. 1st Dec.

Acres. Bushels. Bushels. Cents. Dollars. 1890 36,087,154 11.1 399,262,000 83.8 334,773,678 1891 39,916,897 15.3 611,780,000 83.9 513,472,711 1892 38,554,430 13.4 515,949,000 62.4 322,111,881 1893 34,629,418 11.4 396,131,725 53.8 213,171,381 1894 34,882,436 13.2 460,267,416 49.1 225,902,025 1895 34,047,332 13.7 467,102,947 50.9 237,938,998 1896 34,618,646 12.4 427,684,346 72.6 310,602,539 1897 39,465,066 13.4 530,149,168 80.8 428,547,121 1898 44,055,278 15.3 675,148,705 58.2 392,770,320 1899 44,592,516 12.3 547,303,846 58.4 319,545,259 1900 42,495,385 12.3 522,229,505 61.9 323,515,177 1901 49,895,514 15.0 748,460,218 62.4 467,350,156 1902 46,202,424 14.5 670,063,008 63.0 422,224,117 1903 49,464,967 12.9 637,821,835 69.5 443,024,826 1904 44,074,875 12.5 552,399,517 92.4 510,489,874 1905 47,854,079 14.5 692,979,489 74.8 518,372,727

Domestic Exports, including Flour, Fiscal Years Year. beginning 1st July.

Bushels. 1890 106,181,316 1891 225,665,812 1892 191,912,635 1893 164,283,129 1894 144,812,718 1895 126,443,968 1896 145,124,972 1897 217,306,005 1898 222,694,920 1899 186,096,762 1900 215,990,073 1901 234,772,516 1902 202,905,598 1903 120,727,613 1904 44,112,910 1905 ..

The acreage and production of wheat have steadily increased. The acreage in Indian corn, the great American crop, reached its highest in 1902, 94,043,613 acres, and its production its highest figure in 1905, 2,707,993,540 bushels.

TABLE XXXIV.--Acreage, Production, Value, Prices, Exports and Imports of Oats in the United States in 1890-1905.

Average Average Farm Price Yield per per Bushel, Farm Value Year. Acreage. Acre. Production. 1st Dec. 1st Dec.

Acres. Bushels. Bushels. Cents. Dollars. 1890 26,431,369 19.8 523,621,000 42.4 222,048,486 1891 25,581,861 28.9 738,394,000 31.5 232,312,267 1892 27,063,835 24.4 661,035,000 31.7 209,253,611 1893 27,273,033 23.4 638,854,850 29.4 187,576,092 1894 27,023,553 24.5 662,036,928 32.4 214,816,920 1895 27,878,406 29.6 824,443,537 19.9 163,655,068 1896 27,565,985 25.7 707,346,404 18.7 132,485,033 1897 25,730,375 27.2 698,767,809 21.2 147,974,719 1898 25,777,110 28.4 720,906,643 25.5 186,405,364 1899 26,341,380 30.2 796,177,713 24.9 198,167,975 1900 27,364,795 29.6 809,125,989 25.8 208,669,233 1901 28,541,476 25.8 736,808,724 39.9 293,658,777 1902 28,653,144 34.5 987,842,712 30.7 303,584,852 1903 27,638,126 28.4 784,094,199 34.1 267,661,665 1904 27,842,669 32.1 894,395,552 31.3 279,900,013 1905 28,046,746 34.0 953,216,197 29.1 277,047,537

Domestic Exports, including Oatmeal, Imports during Fiscal Years Fiscal Years Year. beginning 1st July. beginning 1st July.

Bushels. Bushels. 1890 1,382,836 41,848 1891 10,586,644 47,782 1892 2,700,793 49,433 1893 6,290,229 31,759 1894 1,708,824 330,317 1895 15,156,618 66,602 1896 37,725,083 893,908 1897 73,880,307 25,093 1898 33,534,264 28,098 1899 45,048,857 54,576 1900 42,268,931 32,107 1901 13,277,612 38,978 1902 8,381,805 150,065 1903 1,960,740 183,983 1904 8,394,692 55,699 1905 .. ..

Producing as the United States does so much more than its people can consume, its exports form a large percentage of some of the crops, as Table XXXVI. shows.

Large portions of some of these crops, like Indian corn and oats, are exported in the form of animals and animal products (meats, lard, hides, &c.). The hay crop is almost entirely used in this way, and the tendency is to convert more and more of these crops into these higher-priced products. Still, the time is far distant when domestic consumption will come anywhere near overtaking domestic production, especially of wheat and the other cereals. The certain extension of acreage with the growth of demand and price, the increased use of agricultural implements, and the improvement of methods will be sure to keep up a large surplus for export for many years to come. The Department of Agriculture has found that for home use there were required per head 5.5 bushels of wheat, 28.6 bushels of Indian corn, and 10.7 bushels of oats, the computations being made from the figures for population, production and exports for 1888-1892; in 1905, 6.15 bushels of wheat and wheat-flour, 28.59 bushels of Indian corn and corn-meal. The following number of acres in these crops was required, therefore, to supply the home demand for 1888-1892:--0.43 of an acre in wheat, 1.1.5 acre in corn, and 0.43 acre in oats per head of the population. Taking the year

TABLE XXXV.--Acreage, Production, Value, Prices and Exports of Indian Corn in the United States in 1890-1905.

Average Average Farm Price Yield per per Bushel, Year. Acreage. Acre. Production. 1st Dec.

Acres. Bushels. Bushels. Cents. 1890 71,970,763 20.7 1,489,970,000 50.6 1891 76,204,515 27.0 2,060,154,000 40.6 1892 70,626,658 23.1 1,628,464,000 39.4 1893 72,036,465 22.5 1,619,496,131 36.5 1894 62,582,269 19.4 1,212,770,052 45.7 1895 82,075,830 26.2 2,151,138,580 25.3 1896 81,027,156 28.2 2,283,875,165 21.5 1897 80,095,051 23.8 1,902,967,933 26.3 1898 77,721,781 24.8 1,924,184,660 28.7 1899 82,108,587 25.3 2,078,143,933 30.3 1900 83,320,872 25.3 2,105,102,516 35.7 1901 91,349,928 16.7 1,522,519,891 60.5 1902 94,043,613 26.8 2,523,648,312 40.3 1903 88,091,993 25.5 2,244,176,925 42.5 1904 92,231,581 26.8 2,467,480,934 44.1 1905 94,011,369 28.8 2,707,993,540 41.2

Domestic Exports, including Corn- Farm Value Meal, Fiscal Years Year. 1st Dec. beginning 1st July.

Dollars. Bushels. 1890 754,433,451 32,041,529 1891 836,439,228 76,602,285 1892 642,146,630 47,121,894 1893 591,625,627 66,489,529 1894 554,719,162 28,585,405 1895 544,985,534 101,100,375 1896 491,006,967 178,817,417 1897 501,072,952 212,055,543 1898 552,023,428 117,255,046 1899 629,210,110 213,123,412 1900 751,220,324 181,405,473 1901 921,555,768 28,028,688 1902 1,017,017,349 76,639,261 1903 952,868,801 58,222,061 1904 1,087,461,440 90,293,483 1905 1,116,696,738 ..

1890 as an illustration, this gave a surplus area in wheat of 11,264,478 acres, of 2,648,404 acres in Indian corn, and of 238,162 acres in oats.

TABLE XXXVI.--Percentage of Crops Exported. Averages for Period 1878-1905.

Annual Average. Crop. 1878-1882. 1888-1892. 1894-1896. 1896-1904. 1905.

Wheat 27.84 17.68 15.96 29.9 7.99 Indian Corn 4.82 3.49 5.39 6.4 3.66 Rye 10.30 .. 12.21 19.5 .. Oats .37 .80 2.22 3.7 .. Barley 1.55 .. 12.96 12.15 .. Potatoes .37 .. .30 0.31 .. Cotton 72.80 66.79 73.60 66.31 61.55

Tables XXXVII. and XXXVIII. give the number, total value and average price of farm animals in 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1906.

TABLE XXXVII.--Number and Value of Farm Animals in the United States, 1880-1906.

January 1 Horses. Mules. Number. Value. Number. Value.

1880 11,201,800 $613,296,611 1,729,500 $105,948,319 1890 14,213,837 978,516,562 2,331,027 182,394,099 1900 13,537,524 603,696,422 2,086,027 111,717,092 1906 18,718,578 1,510,889,906 3,404,061 334,680,520

Milch Cows. Other Cattle. January 1 Number. Value. Number. Value.

1880 12,027,000 $279,899,420 21,231,000 $341,761,154 1890 15,952,883 352,152,133 36,849,024 560,625,137 1900 16,292,360 514,812,106 27,610,054 689,486,260 1906 19,793,866 582,788,592 47,067,656 746,171,709

Sheep. Swine. January 1 Number. Value. Number. Value.

1880 40,765,900 $90,230,537 34,034,100 $145,781,515 1890 44,336,072 100,659,761 51,602,780 243,418,336 1900 41,883,065 122,665,913 37,079,356 185,472,321 1906 50,631,619 179,056,144 52,102,847 321,802,571

Total Value of January 1 Farm Animals.

1880 $1,576,917,556 1890 2,418,766,028 1900 2,228,123,134 1906 3,675,389,442

TABLE XXXVIII.--Average Value of Farm Animals in the United States on 1st January, 1880-1906.

Milch Other Year. Horses. Mules. Cows. Cattle. Sheep. Swine.

1880 $54.76 $61.26 $23.27 $16.10 $2.21 $4.28 1890 68.84 78.25 22.14 15.21 2.27 4.72 1900 44.61 53.56 31.60 24.97 2.93 5.00 1906 80.72 98.31 29.44 15.85 3.54 6.18

After the Civil War the number of horses increased and prices declined. In 1893 the number of horses reached 16,206,802 (an increase of over 5,005,002 or 44.6% over the number in 1880), and in 1906, 18,718,578. The average farm price of horses increased from $54.75 in 1880 to $74 in 1884, after which there was a decrease to $31.51 in 1896, followed by rise to $80.72 in 1906. The extension of street-car lines, and the substitution of cable and electric power for that of horses, the use of bicycles and, later, of automobiles, and the improvement of farm-machinery, in which horses are less and less used as power-producers and steam is more common, have been factors in decreasing the demand for these animals. The fluctuation in prices of mules has been parallel to that for horses.

The returns for milch cows show an increase throughout the period 1880-1899 in every year, with the exception of 1895-1899, after which there was a steady rise in numbers. For the first ten years the numbers increase 32.6%, and from 1890 to 1899, 2%. The total value of milch cows increased each year until 1884, then decreased until 1891, with a gradual increase until the end of the period. The farm price of milch cows rose from $23.27 in 1880 to $31.37 in 1884, then fell to $21.40 in 1892, after which there was a steady increase to $31.60 in 1899, and afterwards a slight fall, $29.44 being the average farm value on the 1st of January 1906.

No marked changes in the numbers of sheep have taken place. During the period 1880-1890 there was an increase in numbers amounting to about 8.8%. After 1893 there was a rather steady decrease, with fluctuations amounting to a marked depression after 1894. This industry is very susceptible to adverse influences, and felt keenly a depression in the price of wool. The increase began again in 1898, and in 1903 the figure of 63,964,876 was reached; in 1906 it was 50,631,619,

The numbers and values of swine constantly fluctuate with the movement and value of the Indian corn crops. The returns for 1890 (51,602,780) showed a numerical increase of 51.6% over those of 1880; then followed a steady decrease in numbers down to 1900 (57,079,156), since which time there has been considerable increase, so that in 1906 there were 52,102,847--the maximum excepting 1901, when there were 56,982,142 swine on farms. The movement in values was similar to that in numbers. From $4.28 in 1880, the average farm price of hogs increased steadily to $6.73 in 1885. The lowest figure, $4.15, was reached in 1891, and after numerous fluctuations it became $4.40 in 1899 and $7.78 in 1903; in 1906 it was $6.18.

The total value of farm animals showed a steady increase from 1880 to 1890, with slight variations in 1885 and 1886. Following 1890 there was a steady decrease with the exception of slight increases in 1892 and 1893. In 1880 the total value of farm animals in the United States was $1,576,917,556. In 1890 it had increased to $2,418,766,028, or 53.4%. In 1896 the value had dimished to $1,727,926,084--a decrease of 28.6% from the 1890 values, and an increase of 9.6% over those of 1880. The value in 1906 showed an increase of 133% over that of 1880.

The exports of live stock and its products have increased enormously in recent years, both in quantity and value. This is a especially true of the exportation of beef, cattle and meat products. The exports of cattle increased from 182,750 in 1880 to 331,720 in 1895, or 81 1/2%, and to 567,806 in 1905 or 210% over 1880, and values from $13,340,000 in 1880 to $30,600,000 in 1895, an increase of 129%, and to $40,590,000 in 1905 or 204%. The average value of cattle exported increase from $19 in 1870 to $73 in 1880 and $92 in 1895, decreasing to $71.50 in 1905. Only the best and heaviest cattle are exported, these, of course, commanding a much higher price than the average of the country.

The total value of farm animals exported from the United States has flucuated greatly. On the whole, however, the value increased from $16,000,000 in round numbers in 1880 to $46,500,000 in 1905, or 190%. Table XXXIX. shows the number and value of live animals exported between 1880 and 1905.

TABLE XXXIX.--Number and Value of Farm Animals Exported from the United States, 1880-1905.

Year ending 30th Horses. Mules. June. Number. Value. Number. Value.

1880 3,060 $675,139 5,198 $532,362 1885 1,947 377,692 1,028 127,580 1890 3,501 680,410 3,544 447,108 1894 5,246 1,108,995 2,063 240,961 1895 13,984 2,209,298 2,515 186,452 1900 16 64,722 7,612,616 43,369 3,919,478 1901 16 82,250 8,873,845 34,405 3,210,267 1902 16 103,020 10,048,046 27,586 2,692,298 1903 34,007 3,152,159 4,294 521,725 1904 42,001 3,189,100 3,658 412,971 1905 34,822 3,175,259 5,826 645,464

Year ending 30th Cattle. Sheep. June. Number. Value. Number. Value.

1880 182,756 $13,344,195 209,137 $892,647 1885 135,890 12,906,690 234,509 512,563 1890 394,836 31,261,131 67,521 243,077 1894 359,278 33,461,922 132,370 852,763 1895 331,722 30,603,796 405,748 2,630,686 1900 16 397,286 30,635,153 125,772 733,477 1901 16 459,218 37,566,980 297,925 1,933,000 1902 16 392,884 29,902,212 358,720 1,940,060 1903 402,178 29,848,936 176,961 1,067,860 1904 593,409 42,256,291 301,313 1,954,604 1905 567,806 40,598,048 268,365 1,687,321

Year ending 30th Swine. June. Number. Value. Total Value.

