1. MedievWorld1_fm_4pp.qxd

agriculture 19

for the white bread of lords gained ground accompanied
by other cereals such as millet, spelt, rye, and sorghum
for the lower classes and animals. Exploitation combined
a variety of soils such as arable land, vineyards, and well-
cared-for GARDENS. These were supplemented by FORESTS
and uncultivated lands for the gathering of wood and ani-
mal husbandry. Speculative and commercial cultivation
developed for the market for dye plants, hops, sugarcane,
rice, and silk mulberries. At the end of the Middle
Ages, regional specializations in vine-growing regions
and animal husbandry had developed.
Medieval agriculture was perhaps limited less by
yields than by the technology and limits of economic
organization and transport. Although capable of produc-
ing surpluses in good years, it left populations susceptible

to dearth and famines that conditions such as climate, epi-

demics, or political factors such as warfare periodically

provoked.

See alsoANIMALS AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; FOOD, DRINK,

AND NUTRITION; PEASANTRY; SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY.

Further reading:Mauro Ambrosoli, The Wild and the

Sown: Botany and Agriculture in Western Europe,

1350–1850,trans. Mary McCann Salvatorelli (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1997); Greenville Astill and

John Langdon, eds., Medieval Farming and Technology:

The Impact of Agricultural Change in Northwest Europe

(Leiden: Brill, 1997); Georges Duby, Rural Economy and

Country Life in the Medieval West,trans. Cynthia Postan

(Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press,

1968 [1962]); Del Sweeney, ed., Agriculture in the Middle

The Agricultural Labors of the Twelve Months,Pietro de’Crescenzi, reproduced in Le Rustican,Ms. 340/603, France (ca. 1460),
Musée Condé, Chantilly, France (Giraudon / Art Resource)