1880 83,434 $421,089 $15,865,432 1885 55,025 579,183 14,503,713 1890 91,148 909,042 33,540,768 1894 1,553 14,753 35,659,394 1895 7,130 72,424 35,702,656 1900 16 51,180 394,813 43,295,537 1901 16 22,318 238,465 51,822,557 1902 16 8,368 88,330 44,670,946 1903 4,031 40,923 34,631,603 1904 6,345 53,780 47,866,746 1905 44,495 414,692 46,520,784

Since 1890 there has been a great development in the production of fruit and vegatables. Local market gardens are numerous in the vicinity of all cities, and highly specialized ``truck gardening,'' that is, the growing of early fruits and vegatables for transportation to distant markets where the seasons are later, has made rapid progress in the South Atlantic states. The census reports of 1900 use the potato acreage in these states as an index of the rate of development of truck gardening; the southern potato being largely a truck garden crop. In seven counties of Virginia the increase in acreage from 1889 to 1899 was 100%; in eleven counties of North Carolina, 314%; in five counties of South Carolina, 134%; in nine counties of Georgia, 111%; in six counties of Florida, 309%; in five counties of Alabama, 277%. Irish and sweet potatoes are the most important vegatables raised; the North Central state leading in the production of the former and the South Atlantic states in the production of the latter. The growth of the Irish potato industry is shown by the following table:--

Year. Acreage. Yield (bushels).

1870 1,325,119 114,775,000 1880 1,842,510 167,659,570 1890 2,651,579 148,289,696 1900 2,611,054 210,926,897 1905 2,996,757 260,741,294

The production of sweet potatoes, as reported in census years, was as follows:--

Year. Acreage. Yield (bushels).

1869 .. 21,709,824 1879 444,817 33,378,693 1889 524,588 43,950,261 1899 537,447 42,526,606

The total acreage in vegetables reported in 1899 was 5,758,191 or 2% of the acreage in all crops; the value of the yield was $242,170,148 or 8.3% of the value of all crops.

The value of the fruit crop of 1899 was $131,423,517; the value of orchard fruits was $83,751,840; of grapes, $14,000,937; of small fruits, $25,030,877; of sub-tropical fruits, $8,549,863. The development of fruit-growing during the decade 1889-1899 appears from the following table:-

Yield (bushels). Crop. 1889. 1899.

Apples 143,105,689 175,397,626 Apricots 1,001,482 2,642,128 Cherries 1,476,719 2,873,499 Peaches 36,367,747 15,433,62317 Pears 3,064,375 6,625,417 Plums and Prunes 2,554,392 8,764,032

In 1899 California contributed 21.5% of the fruit crop; New York, 12.1%; Pennsylvania, 7.5%; Ohio, 6.8%; and Michigan 4.5%

Agricultural Education.

The agricultural schools of the United States owe their origin to the movement against the old classical school and in favour of technical education which began in most civilized nations about the middle of the 19th century. A rapidly growing country with great natural resources needed men educated in the sciences and arts of life, and this want was first manifested in the United States by a popular agitation on behalf of agricultural schools. A number of so-called agricultural schools were started between 1850 and 1860 in the eastern and middle states, where the movement made itself most felt, but without trained teachers and suitable methods they accomplished very little. They were only ordinary schools with farms attached. The second constitution of the state of Michigan, adopted in 1850, provided for an agricultural school, and this was the first one established in the United States. The General Assembly of the state of Pennsylvania incorporated the Farmers' High School, now the State College, in 1854. Maryland incorporated her agricultural college in 1856, and Massachusetts chartered a school of agriculture in the same year. The agitation, which finally reached Congress, led to the establishment of the so-called ``land-grant'' or agricultural colleges. The establishment of these colleges was due chiefly to the wisdom and foresight of Justin S. Morrill, who introduced the first bill for their endowment in the House of Representatives on the 14th of December 1857, saw the latest one approved by the president on the 30th of August 1890, and is justly known, therefore, as the father of the American agricultural colleges. The first act for the benefit of these colleges, passed in 1862, was entitled ``An Act donating public lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts,'' and granted to each state an amount of land equal to 30,000 acres for each senator and representative in Congress to which the state was entitled at that time. The object of the grant was stated to be ``the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college'' (in each state), ``where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts . . . in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.'' The total number of acres of land granted to the states under this act was 10,320,843, of which by far the greater part is sold. This grant has produced an endowment fund amounting to $12,045,629. The land still unsold in 1905 amounted to 844,164 acres, valued at $4,168,746. The invested land-grant funds yielded these colleges a total annual income of $855,083 in 1905. Including the United States appropriation under a supplementary act of 1890, commonly known as the Second Morrill Act, which now gives each college $25,000 a year, the interest on the land-grant and all other invested funds, all state appropriations and other sources of revenue, these colleges had in 1904-1905 a total income of $11,659,955. Sixty-six institutions had been organized under this act up to 1905, of which sixty-three maintain courses in agriculture; twenty-one are departments of agriculture and engineering in state universities; twenty-seven are separate colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts; and the remainder are organized in various other ways. Separate schools for persons of African descent had been established under this act in sixteen southern states. These colleges take students prepared in the common schools and give them a course of from two to four years in the sciences pertaining to agriculture. Many of them offer short courses, varying from four to twelve weeks in length, in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and dairying, which are largely attended. Agricultural experiment stations are connected with all the colleges, and many of them conduct farmers' institutes, farmers' reading clubs and correspondence classes.

The agricultural experiment stations of the United States grew up in connexion with the agricultural colleges. Several of the colleges early attempted to establish separate departments for research and practical experiments, on the plan of the German stations. The act establishing the Agricultural College of Maryland required it to conduct ``a series of experiments upon the cultivation of cereals and other plants adapted to the latitude and climate of the state of Maryland.'' This was the first suggestion of an experiment station in America, but resulted in little. The first experiment station was established at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1875, partly under state aid, partly through a gift from Orange Judd,

## partly in connexion with the Sheffield Scientific School,

which from 1863 to 1892 was the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts for the state of Connecticut, and partly under control of Wesleyan University, which contributed the use of its chemical laboratory; in 1877 it was removed to New Haven. The state of Connecticut made in 1875 an appropriation of $2800 (and in 1877 $5000 per annum) for this school--the first state appropriation of the kind. The state of North Carolina established, on the 12th of March 1877, an agricultural experiment and fertilizer control station in connexion with its state university. The Cornell University experiment station was organized by that institution in 1879. The New Jersey station was organized in 1880 and the station of the University of Tennessee in 1882. From these beginnings the experiment stations multiplied until, when Congress passed the National (or Hatch) Experiment Station

## Act in 1887, there were seventeen already in existence. The

Hatch Experiment Station Act, so called from the fact that its leading advocate was William Henry Hatch (1833-1896) of Missouri, appropriated $15,000 a year to each agricultural college for the purpose of conducting an agricultural experiment station. The object of the stations was declared to be, ``to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other re-searches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective states or territories.'' The stations were authorized to publish annual reports and also bulletins of progress for free distribution to farmers. The franking privilege was given to these publications. The office of experiment stations, in the Department of Agriculture, was established in 1888 to be the head office and clearing-house of these stations. Agricultural experiment stations are now in operation in all the states and territories, including Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippines. Alabama, Hawaii, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York each maintain separate stations, supported wholly or in part by state funds; Louisiana has a station for sugar, and Missouri for fruit experiments. Excluding all branch stations, the total number of experiment stations in the United States is sixty, and of these fifty-five receive the national appropriation. The total income of the stations during 1904 was $1,508,820, of which $720,000 was received from the national government and the remainder was derived from societies, fees for analyses of fertilizers, sale of products, &c. The stations employed 795 persons in the work of administration and re-search; the chief classes being--directors, 71; chemists, 163; agriculturists, 47; agronomists, 41; besides numerous horticulturists, botanists, entomologists, physicists, bacteriologists, dairymen, weather observers and irrigation experts. The stations publish annual reports and bulletins, besides a large number of ``press'' bulletins, which are reproduced in the agricultural and county papers. They act as bureaus of information on all farm questions, and carry on an extensive correspondence covering all conceivable questions. Their mailing lists aggregate half a million names. In addition to the experiment stations there is in nearly every state an officer or a special board whose duty is to look after its agricultural interests. Eighteen states, one territory, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands have a single official, usually called the Commissioner of Agriculture. Twenty-six states, one territory and Hawaii, have Boards of Agriculture. Information concerning the Agricultural Department of the United States will be found under AGRICULTURE, BOARD OF.

See the articles on the various sorts of crops; also CATTLE, HORSE, PIG, SHEEP, &c.; DAIRY AND DAIRY-FARMING, HORTICULTURE, FRUIT AND FLOWER-FARMING, POULTRY AND POULTRY FARMING; SOIL, GRASS AND GRASSLAND, MANURE, DRAINAGE OF LAND, IRRIGATION, SOWING, REAPING, HAY AND HAY MAKING, PLOUGH, HARROW, THRESHING.

LITERATURE.---Besides the contemporary works cited in the text, see the article ``Agricultural'' in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), and the article ``Agriculture'' in J. A. Parral's Dictionnaire d'Agriculture (1885-1892); R. E. Prothero, Pioneers and Progress of English Farming (1888); sections on agriculture by W.J. Corbett, R. E. Prothero and W. E. Bear in Traill's Social England (1901-1904); J. E. T. Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices in England from 1259 to 1793 (7 vols., 1866-1902); W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce During The Early and Middle Ages (2 vols., 1905 and 1907); D. M`Donald, Agricultural Writers from Sir Walter of Henley to Arthur Young, 1200-1800 (London, 1908); H. Rider Haggard, Rural England, 2 vols. (1902); Encyclopedia of Agriculture, ed. by C. E. Green and D. Young (Edinburgh, 1907-1908); Cyclopaedia of American Agriculture, ed. by L. H. Bailey (New Yorkand London, 1907-1908); W. S. Harwood, The New Earth (New York, 1906); T. B. Collins, The New Agriculture (New York, 1906); Journals of the Royal Agricultural Society of England and other agricultural societies. Amongst general works on practical agriculture the following may be mentioned:--Stephens's Book of the Farm, 5 vols., revised by J. Macdonald (Edinburgh, 1908).; William Fream, Elements of Agriculture (London, 1905); Rural Science Series, ed. by L. H. Bailey (New York and London, 1895, &c.); Morton's Handbooks of the Farm (London); R. Wallace, Farm Livestock of Great Britain (Edinburgh, 1907); Youatt's Complete Grazier, rewritten by W. Fream (London, 1900); E. V. Wilcox, Farm Animals (New York, 1907). (W. Fr.; R. Tr.)

1 Translation by Clement-Mullet (Paris, 1864).

2 Walter of Henley mentions six bushels per acre as a satisfactory crop.

3 This process of enclosure must be distinguished from that of enclosing the arable common fields which, though advocated by Fitzherbert in a passage quoted below, proceeded slowly until the 18th century.

4 During the 16th century wheat had risen in price, and between 1606 and 1618 never fell below 30s. a quarter. At the same time wages remained low.

5 Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 732.

6 The higher yield of wheat in the later years of the 19th century appears to be largely attributable to better grain-growing seasons. The yields in the experimental wheat-field at Rothamsted--where there is no change either of land or of treatment--indicate this. The following figures show the average yields per acre of the selected plots at Rothamsted over six 8-yearly periods from 1852 to 1899, and afford evidence that the higher yield of later years is due to the seasons:--

Bushels (of 60lb) Averages of--- per acre. 8 years 1852-1859 . . . . . . . . 28 3/8 8 years 1860-1867 . . . . . . . . 28 7/8 8 years 1868-1875 . . . . . . . . 27 1/8 8 years 1876-1883 . . . . . . . . 25 1/4 8 years 1884-1891 . . . . . . . . 29 7/8 8 years 1892-1899 . . . . . . . . 30 ------------------ -------- 32 years 1852-1883 . . . . . . . . 27 3/8 16 years 1884-1899 . . . . . . . . 30 ------------------ -------- 48 years 1852-1899 . . . . . . . . 28 1/4

The average of the first thirty-two years was thus 27 3/8 bushels per acre, of the last sixteen years 30 bushels, and of the whole forty-eight years 28 1/4 bushels.

7 See J.B. Lawes and J.H. Gilbert, Rothamsted Memoirs on Agricultural Chemistry and Physiology, 7 vols. (1893-1899); A. D. Hall, Books of the Rothamsted Experiments (1905).

8 including Channel islands and Isle of Man.

9 In 1903 two of the principal sources of supply of mutton shipped in excess of their exportable surplus, for which they suffered severely in 1904--hence the somewhat irregular movements after 1903.

10 Returns for only ten months were available for this year.

11 In the absence of experiments it is assumed that wheat is digested like other foods of the same class.

12 This sum was furnished out of a total of L. 693,851, forming the residue grant allocated for the purposes of education to the various county councils of England and Wales under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890.

13 ``Unimproved'' land includes land which has never been ploughed, mown or cropped and also land once cultivated but now overgrown with trees or shrubs.

14Includes farms operated by owners, part-owners and tenants, and managers.

15Tenants of farms rented for a share of the products.

16 The demand for horses for the British troops in South Africa affected these years.

17 Decrease due to a severe frost in the winter of 1898-1899, which destroyed the peach crop in most of the states

AGRICULTURE, BOARD OF. The Board of Agriculture andFisheries, in England, owes its foundation to the establishment of a veterinary department of the privy council in 1865, when the Country was ravaged by cattle plague. An order in council abolished the name ``veterinary department'' in 1883 and substituted that of ``agricultural department,'' but no alteration was effected in the work of the department, so far as it related to animals. In 1889 the Board of Agriculture (for Great Britain) was formed under an act of parliament of that year, and the immediate control of the agricultural department was transferred from the clerk of the privy council to the secretary of the Board of Agriculture, where it remains.

A minister of agriculture had for years been asked for in the interests of the agricultural community, and the functions of this Office are discharged by the president of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, whose appointment is a political one, and may or may not carry with it a seat in the cabinet. The board consists of the lord president of the council, the five principal secretaries of state, the first lord of the treasury, the chancellor of the exchequer, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and the secretary for Scotland. The establishment consists of a president, secretary, assistant secretaries, &c. The salary of the president is L. 2000 a year, and that of the secretary L. 1500 a year.

The Board of Agriculture on its establishment took over from the privy council the responsibilities of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts, besides the comprehensive duties of the Land Commission. The board, through its intelligence division, collects and prepares statistics relating to agriculture and forestry, and in 1904 appointed a number of honorary agricultural correspondents throughout the country for the purpose of bringing to the notice of the board any special circumstances affecting the practice of agriculture, horticulture and forestry, or the transport of farm, garden and forrest produce in their districts. The land division of the board prepares the annual agricultural and produce returns, and the three divisions, the animals, intelligence and land, take proceedings under the following acts:--the Diseases of Animals Acts, the Markets and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) Acts, the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts 1875 to 1800, the Merchandise Marks Acts 1887 to 1905, the Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act 1893, the Tithe Acts 1836 to 1891, the Copyhold Act 1894, the Inclosure Acts 1845 to 1899, the Agricultural Holdings Acts 1883 to 1900, the Drainage and Improvement of Land Acts, the Universities and College Estates Acts 1858 to 1898, the Glebe Lands Act 1888, &c. The board also has charge of the inspection of schools (not being public elementary schools) in which technical instruction is given in agriculture or forestry, and institutes such experimental investigations as may be deemed conducive to the progress of agriculture and forestry.

The Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom is under the control of the board, as well as the arrangements for the advertisement and sale of the publications of the Geological Survey. In 1903 the powers and duties formerly vested in the commissioners of the Office of Works, relating to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, were transferred to the board. The various departments of the board are (1) chief clerk's branch and indoor branch of animals division; (2) outdoor branch of the animals division; (3) veterinary department; (4) fisheries branch; (5) intelligence department; (6) educational branch; (7) accounts branch; (8) inclosure and common branch; (9) copyhold and tithe branch; (10) statistical branch; (11) law branch; (12) survey, land improvement and land drainage branch.

In 1903, in pursuance of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries

## Act 1903, the powers and duties of the Board of Trade under the

Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Acts, the Sea Fisheries Regulation Acts and other acts relating to the industry of fishing, were transferred from that department to the Board of Agriculture, and its name was changed to its present form. The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland covers much the same ground. The Annual report of the proceedings of the Board of Agriculture under the Tithe and other Acts for 1902 contains a full account of its powers and duties.

In the British colonies the interests of agriculture are looked after in New South Wales, by an under-secretary for mines and agriculture; in Victoria, by a member of the executive council who holds the portfolio of lands and agriculture; in Queensland, by an under-secretary for agriculture; in New Zealand, by a minister for lands and agriculture; in Canada (see, for more detail, the article Canada, Canadian Agriculture), by a minister for agriculture (the various provinces have also departments of agriculture). The government of India has a secretary of revenue and agriculture. Cape Colony has a secretary for agriculture, a member of the cabinet; in the Transvaal Colony the director of agriculture is a departmental secretary; in Natal, the minister for agriculture is a member of the executive council, and the establishment consists, in addition, of a secretary, a director of agriculture, an entomologist, a dairy expert and a conservator of forests. Cyprus has a director of agriculture.

United States--The Department of Agriculture dates its rank as an executive department from 1889. It was first established as a department in 1862, ranking as a bureau, with a commissioner in charge. In addition to the commissioner there were appointed a statistician, chemist, entomologist and superintendent of a propagatory and experimental farm. Its scope was then somewhat limited, but its work was gradually enlarged by the appointment of a botanist in 1868, a microscopist in 1871, the creation of a forestry department in 1877, a bureau of animal industry in 1884 and the establishment of agricultural experiment stations throughout the country in 1887. In 1889 the department became an executive department, the principal official being designated Secretary of Agriculture, with a seat in the president's cabinet. His salary is $8000 a year. The secretary is now charged with the supervision of all business relating to the agricultural and productive industries. The fisheries have a separate bureau, and the public lands and mining interests are cared for in the Department of the Interior; but with these exceptions, all the productive interests are looked after by the Department of Agriculture. The department now comprises (1) the weather bureau, which has charge of the forecasting of weather; the issue of storm warnings; the display of weather and flood signals for the benefit of agriculture, commerce and navigation; the gauging and reporting of rivers; the reporting of temperature and rainfall conditions for the cotton, rice, sugar and other interests; the display of frost and cold waves signals; and the distribution of meteorological information in the interest of agriculture and commerce; (2) the bureau of animal industry, which makes investigations as to the existence of contagious pleuro-pneumonia and other dangerous and communicable diseases of live stock, superintends the measures for their extirpation, makes original investigations as to the nature and prevention of such diseases, and reports on the conditions and means of improving the animal industries of the country; (3) the bureau of plant industry, which studies plant life in all its relations to agriculture. Its work is classified under the general subjects of pathological investigations, physiological investigations, taxonomic investigations, agronomic investigations, horticultural investigations and seed and plant introduction investigations; (4) the forest service, which is occupied with experiments, investigations and reports dealing with the subject of forestry, and with the dissemination of information upon forestry matters; (5) the bureau of chemistry, which investigates methods proposed for the analysis of plants, fertilizers and agricultural products, and makes such analyses as pertain in general to the interests of agriculture; (6) the bureau of soils, which is entrusted with the investigation, survey and mapping of soils; the investigation of the cause and prevention of the rise of alkali in the soil and the drainage of soils; and the investigation of the methods of growing, curing and fermentation of tobacco in the different tobacco districts; (7) the bureau of entomology, which obtains and disseminates information regarding insects injurious to vegetation; (8) the bureau of biological survey, which studies the geographic distribution of animals and plants, and maps the natural life zones of the country; it also investigates the economic relations of birds and mammals, and recommends measures for the preservation of beneficial, and the destruction of injurious, species; (9) the division of accounts and disbursements; (10) the division of publications; (11) the bureau of statistics, which collects information as to the condition, prospects and harvests of the principal crops, and of the number and status of farm animals. It records, tabulates and co-ordinates statistics of agricultural production, distribution and consumption, and issues monthly and annual crop reports for the information of producers and consumers. The section of foreign markets makes investigations and disseminates information concerning the feasibility of extending the demands of foreign markets for the agricultural products of the United States; the bureau also makes investigations of land tenures, cost of producing farm products, country life education, transportation and other lines of rural economies; (12) the library; (13) the office of experiment stations which represents the department in its relations to the experiment stations which are now in operation in all the states; it collects and disseminates general information regarding agricultural schools, colleges, stations, and publishes accounts of agricultural investigations at home and abroad; it also indicates lines of inquiry for the stations, aids in the conduct of co-operative experiments, reports upon their expenditures and work, and in general furnishes them with such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes for which they were established; it conducts investigations relative to irrigation and drainage; (14) the office of public roads, which collects information concerning systems of road management, conducts investigations regarding the best method of road-making, and prepares publications on this subject.

In the following countries there are state departments of agriculture:---Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, (industry, agriculture and public works), Bulgaria (commerce and agriculture), Denmark, France, Norway (agriculture and public accounts), Italy, Japan (agriculture and commerce), Prussia (agriculture, woods and forests), Russia (agriculture and crown domains), Sweden.

AGRIGENTUM (Gr. `Akragas mod. Girgenti (q.v.)), an ancient city on the south coastof Sicily, 2 1/2m. from the sea. It was founded (perhaps on the site of an early Sicanian settlement) by colonists from Gela about 582 B.C., and, though the lastest city of importance founded by the Greeks in Sicily, soon acquired a position second to that of Syracuse alone, owing to its favourable situation for trade with Carthage and to the fertility of its territory. Pindar (Pyth. xii. 2) calls it kallista brotean polion. The buildings for which it is famous all belong to the first two centuries of its existence. Phalaris, who is said to have roasted his enemies to death in a brazen bull (Pindar, Pyth.. i. 184), ruled as tyrant from 570 to 554. What form of government was established after his fall is uncertain; we know only that, after a long interval, Theron became tyrant (488-473); but his son Thrasydaeus was expelled after an unsuccessful war with Hiero in 472 and a democracy established. In the struggle between Syracuse and Athens (415-413) the city remained absolutely neutral. Its prosperity continued to increase (its population is given at over 200,000) until in 405 B.C., despite the help of the Siceliot cities, it was captured and plundered by the Carthaginians, a blow from which it never entirely re-covered. It was colonized by Timoleon in 338 B.C. with settlers from Veha in Lucania, and in the time of the tyrant Phintias (289-279) it had regained some of its power. In the First Punic War, however, it was sacked by the Romans (261) and the Carthaginians (255), and finally in the Second Punic War by the Romans (210). But it still retained its importance as a trading and agricultural centre, even in the Roman period, exporting not only agricultural products but textile fabrics and sulphur. In the local museum are tiles used for stamping cakes of sulphur, which show that the mines, at any rate from the 3rd century, were imperial property leased to contractors.

The site is one of great natural strength and remarkable beauty, though quite unlike that of other Greek cities in Sicily. The northern portion of it consists of a lofty ridge with two summits, the westernmost of which is occupied by the modern town (985 ft.), while the easternmost, which is slightly higher, bears the name of Rock of Athena, owing to its identification in modern days with the acropolis of Acragas as described by Polybius, who places upon it the temple of Zeus Atabyrius (the erection of which was attributed to the half mythical Phalaris) and that of Athena.1 It must be confessed that the available space (about 70 X 20 yds.) on the eastern summit (where there are some remains of ancient buildings) is so small that there would be only room for a single temple, which must have been occupied by the two deities jointly, if the new theory is correct (see Notizie degli scavi, 1902, 387 and reff.). In the modern town, on the other hand, the remains of one temple are to be seen in the church of S. Maria dei Greci, while the other is generally supposed to have occupied the site of the cathedral, though no traces of it are visible. But whichever of these two summits was the acropolis proper2 it is certain that both were included in the circuit of the city walls. On the north both summits are defended by cliffs; on the south the ground slopes away somewhat abruptly from the eastern summit towards the plateau on which the town stood, while the western summit is separated from this plateau by a valley traversed by a branch of the Hypsas [mod. drago], the deep ravine of which forms the western boundary and defence of the city. On the east of the city is the valley of the Acragas [Fiume S. Biagio], from which the city took its name and which, though shallower than that of the Hypsas, still affords a sufficient obstacle to attack, and the two unite a little way to the south of the town; at the mouth was the ancient harbour, small and now abandoned.

The most famous remains of the ancient city are the temples, the most important of which form a row along the low cliffs at the south end of the city. All are built in the Doric style, of the local porous stone, which is of a warm red brown colour, full of fossil shells and easily corroded when exposed to the air. It should be noted that their traditional names, with the exception of that of Zeus and that of Asclepius, have no foundation in fact, while the attribution of the temple in antis, into the cella of which the church of S. Biagio has been built, is uncertain.3 They are described in R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, Die griechishen Tempel in Unteritalien und Sicilien (Berlin, 1890), 138-184. Of all these temples the oldest is probably that of Heracles, while the best preserved are those of Hera and Concordia, which are very similar in dimensions; the latter, indeed, lacks nothing but its roof, owing its preservation to its conversion into the cathedral in 597 by Gregory II., bishop of Girgenti. Both temples belong to the best period of the Doric style and are among the finest in existence. In front of the former, as in front of those of Heracles and Zeus, stood a huge altar for burnt offerings, as long as the facade of the temple itself. The cella of the temple of Heracles underwent considerable modifications in Roman times, and the discovery in it of a statue of Asclepius seems to show that the cult of this deity superseded the original one.

In the colossal temple of Zeus the huge Atlantes (figures of Atlas), 25 ft. in height, are noticeable. They seem to have stood in the intercolumniations half-way up the outside wall and to have supported the epistyle. The collapse both of this temple and of that of Heracles must be attributed to an earthquake; many fallen blocks of the former were removed in 1756 for the construction of the harbour of Porto Empedocle. The four columns erected on the site of the temple of Castor and Pollux are a modern (and incorrect) restoration in which portions of two buildings have been used. Of that of Hephaestus only two columns remain, while of that of Asclepius, a mile to the south of the town, an anta and two pillars are preserved. It was in the latter temple that the statue of the god by Myron stood; it had probably been carried off to Carthage, was given to the temple by P. Scipio Africanus from the spoils of that city and aroused the cupidity of Verres.

The other remains within the city walls are of surprisingly small importance; near the picturesque church of S. Nicolo is the so-called Oratory of Phalaris, a shrine of the 2nd century B.C., 27 1/4 ft. long (including the porch) by 23 1/3 ft. wide; and not far off on the east is a large private house with white tesselated pavements, probably pre-Roman in origin but slightly altered in the Roman period (R. P. Jones and E. A. Gardner in JOURNAL OF HELLENIC STUDIES, xxvi., 1906, 207). Foundations of other buildings are to be seen in other parts of the site, but of little interest. The huge fishpond, spoken of by Diodorus as being 7 stadia in circumference (xi. 25), is to be seen at the south-west corner of the city; it is an enormous excavation in the rock with drains in its sides, at the bottom of which there is now a flourishing orange garden.

Demeter Hera Con- (Acragas?) Lacinia. cordia. Heracles. Zeus.

Length excluding steps4 90? 125 129 1/4 220 361 Breadth 40 1/2 55 1/2 55 1/2 83 173 1/2 Length of cella .. 93 96 1/4 156 332 Breadth of cella .. 32 1/2 31 1/2 45 3/4 144 1/4 Height of columns with capital .. 21 22 33 62 1/2? Diameter of columns at bottom .. 4 1/2 4 1/2 6 1/2 14 Original number of columns .. 34 34 38 38 Class In antis. Perip- Perip- Perip- Pseudo teros teros teros Peripteros hexa- hexa- hexa- hexa- stylos. stylos. stylos. stylos. Approximate date 450 B.C. 480-440 440-420 500 B.C. 450 B.C. B.C. B.C.

Unnamed Castor near Castor and and Hephae- Pollux. Pollux. scus. Asclepius. Athena.

Length excluding steps (1) .. .. .. .. .. Breadth .. 67 1/4 57 1/2 30 1/2 45 Length of cella 91 .. .. .. .. Breadth of cella 33 .. .. .. .. Height of columns with capital 19 1/2 .. .. .. .. Diameter of columns at bottom 4 .. 5 3 1/3 4 2/3 Original number of columns 34 .. .. .. .. Class Perip- .. Perip- Prostylos Perip- teros teros pseudo teros hexa- hexa- perip- stylos. stylos. teros. Approximate date 338-210. .. after 338 before 210 488-472 B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C.

The line of the city walls can be distinctly traced for most of the circuit, but the actual remains of them are inconsiderable. On the east and west the ravines already mentioned afforded, in the main, a sufficient protection, so that a massive wall was unnecessary, while near the south-eastern angle a breastwork was formed by the excavation of the natural rock,5 which in later times was honeycombed with tombs. E. A. Freeman attributes the southern portion of the walls to Theron (Hist. of Sic. ii. 224), but the question depends upon the date of the temple of Heracles; and if Koldewey and Puchstein are right in dating it so early as 500 B.C., it is probable that the wall was in existence by that time. Close to this temple on the west is the site of the gate known in later times as the porta aurea, through which the modern road passes, so that no traces now remain.

Tombs of the Greek period have mainly been found on the west of the town, outside the probable line of the walls, between the Hypsas and a small tributary, the latter having been spanned by a bridge, now called Ponite dei Morti, of which one massive pier, 45 ft. in width, still exists. Just outside the south wall is a Roman necropolis, with massive tombs in masonry, and a Christian catacomb, and a little farther south a tomb in two stories, a mixture of Doric and Ionic architecture, belonging probably to the 2nd century B.C., though groundlessly called the Tomb of Theron. A village of the Byzantine period has been explored at Balatizzo, immediately to the south of the modern town (Notizie degli scavi, 1900, 511-520). The walls of the dwellings are entirely cut out of the natural rock.

See J. Schubring, Historische Topographie von Akragas (Leipzig, 1570); R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, op. cit.; C. Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Encyclopadie, i. 1187. (T. As.)

1 E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily (Oxford, 1891), i. 438, accepts the name ``Rock of Athena'' and yet puts the acropolis on the site of the modern town, arguing further that the cathedral hill was an acropolis within an acropolis (II. and XVII.).

2 Some writers place Kamikos, the city of the mythical Sican Kokalos, on the site of Acragas or its acropolis; but it appears to have lain to the north-west, possibly at Caltabellotta, 10m. north-east of Sciacca. We hear of it even in the Punic Wars as a fortified post of Acragas (E. A. Freeman, Hist. of Sic. i. 495).

3 The attribution to Demeter is supported by the discovery of votive terra-cottas, representing Demeter and Kore in the neighbourhood, while the conjecture that it was dedicated to the river-god Acragas rests on its position above the river, in the valley of which, indeed, a statue which may represent the deity has been discovered.

4 Dimensions in English feet.

5 Polybius ix. 27 keitai to teixos epi petras akrotomon kai perirrogos e men autofnous e de xeiropoieton.

AGRIMONY (from the Lat. agrimonia, a transformation of argemone, a word of unknown etymology), a slender perennial herb (botanical name, agrimonia eupatoria, natural order Rosaceae), 1 1/2 to 3 ft. high, growing in hedge-banks, copses and borders of fields. The leafy stem ends in spikes of small yellow flowers. The flower-stalk becomes recurved in the fruiting stage, and the fruit bears a number of hooks which enable it to cling to rough objects, such as the coat of an animal, thus ensuring distribution of the seed. The plant is common in Britain and widely spread through the north temperate region. The underground woody stem is astringent and yields a yellow dye.

The name has been unsystematically given to several other plants; for instance: bastard, Dutch, hemp or water agrimony (eupatorium cannabinum); noble or three-leaved agrimony (anemone hellalica); water agrimony (bideus); and wild agrimony (potentilla anserina.)

AGRIONIA, an ancient Greek festival, which was celebrated annually at Orchomenus in Boeotia and elsewhere, in honour of Dionysus Agrionius, by women and priests at night. The women, after playfully pretending for some time to search for the god, desisted, saying that he had hidden himself among the Muses. The tradition is that the daughters of Minyas, king of Orchomenus, having despised the rites of the god, were seized with frenzy and ate the flesh of one of their children. At this festival it was originally the custom for the priest of the god to pursue a woman of the Minyan family with a drawn sword and kill her. (Plutarch, Quaest. Rom. 102, Quaest. Graecae 38.)

AGRIPPA, a sceptical philosopher, whose date cannot be accurately determined. He must have lived later than Aenesidemus, who is generally said to have been a contemporary of Cicero. To him are ascribed the five tropes pente tropoi which, according to Sextus Empiricus, summarize the attitude of the later ancient sceptics. The first trope emphasizes the disagreement of philosophers on all fundamental points; knowledge comes either from the senses or from reason. Some thinkers hold that nothing is known but the things of sense; others that the things of reason alone are known; and so on. It follows that the only wise course is to be content with an attitude of indifference, neither to affirm nor to deny. The second trope deals with the validity of proof; the proof of one so-called fact depends on another fact which itself needs demonstration, and so on ad infinitum. The third points out that the data of sense are relative to the sentient being, those of reason to the intelligent mind; that in different conditions things themselves are seen or thought to be different. Where, then, is the absolute criterion? Fourthly, if we examine things fairly, we see that in point of fact all knowledge depends on certain hypotheses, or facts taken for granted. Such knowledge is fundamentally hypothetical, and might well be accepted as such without the labour of a demonstration which is logically invalid. The fifth trope points out the impossibility of proving the sensible by the intelligible inasmuch as it remains to establish the intelligible in its turn by the sensible. Such a process is a vicious circle and has no logical validity. A comparison of these tropes with the ten tropes enumerated in the article AENESIDEMUS shows that scepticism has made an advance into the more abtruse questions of metaphysics. The first and the third include all the ideas expressed in the ten tropes, and the other three systematize the more profound difficulties which new thinkers had developed. Aenesidemus was content to attack the validity of sense-given knowledge; Agrippa goes further and impugns the possibility of all truth whatever. His reasons are those of modern scepticism, the reasons which by their very nature are not susceptible of disproof.

See Diogenes Laertius x. 88, and Zeller's Greek Philosophy. Also the articles SCEPTICISM; AENESIDEMUS.

AGRIPPA, HEROD, I. (c. 10 B.C.-A.D. 44), king of Judea, the son of Aristobulus and Berenice, and grandson of Herod the Great, was born about 10 B.C. His original name was Marcus Julius Agrippa. Josephus informs us that, after the murder of his father, Herod the Great sent him to Rome to the court of Tiberius, who conceived a great affection for him, and placed him near his son Drusus, whose favour he very soon won. On the death of Drusus, Agrippa, who had been recklessly extravagant, was obliged to leave Rome, overwhelmed with debt. After a brief seclusion, Herod the Tetrarch, his uncle, who had married Herodias, his sister, made him Agoranomos (Overseer of Markets) of Tiberias, and presented him with a large sum of money; but his uncle being unwilling to continue his support, Agrippa left Judea for Antioch and soon after returned to Rome, where he was welcomed by Tiberius and became the constant campanion of the emperor Gaius (Caligula), then a popular favourite. Agrippa being one day overheard by Eutyches, a slave whom he had made free, to express a wish for Tiberius' death and the advancement of Gaius, was betrayed to the emperor and cast into prison. In A.D. 37 Caligula, having ascended the throne, heaped wealth and favours upon Agrippa, set a royal diadem upon his head and gave him the tetrarchy of Batanaea and Trachonitis, which Philip, the son of Herod the Great, had formerly possessed. To this he added that held by Lysanias; and Agrippa returned very soon into Judea to take possession of his new kingdom. In A.D. 39 he returned to Rome and brought about the banishment of Herod Antipas, to whose tetrarchy he succeeded. On the assassination of Caligula (A.D. 41) Agrippa contributed much by his advice to maintain Claudius in possession of the imperial dignity, while he made a show of being in the interest of the senate. The emperor, in acknowledgment, gave him the government of Judea, while the kingdom of Chalcis in Lebanon was at his request given to his brother Herod. Thus Agrippa became one of the greatest princes of the east, the territory he possessed equalling in extent that held by Herod the Great. He returned to Judea and governed it to the great satisfaction of the Jews. His zeal, private and public, for Judaism is celebrated by Josephus and the rabbis; and the narrative of Acts xii. gives a typical example of it. About the feast of the Passover A.D. 44, James the elder, the son of Zebedee and brother of John the evangelist, was seized by his order and put to death. He proceeded also to lay hands on Peter and imprisoned him. After the Passover he went to Caesarea, where he had games performed in honour of Claudius, and the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon waited on him to sue for peace.. According to the story in Acts xii., Agrippa, gorgeously arrayed, received them in the theatre, and addressed them from a throne, while the audience cried out that his was the voice of a god. But ``the angel of the Lord smote him,'' and shortly afterwards he died ``eaten of worms.'' The story in Acts differs slightly from that in Josephus, who describes how in the midst of his elation he saw an owl perched over his head. During his confinement by Tiberius a like omen had been interpreted as portending his speedy release, with the warning that should he behold the same sight again he would die within' five days. He was immediately smitten with violent pains, and after a few days died. Josephus says nothing of his being ``eaten of worms,'' but the discrepancies between the two stories are of slight moment. A third account omits all the apocryphal elements in the story and says that Agrippa was assassinated by the Romans, who objected to his growing power.

See articles in Ency, Bibl. (W. J. Woodhouse), Jewish Ency. (M. Brann), with further relerences; N. S. Libowitz, Herod and Agrippa (New York, 2nd ed., 1898); Gratz, Geschchte d. Juden, iii. 318-361.

AGRIPPA, HEROD, II. (27-100), son of the preceding, and like him originally Marcus Julius Agrippa, was born about A.D. 27, and received the tetrarchy of Chalcis and the oversight of the Temple on the death of his uncle Herod, A.D. 48. In A.D. 53 he was deprived of that kingdom by Claudius, who gave him other provinces instead of it. In the war which Vespasian carried on against the Jews Herod sent him 2000 men, by which it appears that, though a Jew in religion, he was yet entirely devoted to the Romans, whose assistance indeed he required to secure the peace of his own kingdom. He died at Rome in the third year of . Trajan, A.D. 100. He was the seventh and last king of the family of Herod the Great. It was before him and his sister Berenice (q.v., B.2) that St Paul pleaded his cause at Caesarea (Acts xxvi.). He supplied Josephus with information for his history.

AGRIPPA, MARCUS VIPSANIUS (63-12 P.C.), Roman statesman and general, son-in-law and minister of the emperor Augustus, was of humble origin. He was of the same age as Octavian (as the emperor was then called), and was studying with him at Apollonia when news of Julius Caesar's assassination (44) arrived. By his advice Octavian at once set out for Rome. Agrippa played a conspicuous part in the war against Lucius, . brother of Mark Antony, which ended in the capture of Perusia (40). Two years later he put down a rising of the Aquitallians in Gaul, and crossed the Rhine to punish the aggressions of the Germans. On his return he refused a triumph but accepted the consulship (37). At this time Sextus Pompeius, with whom war was imminent, had command of the sea on the coasts of Italy. Agrippa's first care was to provide a safe harbour for his ships, which he accomplished by cutting through the strips of land which separated the Lacus Lucrinus from the sea, thus forming an outer harbour; an inner one was also made by joining the lake Avernus to the Lucrinus (Dio Cassius xlviii. 49; Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 24). About this time Agrippa married Pomponia, daughter of Cicero's friend Pomponius Atticus. Having been appointed naval commander-in-chief he put his crews through a course of training, until he felt in a position to meet the fleet of Pompeius. In 36 he was victorious at Mylae and Naulochus, and received the honour of a naval crown for his services. In 33 he was chosen aedile and signalized his tenure of office by effecting great improvements in the city of Rome, restoring and building aqueducts, enlarging and cleansing the sewers, and constructing baths and porticos, and laying out gardens. He also first gave a stimulus to the public exhibition of works of art. The emperor's boast that he had found the city of brick but left it of marble (``marmoream se relinquere, quam latericiam accepisset,'' Suet. Aug. 29) might with greater propriety have been uttered by Agrippa. He was again called away to take command of the fleet when the war with Antony broke out. The victory at Actium (31), which gave the mastery of Rome and the empire of the world to Octavian, was mainly due to Agrippa. As a token of signal regard Octavian bestowed upon him the hand of his niece Marcella (28). We must suppose that his wife Pomponia was either dead or divorced. In 27 Agrippa was consul for the third time, and in the following year the senate bestowed upon Octavian the emperial title of Augustus. Probably in commemoration of the battle of Actium, Agrippa built and dedicated the Pantheum still in existence as La Rotonda. The inscription on the portico states that it was erected by him during his third consulship. His friendship with Augustus seems to have been clouded by the jealousy of his father-in-law Marcellus, which was probably fomented by the intrigues of Livia, the second wife of Augustus, who feared his influence with her husband. The result was that Agrippa left Rome, ostensibly to take over the governorship of Syria --a sort of honourable exile; but as a matter of fact he only sent his legate to the East, while he himself remained at Lesbos. On the death of Marcellus, which took place within a year, he was recalled to Rome by Augustus, who found he could not dispense with his services. It is said that by the advice of Maecenas he resolved to attach Agrippa still more closely to him by making him his son-in-law. He accordingly induced him to divorce Marcella and marry his daughter Julia (21), the widow of Marcellus, equally celebrated for her beauty and abilities and her shameless profligacy. In 19 Agrippa was employed in putting down a rising of the Cantabrians in Spain. He was appointed governor of Syria a second time (17), where his just and prudent administration won him the respect and good-will of the provincials, especially the Hebrew population. His last public service was the bloodless suppression of an insurrection in Pannonia (13). He died at Campania in March of the year following his fifty-first year. Augustus honoured his memory by a magnificent funeral.

Agrippa was also known as a writer, especially on geography. Under his supervision Julius Caesar's design of having a complete survey of the empire made was carried out. From the materials at hand he constructed a circular chart, which was engraved on marble by Augustus and afterwards placed in the colonnade built by his sister Polla. Amongst his writings an autobiography, now lost, is referred to. Agrippa left several children; by Pomponia, a daughter Vipsania, who became the wife of the emperor Tiberius; by Julia three sons, Gaius and Lucius Caesar and Agrippa Postumus, and two daughters, Agrippina the elder, afterwards the wife of Germanicus, and Julia, who married Lucius Aemihus Pauilus.

See Dio Cassius xlix.-liv.; Suetonius, Augustus; Velleius Paternulus ii.; Josephus, Antiq. Jud. xv. 10, xvi. 2; Turnbull, Three Dissertations, one of the characters of Horace, Augustus and Agrippa (1740); Frandsen, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (1836); Motte, Etude sur Marcus Agrippa (1872); Nispi-Landi, Marcus Agrippa e suoi tempi (1901); D. Detlefsen, Ursprung, Einrichtung und Bedeutung der Erdkarte Agrippas (1906); V. Gardthausen, Augustus und seine Zeit, vol. i. 762 foll., ii. 432 foll.

AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM, HENRY CORNELIUS (1486-1535) German writer, soldier, physician, and by common reputation a magician, belonged to a family many members of which had been in the service of the house of Habsburg, and was born at Cologne on the 14th of September 1486. The details of his early life are somewhat obscure, but he appears to have obtained a knowledge of eight languages, to have studied at the university of Cologne and to have passed some time in France. When quite young he entered the service of the German king, Maximilian I., and in 1508 was engaged in an adventurous enterprise in Catalonia. He probably served Maximilian both as soldier and as secretary, but his wonderful and varied genius was not satisfied with these occupations, and he soon began to take a lively interest in theosophy and magic. In 1509 he went to the university of Dole, where he lectured on John Reuchlin's De Verbo Mirifico, but his teaching soon caused charges of heresy to be brought against him, and he was denounced by a monk named John Catilinet in lectures delivered at Ghent. As a result Agrippa was compelled to leave Dole; proceeding to the Netherlands he took service again with Maximilian. In 1510 the king sent him on a diplomatic mission to England, where he was the guest of Colet, dean of St Paul's, and where he replied to the accusations brought against him by Catilinet. Returning to Cologne he followed Maximilian to Italy in 1511, and as a theologian attended the council of Pisa, which was called by some cardinals in opposition to a council called by Pope Julius II. He remained in Italy for seven years, partly in the service of William VI., marquis of Monferrato, and partly in that of Charles III., duke of Savoy, probably occupied in teaching theology and practising medicine.

In 1515 he lectured at the university of Pavia on the Pimander of Hermes Trismegistus, but these lectures were abruptly terminated owing to the victories of Francis I., king of France. In 1518 the efforts of one or other of his patrons secured for Agrippa the position of town advocate and orator, or syndic, at Metz. Here, as at Dole, his opinions soon brought him into collision with the monks, and his defence of a woman accused of witchcraft involved him in a dispute with the inquisitor, Nicholas Savin. The consequence of this was that in 1520 he resigned his office and returned to Cologne, where he stayed about two years. He then practised for a short time as a physician at Geneva and Freiburg, but in 1524 went to Lyons on being appointed physician to Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I. In 1528 he gave up this position, and about this time was invited to take part in the dispute over the legality of the divorce of Catherine of Aragon by Henry VIII.; but he preferred an offer made by Margaret, duchess of Savoy and regent of the Netherlands, and became archivist and historiographer to the emperor Charles V. Margaret's death in 1530 weakened his position, and the publication of some of his writings about the same time aroused anew the hatred of his enemies; but after suffering a short imprisonment for debt at Brussels he lived at Cologne and Bonn, under the protection of Hermann of Wied, archbishop of Cologne. By publishing his works he brought himself into antagonism with the Inquisition, which sought to stop the printing of De occulta philosophia. He then went to France, where he was arrested by order of Francis I. for some disparaging words about the queen-mother; but he was soon released, and on the 18th of February 1535 died at Grenoble. He was married three times and had a large family. Agrippa was a man of great ability and undoubted courage, but he lacked perseverance and was himself responsible for many of his misfortunes. In spite of his inquiring nature and his delight in novelty, he remained a Catholic, and had scant sympathy with the teaching of the reformers. His memory was nevertheless long defamed in the writings of the monks, who placed a malignant inscription over his grave. Agrippa's work, De occulta philosophia, was written about 1510, partly under the influence of the author's friend, John Trithemius, abbot of Wurzburg, but its publication was delayed until 1531, when it appeared at Antwerp. It is a defence of magic, by means of which men may come to a knowledge of nature and of God, and contains Agrippa's idea of the universe with its three worlds or spheres. His other principal work, De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et Artium Atque Excellentia Verbi Dei Declamatio, was written about 1527 and published at Antwerp in 1531. This is a sarcastic attack on the existing sciences and on the pretensions of learned men. In it Agrippa denounces the accretions which had grown up around the simple doctrines of Christianity, and wishes for a return to the primitive belief of the early Christian church. He also wrote De Nobilitate et Praecellentia Deminei Sexus, dedicated to Margaret of Burgundy, De Matrimonii Sacramento and other smaller works. An edition of his works was published at Leiden in 1550 and they have been republished several times. See H. Morley, Life of H. C. Agrippa (London, 1856); A. Prost, Les Sciences at les arts occultes au xvi. Siecle: Corneille Agrippa sa vie et ses oeuvres (Paris, 1881); A. Daguet, Cornelius Agrippa (Paris, 1856).

AGRIPPINA, the ``elder,'' daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa by his third wife Julia, was the grand-daughter of Augustus and the wife of Germanicus. She accompanied her husband to Germany, when the legions on the Rhine revolted after the death of Augustus (A.D. 14). Three years later she was in the East with Germanicus (q.v.), who died at Antioch in 19, poisoned, it was said, by order of Cn. Calpurnius Piso, governor of Syria. Eager to avenge his death, she returned to Rome and boldly accused Piso of the murder of Germanicus. To avoid public infamy Piso committed suicide. Tiberius and his favourite Sejanus feared that her ambition might lead her to attempt to secure the throne for her children, and she was banished to the island of Pandataria off the coast of Campania, where she died on the 18th of October 33, starved to death by herself, or, according to some, by order of Tiberius. Two of her sons, Nero and Drusus, had already fallen victims to the machinations cf Sejanus. Agrippina had a large family by Germanicus, several of whom died young, while only two are of importance-- Agrippina the ``younger'' and Gaius Caesar, who succeeded Tiberius under the name of Caligula. It is remarkable that, although Tiberius had ordored the execution of his elder brothers, by his will he left Caligula one of the heirs of the empire. Agrippina was a woman of the highest character and exemplary morality. There is a portrait of her in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, and a bronze medal in the British Museum representing the bringing back of her ashes to Rome by order of Caligula.

See Tac. Ann. i.-vi.; Suetonius, Tiberius, 53; Dio Cassius lvii. 6, lviii. 22, lix. 3; Elizabeth Hamilton, Memoirs of the Life of Agrippina (1804): Burkhard, Agrippina, des Agrippa Tochter (1846); Stahr, Romische Kaiserfrauen (1880).

AGRIPPINA, the ``younger'' (A.D. 16-59), daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the elder, sister of Caligula and mother of Nero, was born at Oppidum Ubiorum on the Rhine, afterwards named in her honour Colonia Agrippinae (mod. Cologne). Her life was notorious for intrigue and perfidy. By her first husband, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, she was the mother of the emperor Nero; her second husband was Passienus Crispus, whom she was accused of poisoning. Assisted by the influential freedman Tallas, she induced her uncle the emperor Claudius to marry her after the death of Messalina, and adopt the future Nero as heir to the throne in place of Britannicus. Soon afterwards she poisoned Claudius and secured the throne for her son, with the intention of practically ruling on his behalf. Being alarmed at the influence of the freedwoman Acte over Nero, sbe threatened to support the claims of the rightful heir Britannicus. Nero thereupon murdered the young prince and decided to get rid of his mother. Pretending a reconciliation, he invited her to Baiae, where an attempt was made to drown her on a vessel especially constructed to founder. As this proved a failure, he had her put to death at her country house. Agrippina wrote memoirs of her times, referred to by Tacitus (Ann. iv. 53). Her character is set forth in Racine's Britannicus.

See Tac.Ann. xii., xiii., xiv.; Dio Cassius lix.-lxi.; Suetonius, NERO, 34; Stahr, Agrippina. die Mutter Neros (1880); Raffay, Die Memoiren der Kaiserin Agrippina (1884); B. W. Henderson, The Life and Principate of the Emperor Nero (1903); also article NERO.

AGROTERAS THUSIA, an annual festival held at Agrae near Athens, in honour of Artemis Agrotera, in fulfilment of a vow made by the city, before the battle of Marathon, to offer in sacrifice a number of goats equal to that of the Persians slain in the conflict. The number being so great, it was decided to offer 100 goats yearly.

See Plutarch, De Malignitate Herodoti, 26; Xenophon, Anab. iii. 2. 12; Aelian, Var. Hist. ii. 25; Schol. on Aristophanes, Equites, 660.

AGUADILLA, a town and port near the northern extremity of the W. coast of Porto Rico. Pop. (1899) 6425. It has a fairly good and safe anchorage, and is the commercial outlet for a very fertile agricultural district. The town is attractively situated and well built, and is connected by railway with Mayaguez, 20 m. distant, and also with Ponce and San Juan. The neighbouring district produces sugar-cane, tobacco, cattle, cocoanuts, oranges and lemons. The bay is supposed to have been first visited by Columbus (November 1493), though the town was not founded until 1775.

AGUADO, ALEXANDRE MARIE, marquis de Las Marismas del Guadalquivir, viscount de Monte Ricco (1784-1842), Spanish banker, was born of Jewish parentage at Seville, on the 29th of June 1784. He began life as a soldier, fighting with distinction in the Spanish war of independence on the side of Joseph Bonaparte. After the battle of Baylen (1808) he entered the French army, in which he rose to be colonel and aide-de-camp to Marshal Soult. He was exiled in 1815, and immediately started business as a commission-agent in Paris, where, chiefly through his family connexions in Havana and Mexico, he acquired in a few years enough wealth to enable him to undertake banking. The Spanish government gave him full powers to negotiate the loans of 1823, 1828, 1830 and 1831; and Ferdinand VII. rewarded him with the title of marquis, the decorations of several orders and valuable mining concessions in Spain. Aguado also negotiated the Greek loan of 1834. In 1828, having become possessed of large estates in France, including the chateau Margaux, famous for its wine, he was naturalized as a French citizen. He died at Gijon in Spain on the 14th of April 1842, leaving a fortune computed at 60,000,000 francs, and a splendid collection of pictures which at his death was bought by the French government.

AGUASCALIENTES, an inland state of Mexico, bounded N., E. and W. by the state of Zacatecas, and S. by Jalisco. Pop. (est. 1900) 102,416, a gradual decrease since the census years of 1895 and 1879; area, 2970 sq. m. The state occupies an elevated plateau, extending from two spurs of the Sierra Madre, called the Sierra Fria and Sierra de Laurel, eastward to the rolling fertile plains of its eastern and south-eastern districts. It is well watered by numerous small streams and one larger river, the Aguascalientes or Rio Grande, and has a mild healthy climate with a moderate rainfall. The fertile valleys of the north and west are devoted to agriculture and the plains to stockraising. Indian corn, flour, cattle, horses, mules and hides are exported to the neighbouring states. Mining industries are still undeveloped, but considerable progress has been made in manufactures, especially of textile fabrics. The state has good railway communications and a prosperous trade. The capital, Aguascalientes, named from the medicinal hot springs near it, is a flourishing commercial and manufacturing city. Pop. (est. 1900) 35,052. It has cotton factories, smelting works, potteries. tanneries, distilleries, and wagon and tobacco factories. It is a station on the Mexican Central railway, 364 m. by rail north-west of the city of Mexico, and is connected by rail with Tampico on the Gulf of Mexico. The city is well built, has many fine churches and good public buildings, street cars and electric lights. The surrounding district is well cultivated and produces an abundance of fruit and vegetables. Other prominent towns of the state are Rincon de Romos (or Victoria de Calpulalpam), Asientos de Ibarra and Calvillo, the first having more and the others less than 5000 inhabitants.

AGUE (from Lat. acuta, sharp; sc. febris, fever), the common name given to a form or stage of malarial disease; the ague fit is the cold, shivering stage, and hence the word is also loosely used for any such paroxysm. Simple ague is of much the same type whether in temperate or tropical climates, and may take various forms (quotidian, tertian, quartan), passing into ``remittent fever.'' The symptoms are discussed, together with causation, &c., in the article MALARIA. For ``brow-ague'' see NEURALGIA.

AGUESSEAU, HENRI FRANCOIS D' (1668-1751), chancellor of France, illustrious for his virtues, learning and talents, was born at Limoges, of a family of the magistrature. His father, Henri d' Aguesseau, a hereditary councillor of the parlement of Metz, was a man of singular ability and breadth of view who, after holding successively the posts of intendant of Limousin, Guyenne and Languedoc, was in 1685 called to Paris as councillor of state, appointed director-general of commerce and manufactures in 1695, president of the council of commerce in 1700 and a member of the council of the regency for finance. By him Francois d'Aguesseau was early initiated into affairs and brought up in religious principles deeply tinged with Jansenism. He studied law under Jean Domat, whose influence is apparent in both the legal writings and legislative work of the chancellor. When little more than twenty-one years of age he was, through his father's influence with the king, appointed one of the three advocates-general to the parlement of Paris; and the eloquence and learning which he displayed in his first speech gained him a very high reputation. D'Aguesseau was in fact the first great master of forensic eloquence in France.

In 1700 he was appointed procurator-general; and in this office, which he filled for seventeen years, he gained the greatest popularity by his defence of the rights of the Gallican Church in the Quietist troubles and in those connected with the bull Unigenitus (see JANSENISM.) In February 1717 he was made chancellor by the regent Orleans; but was deprived of the seals in January of the following year and exiled to his estate of Fresnos in Brie, on account of his steady opposition to the projects of the famous John Law, which had been adopted by the regent and his ministers. In June 1720 he was recalled to satisfy public opinion; and he contributed not a little by the firmness and sagacity of his counsels to calm the public disturbance and repair the mischief which had been done. Law himself had acted as the messenger of his recall; and it is said that d'Aguesseau's consent to accept the seals from his hand greatly diminished his popularity. The parlement continuing its opposition to the registering of the bull UNIGENITUS, d'Aguesseau, fearing a schism and a religious war in France, assisted Guillaume Dubois, the favourite of the regent, in his endeavour to force the parlement to register the bull, acquiesced in the exile of the magistrates and allowed the Great Council to assume the power of registration, which legally belonged to the parlement alone. The people unjustly attributed his conduct to a base compliance with the favourite. He certainly opposed Dubois in other matters; and when Dubois became chief minister d'Aguesseau was deprived of his office (March 1, 1722).

He retired to his estate, where he passed five years of which he always spoke with delight. The Scriptures, which he read and compared in various languages, and the jurisprudence of his own and other countries, formed the subjects of his more serious studies; the rest of his time was devoted to philosophy, literature and gardening. From these occupations he was recalled to court by the advice of Cardinal Fleury in 1727, and on the 15th of August was named chancellor for the third time, but the seals were not restored to him till ten years later. During these years he endeavoured to mediate in the disputes between the court and the parlement. When he was at last reinstated in office, he completely withdrew from all political affairs, and devoted himself entirely to his duties as chancellor and to the achievement of those reforms which had long occupied his thoughts. He aimed, as others had tried before him, to draw up in a single code all the laws of France, but was unable to accomplish his task. Besides some important enactments regarding donations, testaments and successions, he introduced various regulations for improving the forms of procedure, for ascertaining the limits of jurisdictions and for effecting a greater uniformity in the execution of the laws throughout the several provinces. These reforms constitute an epoch in the history of French jurisprudence, and have placed the name of d'Aguesseau in the same rank with those of L'Hopital and Lamoignon. As a magistrate also he was so conscientious that the duc de Saint-Simon in his Memoirs complained that he spent too much time over the cases that came before him.

In 1750, when upwards of eighty-two years of age, d'Aguesseau retired from the duties without giving up the rank of chancellor. He died on the 9th of February of the following year.

His grandson, HENRI CARDIN JEAN BAPTISTE, MARQUIS D'AGUESSEAU (1746-1826), was advocate-general in the parlement of Paris and deputy in the Estates-General. Under the Consulate he became president of the court of appeal and later minister at Copenhaaen. He was elected to the French Academy in 1787.

Of d'Aguesseau's works the most complete edition is that of the eminent lawyer Jean Marie Pardessus, published in 16 vols. (1818-1820); his letters were edited separately by Rives (1823); a selection of his works, OEuvres Choisies, was issued, with a biographical notice, by E. Falconnet in 2 vols. (Paris, 1865). The far greater part of his works relate to matters connected with his profession, hut they also contain an elaborate treatise on money; several theological essays; a life of his father, which is interesting from the account which it gives of his own early education; and Metaphysical Meditations, written to prove that, independently of all revelation and all positive law, there is that in the constitution of the human mind which renders man a law to himself.

See Boullee, Histoire de la vie et les ouvrages de chancelier d'Aguesseau (Paris, 1835); Fr. Monnier, Le Chancelier d'Aguesseau (Paris, 1860; 2nd ed., 1863); Charles Butler, Mem. of Life of H. F. d'Aguesseau, &c. (1830).

AGUILAR, GRACE (1816-1847), English writer, the daughter of a Jewish merchant in London, was born in June 1816. Her works consist chiefly of religious fiction, such as The Vale of Cedars (1850) and Home Influence (1847). She also wrote, in defence of her faith and its professors, The Spirit of Judaism (1842) and other works. Her services were acknowledged gratefully by the ``women of Israel'' in a testimonial which they presented shortly before her death, which took place at Frankfort-on-the-Main on the 16th of September 1847.

AGUILAR, or AGUILAR DE LA FRONTERA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Cordova; near the small river Cabra, and on the Cordova-Malaga railway. Pop. (1900) 13,236. Aguilar ``of the Frontier'' was so named in the middle ages from its position on the border of the Moorish territories, which were defended by the castle of Anzur, now a ruin; but the spacious squares and modern houses of the existing town retain few vestiges of Moorish dominion. The olives and white wine of Aguilar are celebrated in Spain, although the wine, which somewhat resembles sherry, is known as Montilla, from the adjacent town of that name. Salt springs exist in the neighbourhood, and to the south there are two small lakes, Zonar and Rincon, which abound in fish.

AGUILAS, a seaport of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia, on the Mediterranean Sea, at the terminus of a railway from Huercal-Overa. Pop. (1900) 15,868. Aguilas is built on the landward side of a small peninsula, between two bays--the Puerto Ponente, a good harbour, on the south-west, and the Puerto Levanto, which is somewhat dangerous to shipping in rough weather, on the north-east. It is the chief outlet for the Spanish trade in esparto grass, and for the iron ore and other mineral products of the neighbourhood. It has also some trade in fruit and grain. The imports consist chiefly of coal. In 1904, 296 vessels, of 238,274 tons, cleared at this port.

AGUILERA, VENTURA RUIZ (1820-1881), Spanish poet, was born in 1820 at Salamanca, where he graduated in medicine. He removed to Madrid in 1844, engaged in journalism and won considerable popularity with a collection of poems entitled Ecos Nacionales (1849). His Elegias y armonias (1863) was no less successful, but his Satiras (1874) and Estaciones del ano (1879) showed that his powers were declining. He wrote under the obvious influence of Lamartine, preaching the gospel of liberalism and Christianity in verses which, though deficient in force, leave the impression of a sincere devotion and a charming personality. He became director of the national archaeological museum at Madrid, where he died on the 1st of July 1881.

AGUILLON (AGUILONIUS), FRANCOIS D, (1566-1617), Flemish mathematician. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1586, he was successively professor of philosophy at Douai and rector of the Jesuit College at Antwerp. He wrote a treatise on optics in six books (Antwerp, 1613), notable for containing the principles of stereographic projection.

AHAB (in Heb. ``father's brother''), king of Israel, the son and successor of Omri, ascended the throne about 875 B.C. (1 Kings xvi. 29-34). He married Jezebel, the daughter of the king of Sidon, and the alliance was doubtless the means of procuring him great riches, which brought pomp and luxury in their train. We read of his building an ivory palace and founding new cities, the effect perhaps of a share in the flourishing commerce of Phoenicia.1 The material prosperity of his reign, which is comparable with that of Solomon a century before, was overshadowed by the religious changes which his marriage involved. Although he was a worshipper of Yahweh, as the names of his children prove (cp. also xxii. 5 seq.), his wife was firmly attached to the worship of the Tyrian Baal, Melkart, and led by her he gave a great impulse to this cult by building a temple in honour of Baal in Samaria. This roused the indignation of those prophets whose aim it was to purify the worship of Yahweh (see ELIJAH.) During Ahab's reign Moab, which had been conquered by his father, remained tributary; Judah, with whose king, Jehoshaphat, he was allied by marriage, was probably his vassal; only with Damascus is he said to have had strained relations. The one event mentioned by external sources is the battle at Karkar (perhaps Apamea), where Shalmaneser II. of Assyria fought a great confederation of princes from Cilicia, N. Syria, Israel, Ammon and the tribes of the Syrian desert (854 B.C..) Here Ahabbu Sir'lai (Ahab the Israelite) with Baasha, son of Ruhub (Rehob) of Ammon and nine others are allied with Bir-'idri (Ben-hadad), Ahab's contribution being reckoned at 2000 chariots and 10,000 men. The numbers are comparatively large and possibly include forces from Tyre, Judah, Edom and Moab. The Assyrian king claimed a victory, but his immediate return and subsequent expeditions in 849 and 846 against a similar but unspecified coalition seem to show that he met with no lasting success. According to the Old Testament narratives, however, Ahab with 7000 troops had previously overthrown Ben-hadad and his thirty-two kings, who had come to lay siege to Samaria, and in the following year obtained a remarkable victory over him at Aphek, probably in the plain of Sharon (1 Kings xx.) . A treaty was made whereby Ben-hadad restored the cities which his father had taken from Ahab's father (i.e. Omri, but see xv. 20, 2 Kings xiii. 25), and trading facilities between Damascus and Samaria were granted. A late popular story (xx. 35-42, akin in tone to xii. 33-xiii. 34) condemned Ahab for his leniency and foretold the destruction of the king and his land. Three years later, war broke out on the east of Jordan, and Ahab with Jehoshaphat of Judah went to recover Ramoth-Gilead and was mortally wounded (xxii.). He was succeeded by his sons (Ahaziah and Jehoram).

It is very difficult to obtain any clear idea of the order of these events (LXX. places 1 Kings xxi. immediately after xix.). How the hostile kings of Israel and Syria came to fight a common enemy, and how to correlate the Assyrian and Biblical records, are questions which have perplexed all recent writers. The reality of the difficulties will be apparent from the fact that it has been suggested that the Assyrian scribe wrote ``Ahab'' for his son ``Jehoram'' (Kamphausen, Chronol. d. hebr. Kon., Kittel), and that the very identification of the name with Ahab of Israel has been questioned (Horner, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1898, p. 244).2 Whilst the above passages in 1 Kings view Ahab not unfavourably, there are others which give a less friendly picture. The tragic murder of Naboth (see JEZEBEL), an act of royal encroachment, stirred up popular resentment just as the new cult aroused the opposition of certain of the prophets. The latter found their champion in Elijah, whose history reflects the prophetic teaching of more than one age. (See KINGS.) His denunciation of the royal dynasty, and his emphatic insistence on the worship of Yahweh and Yahweh alone, form the keynote to a period which culminated in the accession of Jehu, an event in which Elijah's chosen disciple Elisha was the leading figure.

The allusions to the statutes and works of Omri and Ahab in Mic. vi. 16 may point to legislative measures of these kings, and the reference to the incidents at the building of Jericho (1 Kings xvi. 34) may be taken to show that foundation sacrifices, familiar in nearly all parts of the world, were not unknown in Israel at this period.3 This has in fact been confirmed by excavation in Palestine.

Another Ahab is known only as an impious prophet in the time of the Babylonian exile (Jer. xxix. 21). (S. A. C.)

1 Ahab's ivory palace found its imitators (1 Kings xxii. 39; Am. iii. 15). The ivory was probably brought by the Phoenicians from Cyprus or from one of the works on the coast of Asia Minor.

2 See the discussions by Cheyne, Ency. Bib. col. 91 seq., and by Whitehouse, Dict Bib. i. 53.

3 See Trumbull, Threshold Covenant, pp. 46 sqq.; Haddon, Study of Man, pp. 347 sqq.; P. Sartori, Zeitschr. fur Ethnologie, 1898, pp. 1 seq.

'AHAI, of Sabha, an 8th-century Talmudist of high renown. He was author of Quaestiones (Sheiltoth), a collection of homilies (at once learned and popular) on Jewish law and ethics. This is recorded to have been the first work written by a Jewish scholar after the completion of the Talmud.

AHASUERUS (the Latinized form of the Hebrew shin vav resh tsareh vav shvah shin patach heth patach aleph; in LXX. `Assoueros, once in Tobit `Asueros)), a royal Persian or Median name occurring in three of the books of the Old Testament and in one of the books of the Apocrypha. In every case the identification of the person named is a matter of controversy.

In Dan. ix. 1 Ahasuerus is the father of Darius the Mede, who ``was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans'' after the conquest of Babylon and death of Belshazzar. Who this Darius was is one of the most difficult questions in ancient history. Nabonidos (Nabunaid, Nabu-nahid) was immediately succeeded by Cyrus, who ruled the whole Persian empire. Darius may possibly have acted under Cyrus as governor of Babylon, but this view is not favoured by Dan. vi. 1, vi. 25, for Darius (v. 31) is said to have been sixty-two years old at the time (638 B.C.) . This would make him contemporary with Nebuchadrezzar, which agrees with Tob. xiv. 15, where we read ``of the destruction of Nineveh, which Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus took captive.'' As a matter of fact, however, Cyaxares and Nabopolassar were the conquerors of Nineveh, and the latter was the father of Nebuchadrezzar. Cyrus did, on ascending the throne of Babylon, appoint a governor of the province, but his name was Gobryas, the son of Mardonius. The truth is, no doubt, as Prof. Sayce points out, that the book of Daniel was not meant to be strictly historical. As Prof. Driver says, ``tradition, it can hardly be doubted, has here confused persons and events in reality distinct'' (Literature of the Old Test. (6) p. 500).

In Ezra iv. 6 Ahasuerus is mentioned as a king of Persia, to whom the enemies of the Jews sent representations opposing the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. Here the sequence of the reigns in the Biblical writer and in the profane historians-- in the one, Cyrus, Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, Darius; in the other, Cyrus, Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius--led in the past (Ewald, &c.) to the identification of Ahasuerus with Cambyses (529--522 B.C.), son of Cyrus. The name Khshayarsha, however, has been found in Persian inscriptions, and has been thought to be equivalent to the Xerxes (485-465 B.C.) of the Greeks. On Babylonian tablets both the forms Khishiarshu and Akkashiarshi occur amongst others. Modern scholars, therefore, identify the Ahasuerus of Ezra with Xerxes.

In the book of Esther the king of Persia is called Ahasuerus (rendered in LXX. ``Artaxerxes'' throughout). The identification of Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes I. Longimanus, the son and successor of Xerxes, though countenanced by Josephus, deserves little consideration. Most students are agreed that he must be a monarch of the Achaemenian dynasty, earlier than Artaxerxes I.; and opinion is divided between Darius Hystaspes and Xerxes. In support of the former view it is alleged, among other things, that Darius was the first Persian king of whom it could be said, as in Esther i. 1, that he ``reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces''; and that it was also the distinction of Darius that (Esther x. 1) he laid ``a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea'' (cf. Herod. iii. 89). In support of the identification with Xerxes it is alleged (1) that the Hebrew Ahashverosh is the natural equivalent of the old Persian Khshayarsha, the true name of Xerxes; (2) that there is a striking similarity of character between the Xerxes of Herodotus and the Ahasuerus of Esther; (3) that certain coincidences in dates and events corroborate this identity, as, e.g., the feast in the king's third year (cf. Esther i. 3 with Herod. vii. 8), the return of Xerxes to Susa in the seventh year of his reign and the marriage of Ahasuerus at Shushan in the same year of his. To this it may be added that the interval of four years between the divorce of Vashti and the marriage of Esther is well accounted for by the intervention of an important series of events fully occupying the monarch's thoughts, such as the invasion of Greece.

See articles ``Ahasuerus'' in the Encyclopaedia Biblica, Hastings' Dictionary, the Jewish Encyclopaedis; S. R. Driver, Introd. to the Lit. of the Old Test.; Friedrich Delitzsch in the Calwer Bibellexikon (1893).

AHAZ (Heb. for ``[Yahweh] holds''), son of Jotham, grandson of Uzziah or Azariah and king of Judah. After the death of Menahem, Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin (rather Rasun), king of Syria, allied against Assyria, invaded Judah, and laid siege to Jerusalem in the hope of setting up one of their puppets upon the throne. At the same time the Edomites recovered Elath on the Gulf of Akabah (so read in 2 Kings xvi. 6; cp. also 2 Chron. xxviii. 16 sqq.) and Judah was isolated. Notwithstanding the counsel of Isaiah (Is. vii. 1-17), Ahaz lost heart and used the temple funds to call in the aid of Tiglath-pileser IV., who after attacking the Philistines destroyed the power of Syria, taking care to exact heavy tribute from Judah, which led to further despoliation of the temple. It was as a vassal that Ahaz presented himself to the Assyrian king at Damascus, and he brought back religious innovations (2 Kings xvi. 10 sqq.; for the priest Urijah see Is. viii. 2) and new ideas to which he proceeded to give effect. His buildings are referred to in 2 Kings xx. 11, xxiii. 12; cf. perhaps Jer. xxii. 15: ``art thou a true king because thou viest with Ahaz'' (see the LXX.). Ahaz was succeeded by his son Hezekiah.

On the ritual changes which he introduced see W. R. Smith, Relig. of Semites (2), pp. 485 sqq.; and on his reign, idem, Prophets of Israel (2), pp. 415 sqq. On 2 Kings xvi. 3 (cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3) see Moloch. See further Isaiah and Jews.

AHAZIAH (``he whom Yahweh sustains''), the name of two kings in the Bible, one of Israel, the other of Judah. (1) Ahaziah, 8th king of Israel, was the son and successor of Ahab, and reigned for less than two years. On his accession the Moabites refused any longer to pay tribute. Ahaziah lost his life through a fall from the lattice of an upper room in his palace, and it is stated that in his illness he sent to consult the oracle of Baal-zebub at Ekron; his messengers, however, were met by Elijah, who bade them return and tell the king he must die (e Kings i. 2-17; cf. Luke ix. 54-56). (2) Ahaziah, 6th king of Judah, was the son cf Jehoram and Ahab's daughter Athaliah, and reigned one year. He is described as a wicked and idolatrous king, and was slain by Jehu, son of Nimshi. He is variously called Jehoahaz and Azariah.

AHENOBARBUS (``brazen-bearded''), the name cf a plebeian Roman family of the gens Domitia. The name was derived from the red beard and hair by which many of the family were distinguished. Amongst its members the following may be mentioned:--

GNAEUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS, tribune of the people 104 B.C., brought forward a law (lex Domitia de Sacerdotiis) by which the priests of the superior colleges were to be elected by the people in the comitia tributa (seventeen of the tribes voting) instead of by co-optation; the law was repealed by Sulla, revived by Julius Caesar and (perhaps) again repealed by Marcus Antonius, the triumvir (Cicero, De Lege Agraria, ii. 7; Suetonius, Nero, 2). Ahenobarbus was elected pontifex maximus in 103, consul in 96 and censor in 92 with Lucius Licinius Crassus the orator, with whom he was frequently at variance. They took joint action, however, in suppressing the recently established Latin rhetorical schools, which they regarded as injurious to public morality (Aulus Gellius xv. 11).

LUCIUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS, son of the above, husband of Porcia the sister of Cato Uticensis, friend of Cicero and enemy of Caesar, and a strong supporter of the aristocratical party. At first strongly opposed to Pompey, he afterwards sided with him against Caesar. He was consul in 54 B.C., and in 49 he was appointed by the senate to succeed Caesar as governor of Gaul. After the outbreak of the civil war he commanded the Pompeian troops at Corfinium, but was obliged to surrender. Although treated with great generosity by Caesar, he stirred up Massilia (Marseilles) to an unsuccessful resistance against him. After its surrender, he joined Pompey in Greece and was slain in the flight after the battle of Pharsalus, in which he commanded the right wing against Antony (Caesar, Bellum Civile, i., ii., iii.; Dio Cassius xxxix., xli.; Appian, B.C. ii. 82).

GNAEUS DOMITIUS AHENOBARBUS, son of the above, accompanied his father at Corfinium and Pharsalus, and, having been pardoned by Caesar, returned to Rome in 46. After Caesar's assassination he attached himself to Brutus and Cassius, and in 43 was condemned by the lex Pedia as having been implicated in the plot. He obtained considerable naval successes in the Ionian Sea against the triumvirate, but finally, through the mediation of Asinius Pollio, became reconciled to Antony, who made him governor of Bithynia. He took part in Antony's Parthian campaigns, and was consul in 32. When war broke out between Antony and Octavian, he at first supported Antony, but, disgusted with his intrigue with Cleopatra, went over to Octavian shortly before the battle of Actium (31). He died soon afterwards (Dio Cassius xlviii.-l; Appian, Bell. Civ. iv., v.). His son was married to Antonia, daughter of Antony, and became the grandfather of the emperor Nero.

See Drumann, Geschichte Rom., 2nd ed. by Groebe,vol. iii. pp.14 ff.

AHITHOPHEL (Heb. for ``brother of foolishness,'' i.e. foolish!), a man of Judah whose son was a member of David's bodyguard. He was possibly the grandfather of Bathsheiba (see 2 Sam. xi. 3, xxiii. 34), a view which has been thought to have some bearing on his policy. He was one of David's most trusted advisers, and his counsel was ``as though one inquired of the word of God.'' He took a leading part in Absalom's revolt, and his defection was a severe blow to the king, who prayed that God would bring his counsel to ``foolishness.''

The subsequent events are rather obscure. At Ahithophel's advice Absalom first took the precaution of asserting his claim to the throne by seizing his father's concubines (cf. ABNER.) The immediate pursuit of David was then suggested; the advice was accepted, and the sequence of events shows that the king, being warned of this, fled across the Jordan (2 Sam. xvi. 20-23, xvii. 1-4, 22). Inconsistent with this is the account of the intervention of Hushai, whose counsel of delay (in order to gather all Israel ``from Dan to Beersheba''), in spite of popular approbation, was not adopted, and with this episode is connected the tradition that the sagacious counsellor returned to his home and, having disposed of his estate, hanged himself. Instances of suicide are rare in the Old Testament (cf. SAUL), and it is noteworthy that in this case, at least, a burial was not refused. (See further ABSALOM; DAVID; SAMUEL, BOOKS OF.)

AHMAD IBN HANBAL (780-855), the founder, involuntarily and after his death, of the Hanbalite school of canon law, was born at Bagdad in A.H. 164 (A.D. 780) of parents from Merv but of Arab stock. He studied the Koran and its traditions (hadith, sunna) there and on a student journey through Mesopotamia, Arabia and Syria. After his return to Bagdad he studied under ash-Shafi'i between 195 and 198, and became, for his life, a devoted Shafi-'ite. But his position in both theology and law was more narrowly traditional than that of ash-Shafi'i; he rejected all reasoning, whether orthodox or heretical in its conclusions, and stood for acceptance on tradition (naql) only from the Fathers. (See further on this, MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION and MAHOMMEDAN LAW.) In consequence, when al-Ma'mun and, after him, al-Mo'tasim and al-Wathio tried to force upon the people the rationalistic Mo'tazihte doctrine that the Koran was created, Ibn Hanbal, the most prominent and popular theologian who stood for the old view, suffered with others grievous imprisonment and scourging. In 234, under al-Motawakkil, the Koran was finally decreed uncreated, and Ibn Hanbal, who had come through this trial better than any of the other theologians, enjoyed an immense popularity with the mass of the people as a saint, confessor and ascetic. He died at Bagdad in 241 (A.D. 855) and was buried there. There was much popular excitement at his funeral, and his tomb was known and visited until at least the 14th century A.D.

On his great work, the Musnad, a collection of some thirty thousand selected traditions, see Goldzther in ZDMG, l. 463 ff. For his life and works generally see W. M. Patten, Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna; C. Browkelmann, Geschichte der Arab. Lit. i. 181 ff.; F Wustenfeld, Schfai'iten, 55 ff.; M`G. de Slane's transl. of Ibn Khallikan, i. 44 ff.; Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, 110, 157, index. (D. B. MA.)

AHMAD SHAH (1724-1773), founder of the Durani dynasty in Afghanistan, was the son of Sammaun-Khan, hereditary chief of the Abdali tribe. While still a boy Ahmad fell into the hands of the hostile tribe of Ghilzais, by whom he was kept prisoner at Kandahar. In March 1738 he was rescued by Nadir Shah, who soon afterwards gave him the command of a body of cavalry composed chiefly of Abdalis. On the assassination of Nadir in 1747, Ahmad, having failed in an attempt to seize the Persian treasures, retreated to Afghanistan, where he easily persuaded the native tribes to assert their independence and accept him as their sovereign. He was crowned at Kandahar in October 1747, and about the same time he changed the name of his tribe to Durani. Two things may be said to have contributed greatly to the consolidation of his power. He interfered as little as possible with the independence of the different tribes, demanding from each only its due proportion of tribute and military service; and he kept his army constantly engaged in brilliant schemes of foreign conquest. Being possessed of the Koh-i-noor diamond, and being fortunate enough to intercept a consignment of treasure on its way to the shah of Persia, he had all the advantages which great wealth can give. He first crossed the Indus in 1748, when he took Lahore; and in 1751, after a feeble resistance on the part of the Mahommedan viceroy, he became master of the entire Punjab. In 1750 he took Nishapur, and in 1752 subdued Kashmir. His great expedition to Delhi was undertaken in 1756 in order to avenge himself on the Great Mogul for the recapture of Lahore. Ahmad entered Delhi with his army in triumph, and for more than a month the city was given over to pillage. The shah himself added to his wives a princess of the imperial family, and bestowed another upon his son Timur Shah, whom he made governor of the Punjab and Sirhind. As his viceroy in Delhi he left a Rohilla chief in whom he had all confidence, but scarcely had he crossed the Indus when the Mahommedan wazir drove the chief from the city, killed the Great Mogul and set another prince of the family, a tool of his own, upon the throne. The Mahratta chiefs availed themselves of these circumstances to endeavour to possess themselves of the whole country, and Ahmad was compelled more than once to cross the Indus in order to protect his territory from them and the Sikhs, who were constantly attacking his garrisons. In 1758 the Mahrattas obtained possession of the Punjab, but on the 6th of January 1761 they were totally routed by Ahmad in the great battle of Panipat. In a later expedition he inflicted a severe defeat upon the Sikhs, but had to hasten westward immediately afterwards in order to quell an insurrection in Afghanistan. Meanwhile the Sikhs again rose, and Ahmad was now forced to abandon all hope of retaining the command of the Punjab. After lengthened suffering from a terrible disease, said to have been cancer in the face, he died in 1773, leaving to his son Timur the kingdom he had founded.

AHMED I. (1589-1617), sultan of Turkey, was the son of Mahommed III., whom he succeeded in 1603, being the first Ottoman sultan who reached the throne before attaining his majority. He was of kindly and humane disposition, as he showed by refusing to put to death his brother Mustafa, who eventually succeeded him. In the earlier part of his reign he gave proofs of decision and vigour, which were belied by his subsequent conduct. The wars which attended his accession both in Hungary and in Persia terminated unfavourably for Turkey, and her prestige received its first check in the peace of Sitvatorok, signed in 1606, whereby the annual tribute paid by Austria was abolished. Ahmed gave himself up to pleasure during the remainder of his reign, which ended in 1617, and demoralization and corruption became as general throughout the public service as indiscipline in the ranks of the army. The use of tobacco is said to have been introduced into Turkey during Ahmed I.'s reign.

AHMED II. (1643-1695), sultan of Turkey, son of Sultan Ibrahim, succeeded his brother Suleiman II. in 1691. His chief merit was to confirm Mustafa Kuprili as grand vizier. But a few weeks after his accession Turkey sustained a crushing defeat at Slankamen from the Austrians under Prince Louis of Baden and was driven from Hungary; during the four years of his reign disaster followed on disaster, and in 1695 Ahmed died, worn out by disease and sorrow.

AHMED III. (1637-1736), sultan of Turkey, son of Mahommed IV., succeeded to the throne in 1703 on the abdication of his brother Mustafa II. He cultivated good relations with England, in view doubtless of Russia's menacing attitude. He afforded a refuge in Turkey to Charles XII. of Sweden, after his defeat at Poltava (1709). Forced against his will into war with Russia, he came nearer than any Turkish sovereign before or since to breaking the power of his northern rival, whom his Grand Vizier Baltaji Mahommed Pasha succeeded in completely surrounding near the Pruth (1711). In the treaty which Russia was compelled to sign Turkey obtained the restitution of Azov, the destruction of the forts built by Russia and the undertaking that the tsar should abstain from future interference in the affairs of the Poles or the Cossacks. Discontent at the leniency of these terms was so strong at Constantinople that it nearly brought on a renewal of the war. In 1715 the Morea was taken from the Venetians. This led to hostilities with Austria, in which Turkey was unsuccessful, and Belgrade fell into the hands of Austria (1717). Through the mediation of England and Holland the peace of Passarowitz was concluded (1718), by which Turkey retained her conquests from the Venetians, but lost Hungary. A war with Persia terminated in disaster, leading to a revolt of the janissaries, who deposed Ahmed in September 1730. He died in captivity some years later.

AHMEDABAD, or AHMADABAD, a city and district of British India in the northern division of Bombay. The city was once the handsomest and most flourishing in western India, and it still ranks next to Agra and Delhi for the beauty and extent of its architectural remains. It was founded by Ahmad Shah in A.D. 1411 on the site of several Hindu towns, which had preceded it, and was embellished by him with fine buildings of marble, brought from a distance. The Portuguese traveller Barbosa, who visited Gujarat in A.D. 1511 and 1514, described Ahmedabad as ``very rich and well embellished with good streets and squares supplied with houses of stone and cement.'' In Sir Thomas Roe's time, A.D. 1615, ``it was a goodly city as large as London.'' During the course of its history it has passed through two periods of greatness, two of decay and one of revival. From 1411 to 1511 it grew in size and wealth; from 1512 to 1572 it declined with the decay of the dynasty of Gujarat; from 1572 to 1709 it renewed its greatness under the Mogul emperors; from 1709 to 1809 it dwindled with their decline; and from 1818 onwards it has again increased under British rule.

The consequence of all these changes of dynasty was that Ahmedabad became the meeting-place of Hindu, Mahommedan and Jain architecture. Ahmad Shah pulled down Hindu temples in order to build his mosques with the material. The Jama Masjid itself, which he built in A.D. 1424, with its three hundred pillars fantastically carved, is a Hindu temple converted into a mosque (see INDIAN ARCHITECTURE, Plate III., fig. 15). One of the finest buildings is the modern Jain temple of Hathi Singh outside the Delhi gate, which was built only in 1848, and is a standing monument to the endurance of Jain architectural art The external porch, between two circular towers, is of great magnificence, most elaborately ornamented, and leads to an outer court, with sixteen cells on either side. In the centre of this court is a domed porch of the usual form with twenty pillars. The court leads to an inner porch of twenty-two pillars, two stories in height. This inner porch conducts to a triple sanctuary. James Fergusson wrote of this temple that ``each part increases in dignity to the sanctuary; and whether looked at from its courts or from outside, it possesses variety without confusion, and an appropriateness of every part to the purpose for which it was intended.'' But perhaps the most unique sight in Ahmedabad is the two windows in Sidi Said's mosque of filigree marble work. The design is an imitation of twining and interlaced branches, a marvel of delicacy and grace, and finer than anything of the kind to be found in Agra or Delhi.

The modern city of Ahmedabad is situated on the left bank of the river Sabarmati, and is still surrounded by walls enclosing an area of about 2 sq. m. Its population in 1901 was 185,889. It has a station on the Bombay and Baroda railway, 309 m. from Bombay, whence branch lines diverge into Kathiawar and Mahi Kantha, and is a great centre for both trade and manufacture. Its native bankers, shopkeepers and workers are all strongly organized in gilds. It has cotton mills for spinning and weaving, besides many handlooms, and factories for ginning and pressing cotton. Other industries include the manufacture of gold and silver thread, silk brocades, pottery, paper and shoes. The prosperity of Ahmedabad, says a native proverb, hangs on three threads--silk, gold and cotton; and though its manufactures are on a smaller scale than formerly, they are still moderately flourishing. The military cantonment, 3 m. north of the native town, is the headquarters of the northern division of the Bombay command, with an arsenal.

The DISTRICT OF AHMEDABAD lies at the head of the Gulf of Cambay, between Baroda and Kathiawar. Area 3816 sq. m. The river Sabarmati and its tributaries, flowing from north-east to south-west into the Gulf of Cambay, are the principal streams that water the district. The north-eastern portion is slightly elevated, and dotted with low hills, which gradually sink into a vast plain, subject to inundation on its western extremity. With the exception of this latter portion, the soil is very fertile, and some parts of the district are beautifully wooded. The population in 1901 was 795,967, showing a decrease of 14% in the decade, due to the effects of famine. The principal crops are millets, cotton, wheat and pulse. The district is traversed by the Bombay and Baroda railway, and has two seaports, Dholera and Gogo, the former of which has given its name to a mark of raw cotton in the Liverpool market. It suffered severely in the famine of 1899-1900.

AHMEDNAGAR, or AHMADNAGAR, a city and district of British India in the Central division of Bombay on the left bank of the river Sina. The town is of considerable antiquity, having been founded in 1494 by Ahmad Nizam Shah, on the site of a more ancient city, Bhingar. This Ahmad established a new monarchy, which lasted till its overthrow by Shah Jahan in 1636. In 1759 the Peshwa obtained possession of the place by bribing the Mahommedan commander, and in 1797 it was ceded by the Peshwa to the Mahratta chief Daulat Rao Sindhia. During the war with the Mahrattas in 1803 Ahmednagar was invested by a British force under General Wellesley and captured. It was afterwards restored to the Mahrattas, but again came into the possession of the British in 1817, according to the terms of the treaty of Poona. The town has rapidly advanced in prosperity under British rule. Several mosques and tombs have been converted to the use of British administration. The old industries of carpet-weaving and paper-making have died out; but there is a large trade in cotton and silk goods, and in copper and brass pots, and there are factories for ginning and pressing cotton. Ahmednagar is a station on the loop line of the Great Indian Peninsula railway, 218 m. from Bombay, and a military cantonment, being the headquarters of a brigade in the 6th division of the western army corps. The population in 1901 was 43,032.

The DISTRICT OF AHMEDNACAR is a comparatively barren tract with a small rainfall. The area is 6586 sq. m. The population in 1901 was 837,695, showing a decrease of 6% in the decade, due to the results of famine. The bulk of the population consists of Mahrattas and Kunbis, the latter being the agriculturists. On the north the district is watered by the Godavari and its tributaries the Prawara and the Mula; on the north-east by the Dor, another tributary of the Godavari; on the east by the Sephani, which flows through the valley below the Balaghat range; and in the extreme south by the Bhima and its tributary the Gor. The Sina river, another tributary of the Bhima, flows through the Nagar and Karjat talukas. The principal crops are millet, pulse, oil-seeds and wheat. The district suffered from drought in 1896-1897, and again in 1899-1900.

AHMED TEWFIK, PASHA (1845- ), Turkish diplomatist, was the son of Ismail Hakki Pasha. He was at first in the army, but left the service in 1862; four years later he entered the diplomatic service, being employed at various European capitals. He became minister at Athens in 1883 and ambassador in Berlin in 1884. He was appointed minister for foreign affairs (Kharijie Naziri) in 1896.

AHMED VEFIK, PASHA (1819-1891), Turkish statesman and man of letters, was born in Stambul in 1819. He was the son of Rouheddin Effendi, at one time charge d'affaires in Paris, an accomplished French scholar, who was, therefore, attached, in the capacity of secretary-interpreter, to Reshid Pasha's diplomatic mission to Paris in 1834. Reshid took Ahmed with him and placed him at school, where he remained about five years and completed his studies. He then returned to Constantinople, and was appointed to a post in the bureau de traduction of the ministry for foreign affairs. While thus employed he devoted his leisure to the translation of Moliere's plays into Turkish and to the compilation of educational books--dictionaries, historical and geographical manuals, &c.--for use in Turkish schools, with the object of promoting cultivation of the French language among the rising generation. In 1847 he brought out the first edition of the Salnameh, the official annual of the Ottoman empire. Two years later he was appointed imperial commissioner in the Danubian principalities, and held that office till early in 1851 when he was sent to Persia as ambassador--a post which suited his temperament, and in which he rendered good service to his goverment for more than four years. Recalled in 1855, he was sent on a mission to inspect the eastern frontiers, and on his return was appointed member of the Grand Council of Justice, and was entrusted with the revision of the penal code and the code of procedure. This work occupied him until the beginning of 1860, when he was sent as ambassador to Paris, for the special purpose of averting the much-dreaded intervention of France in the affairs of Syria. But Ahmed Vefik's abrupt frankness, irascibility and abhorrence of compromise unfitted him for European diplomacy. He offended the French government; his mission failed, and he was recalled in January, 1861. None the less his integrity of purpose was fully understood and appreciated in Paris. On his return he was appointed minister of the evkaj, but he only retained his seat in the cabinet for a few months. He was then for a brief period president of the Board of Audit, and subsequently inspector of the Anatolian provinces, where he was engaged for more than three years. His next appointment was that of director-general of customs, whence he was removed to the office of musteshar of the grand vizierate, and in the following year entered the cabinet of Midhat Pasha as minister of public instruction, but very soon retired to his seat in the Council of State and remained out of office until 1875, when he represented Turkey at the International Telegraphic Conference in St Petersburg. He was president of the short-lived Turkish parliament during its first session--March 19 to June 28, 1877--and at its close was appointed vali of Adrianople, where he rendered invaluable aid to the Red Cross Society. On his recall, at the beginning of 1878, he accepted the ministry of public instruction in the cabinet of Ahmed Hamdi Pasha, and on the abolition of the grand vizierate (February 5, 1878) he became prime minister and held office till about the middle of April, when he resigned. Early in the following year he was appointed vali of Brusa, where he remained nearly four years, and rendered admirable services to the province. The drainage of the pestilent marshes, the water-supply from the mountains, the numerous roads, the suppression of brigandage, the multiplication of schools, the vast development of the silk industry through the substitution of mulberry plantations for rice-fields, the opening out of the mineral springs of Chitli, the introduction of rose-trees and the production of attar of roses--all these were Ahmed Vefik's work; and he became so popular that when in 1882 he was recalled, it was thought advisable that he should be taken away secretly by night from the konak in Brusa and brought to his private residence on the Bosporus. A few days after his return he was again appointed prime minister (December 1, 1882), but Ahmed Vefik demanded, as the condition of his acceptance of office, that he should choose the other members of the cabinet, and that a number of persons in the sultan's entourage should be dismissed. Upon this, the sultan, on the 3rd of December, revoked the irade of the 1st of December, and appointed Said Pasha prime minister. For the rest of his life Ahmed Vefik, by the sultan's orders, was practically a prisoner in his own house; and eventually he died, on the 1st of April 1891, of a renal complaint from which he had long been a sufferer. Ahmed Vefik was a great linguist. He spoke and wrote French perfectly, and thoroughly understood English, German, Italian, Greek, Arabic and Persian. From all these languages he translated many books into Turkish, but wrote no original work. His splendid library of 15,000 volumes contained priceless manuscripts in many languages. In his lifetime he appreciably aided the progress of education; but, as he had no following, the effects of his labour and influence in a great measure faded away after his death. In all his social and family relations Ahmed Vefik was most exemplary. His charity knew no bounds. He was devoted to his aged mother and to his one wife and children. To his friends and acquaintances he was hospitable, courteous and obliging; his conversation was intellectual and refined, and in every act of his private life he manifested the spirit of a true gentleman. At home his habits, attire and mode of life were quite Turkish, but he was perfectly at his ease in European society; he had strong English proclivities, and numbered many English men and women amongst his intimate friends. In public life his gifts were almost sterilized by peculiarities of temperament and incompatibility with official surroundings; and his mission as ambassador to Persia and his administration of Brusa were his only thorough successes. But his intellectual powers, literary erudition and noble character made him for the last forty years of his life a conspicuous figure in eastern Europe. (E. W.*)

AHOM, or AHAM, a tribe of Shan descent inhabiting the Assam Valley, and, prior to the invasion of the Burmese at the commencement of the 19th century, the dominant race in that country. The Ahoms, together with the Shans of Burma and Eastern China and the Siamese, were members of the Tai race. The name is believed to be a corruption of the word ``A-sam,'' the latter part of which is identical with ``Shan'' (properly ``Sham'') and with ``Siam.'' Under their king Su-ka-pha they invaded Assam (q.v.) from the East in the year A.D. 1228, giving their name to the country. For a century and a half from 1228 the successors of Su-ka-pha appear to have ruled undisturbed over a small territory in Lakkimpur and Sibsagar districts. The extension of their power westward down the valley of the Brahmaputra was very gradual, and its success was by no means uniform. In the time of Aurangzeb the Ahom kings held sway over the entire Brahmaputra valley from Sadiya to near Goalpara, and from the skirts of the southern hills to the Bhutia frontier on the north. The dynasty attained the height of its power under Rudra Singh, who is said to have ascended the throne in 1695. In the following century the power of the Ahoms began to decay, alike from internal dissensions and the pressure of outside invaders. The Burmese were called in to the assistance of one of the contending factions in 1810. Having once obtained a foothold in the country, they established their power over the entire valley and ruled with merciless barbarity, until they were expelled by the British in 1824-1825. In the census of 1901 the total Ahom population in Assam was returned at 178,049.

The Ahoms retained the form of government in Assam peculiar to the Shan tribes, which may he briefly described as an organized system of personal service in lieu of taxation. Their religion was pagan, being quite distinct from Buddhism; but in Assam they gradually became Hinduized, and their kings finally adopted Hindu names and titles. They believed that there were in the beginning no heavenly bodies, air or earth, only water everywhere, over which at first hovered a formless Supreme Being called Pha. He took corporeal shape as a huge crab that lay floating, face upwards, upon the waters. In turn other animals took shape, the last being two golden spiders from whose excrement the earth gradually rose above the surrounding ocean. Pha then formed a female counterpart of himself, who laid four eggs, from which were hatched four sons. One of these was appointed to rule the earth, but died and became a spirit. His son also died and became the national household deity of the Ahoms. The origin of mankind is connected with a flood legend. The only survivors of the flood, and of the conflagration that followed it, were an old man and a pumpkin-seed. From the latter there grew a gigantic gourd. This was split open by a thunderbolt, the old man sacrificing himself to save the lives of those who were inside, and from it there issued the progenitors of the present races of men, beasts, birds, fishes and plants. The kings claimed independent divine origin.

The religion and language have both died out, being only preserved by a few priests of the old cult; but even among them the tradition of the pronunciation of the language has been lost. The Ahoms had a considerable literature, much of which is still in existence. Their historic sense was very fully developed, and many priests and nobles maintained bu-ran-jis (i.e. ``stores of instruction for the ignorant''), or chronicles, which were carefully written up from time to time. A few of these have been translated, but as yet no European scholar possesses knowledge sufficient to enable him to study these valuable documents at first hand.

The Ahom language is the oldest member of the Tai branch of the Siamese-Chinese linguistic family of which we have any record. It bears much the same relationship to Siamese and Shan that Latin does to Italian. It is more nearly related to modern Siamese than to modern ahan, but possesses many groups of consonants which have become simplified in both. It is a language of the isolating class, in which every word is a monosyllable, and may be employed either as a noun or as a verb according to its context and its position in a sentence. In the order of words, the genitive follows the norm it governs, and, as usual in such cases, the relations of time and place are indicated by prefixes, not by suffixes. The meanings of the monosyllables were differentiated, as in the other Tai languages and in Chinese, by a system of tones, but these were rarely indicated in writing, and the tradition regarding them is lost. The language had an alphabet of its own, which was clearly related to that of Burmese.

See E. A. Gait, A History of Assam (Calcutta, 1906). For the language see The Linguistis Survey of India, vol. ii. (Calcutta, 1906) (contains grammar and vocabulary); G. A. Grierson, ``Notes on Ahom,'' in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellshaft, vol. lvi., 1902, pp. 1 ff. (contains grammar and vocabulary, with specimens), and ``An Ahom Cosmogony, with a translation and a vocabulary of the Ahom language,'' in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1904, pp. 181 ff. (G. A. GR.)

AHR, a river of Germany. It is a left-bank tributary of the Rhine, into which it falls at Sinzig, rising in the Eifel mountains, and having a total length of 55 m. It flows at first through rather monotonous country, but the latter portion of its course, from the village of Altenahr, over which tower rhe ruins of the castle of Ahr, or Are (10th century), is full of romantic beauty. It is well stocked with trout, and the steep declivities of the lower valley furnish red wines of excellent quality.

AHRENS, FRANZ HEINRICH LUDOLF (1809-1881), German philologist, was born at Helmstedt on the 6th of June 1809. After studying at Gottingen (1826-1829) under K. O. Muller and Ludolf Dissen, and holding several educational appointments, in 1849 he succeeded G. F. Grotefend as director of the Lyceum at Hanover, a post which he filled with great success for thirty years. He died on the 25th of September 1881. His most important work is De Graecae Linguae Dialectis (1839-1843, new ed. by Meister, 1882-1889), which, although unfortunately incomplete, dealing only with Aeolic and Doric, and in some respects superseded by modern research, will always remain a standard treatise on the subject. He also published Bucolicorum Graecorum Reliquiae (1855-1859); studies on the dialects of Homer and the Greek lyrists; on Aeschylus; and some excellent school-books. A volume of his minor works (ed. Haberlin) was published in 1891, which also contains a complete list of his writings.

AHRIMAN (Gr. 'Areimanios in Aristotle, or in Agathias; in the Avesta, Angro Mainyush--``the Destructive Spirit''), the name of the principle of evil in the dualistic doctrine of Zoroaster. The name does not occur in the Old Persian inscriptions. In the Avesta he is called the twin-brother of the Holy Spirits, and contrasted either with the Holy Spirit of Ormazd or with Ormazd himself. He is the all destroying Satan, the source of all evil in the world and, like Ormazd, exists since the beginning of the world. Eventually, in the great world catastrophe, he will be defeated by Ormazd and disappear. The later sect of the Zervanites held that both were visible manifestations of the primeval principle Zruvan akarana (Infinite Time). (See ZOROASTER.)

AHRWEILER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the river Ahr and the Remagen-Adenau line of railway. Pop. 5000. It is a town of medieval aspect and is surrounded by ancient walls, with battlements and four gates in good repair. There is a Gothic church (dating from 1245). A convent school of the Ursuline nuns is a prominent feature On a hill to the south. The trade is almost exclusively confined to the manufacture and export of the wines of the district.

AHT, a confederacy of twenty-two tribes of North American Indians of the Wakashan stock. They are settled on the west Coast of Vancouver, British Columbia. The chief tribes included are the Nitinaht, Tlaasaht or Makah, Tlaokiwaht or Clahoquaht, Ahansaht and Ehatishaht. The confederacy numbers some 3500.

AHTENA (``ice people''), the name of an Athapascan tribe of North American Indians, in the basin of Copper River, Alaska.

See Handbook of American Indians, ed. F. W. Hodge (Washington, 1907).

AHVAZ, a town of Persia, in the province of Arabistan, on the left bank of the river Karun, 48 m. S. of Shushter, in 31 deg. 18' N., 49 deg. E. It has been identified with the Aginis of Nearchus, 500 stadia from Susa, and occupies the site of what was once an extensive and important city. Of this ancient city vast remains are left, extending several miles along the bank of the river. Among the most remarkable are the ruins of a bridge and a citadel, or palace, besides vestiges of canals and watermills, which tell of former commercial activity. There are also the ruins of a band, or stone dam of great strength, which was thrown across the river for the purposes of irrigation. The band was 1150 yds. in length and had a diameter of 24 ft. at its base. Remains of massive structure are still visible, and many single blocks in it measure from 8 to 10 ft. in thickness. Ahvaz reached the height of its prosperity in the 12th and 13th centuries and is now a collection of wretched hovels, with a small rectangular fort in a state of ruin, and an Arab population of about 400. Since the opening of the Karun to foreign commerce in October 1888, another settlement called Benderi Nassiri, in compliment to the Shah Nassir ed din (d. 1896), has been established on a slight elevation overlooking the river at the point below the rapids where steamers come to anchor, about one mile below Ahvaz. It has post and telegraph offices; and agencies of some mercantile firms, a British vice-consul (since 1904) and a Russian consular agent (since 1902) are established there. The new caravan road to Isfahan, opened for traffic in 1900, promised, if successful, to give Ahvaz greater commercial importance.

AI [Sept. 'Aggai, 'Aggai Gai, Vulg. Hai], a small royal city of the Canaanites, E. of Bethel. The meaning of the name may be ``the stone heap''; but it is not necessarily a Hebrew word. Abraham pitched his tent between Ai and Bethel (Gen. xii. 8, xiii. 3); but it is chiefly noted for its capture and destruction by Joshua (vii. 2-4. viii. 1-20). who made it ``a heap for ever, even a desolation.'' It is mentioned by Isaiah (x. 28), and also after the captivity (Ezra ii. 28; Neh. vii. 32), but then probably was not more than a village. In the later Hebrew writings the name sometimes has a feminine form, Aiath (Is. x. 28), Aija (Neh. xi. 31). The definite article is usually prefixed to the name in Hebrew. The site was known, and some scanty ruins still existed, in the time of Eusebius and Jerome (Onomast., s.v. 'Aggai.) Dr E. Robinson was unable to discover any certain traces of either name or ruins. He remarks, however (Bib. Researches, ed. 1856, i. p. 443), that it must have been close to Bethel on account of Biblical narrative (Josh. viii. 17) . A little to the south of a village called Deir Diwan, and one hour's journey south-east from Bethel, is the site of an ancient place called Khirbet Haiyan indicated by reservoirs hewn in the rock, excavated tombs and foundations of hewn stone. This may possibly be the site of Ai; it agrees with all the intimations as to its position. It has also been identified with a mound now called Et-Tell (``the heap''), but though the name of a neighbouring village, Turmus Aya, is suggestive, it is in the wrong direction from Bethel. In this view recent authorities, such as G. A. Smith, generally coincide.

See Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1869, p. 123; 1874, p. 62; 1878, pp. 10, 132, 194, 1881, p. 254. (R. A. S. M.)

AIBONITO, an inland town of the electoral district of Guayama, Porto Rico, on the highway between San Juan and Ponce, 25 m. E.N.E. of the latter. It is the capital of a municipal district of the same name. Pop. (1899) of the town, 2085; of the district, 8596. The town is about 2200 ft. above sea level, and owing to its cool climate and freedom from malaria it has been chosen as an acclimatizing station and sanatorium for foreigners. It is surrounded by coffee plantations, and tobacco of excellent quality is raised in the vicinity. The town was considerably damaged by the great hurricane of the 8th of August 1899.

AICARD, JEAN FRANCOIS VICTOR (1848- ), French poet and dramatist, was born at Toulon on the 4th of February 1848. His father, Jean Aicard, was a journalist of some distinction, and the son early began his career in 1867 with Les Rebellions et les apaistments (1871); Poemes de Provence (1874), and La Chanson de l'Enfant (1876), both of which were crowned by the Academy; Miette et Nore (1880), a Provencal idyll; Le