บท 35: Agricultural Advancements
Frank Caruso sat in a lecture hall at the esteemed Columbia university. It was his freshman year, and he was excited to finally attend college. Out of all the classes he had signed up for this semester, none was more exciting to him than an Introduction to Medieval European History.
For many years, Frank had studied history for fun, and now that he was in college, it was time to put his knowledge to the test. He sat with a smile on his face as he listened to the professor talk about critical agricultural inventions that were discovered during the dark ages with an eager expression on his face. Completely unaware that the girl sitting next to him was checking him out.
"Nobody is entirely sure when these inventions were made, or who came up with them. However, among the few discoveries to appear in the era that we colloquially refer to as the dark ages, there were three critical pieces of agricultural technology that were developed. The first of these significant inventions was the Horse yoke.
Throughout antiquity and up until the dark ages, the most common beast of burden was the ox. However, using such a species as your primary beast of burden had some significant drawbacks, as an ox lacked the stamina to plow a field for more than a few hours. In comparison, a horse or a mule could plow a field for an entire day's work. This allowed farmers to get more work done in a shorter period.
When combined with this next piece of technology, the amount of food that could be produced significantly increased. When the heavy plow was introduced, it had a monumental impact on agriculture, especially in the western part of the world. While the previous wooden plows were useful in the soft soil of the Mediterranean, they faced serious difficulties in regions such as modern day Germany, France, England, etc.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the Western Roman Empire was the fact that it was dirt poor compared to its eastern counterpart. Though there were numerous reasons for this, one of the most concerning was the fact there was simply a lack of land that they could successfully farm. With the introduction of the heavy plow, and the horse yoke as you see in this diagram, the ability to farm in the rougher terrain that was western Europe became much easier."
Frank eagerly jotted down his notes on the subject as he committed the information to memory. The girl beside him was yawning, as the historical lecture dreadfully bore her. Noticing that Frank was her type, the girl leaned over to the young man and interacted with him to entertain herself.
"What a pitiful lecture. I can't believe I signed up for such a dreadful course. I'm Lindsey. What's your name?"
Frank was not pleased to hear this. After all, he was a huge fan of human history, especially western history, and because of this, he was more interested in the lecture than he was with the pretty girl by his side. Thus, he did not pay the girl the attention she desired and instead rebuked her for carelessness.
"You should pay attention. You will need to memorize this information for the test!"
The girl immediately pouted when she was spurned by the young man sitting next to her, and instead turned on her phone after realizing she wouldn't be able to speak to Frank. While the girl was texting, the lecturer continued on his rant about Early Medieval agriculture.
"Which brings us to the third and final major development in agriculture during the early medieval period; The three field system. With this system of planting, as you can see on this diagram, allowed for a major increase in food production, and of course, that lead to a population boost within Europe.
The three-field system was a pretty simple concept. You would use two fields to grow food for the year, and leave one fallow so that it could rest. After doing this for a year, you would rotate the fields so that at new field was fallow every year. This increased the fertility of the soil, and when swapped the next year would result in greater yields. This system would remain in use for centuries until it was superseded by the four field system during the early modern age. Now, are there any questions?"
After hearing these words, Marcellus awoke from his dream, struggling to make sense of all the information he had received during his slumber. The light of dawn shone through his window and onto his bed, revealing his naked figure that was partially concealed beneath the covers. Sigefrida was in a similar state while attached to his side with a warm smile on her face as she continued to sleep peacefully.
Marcellus did not know what was happening to him. Maybe it was the aftereffect of repeated head trauma, but he seemed to have these strange dreams of a different world more frequently. However, if the information within this dream was correct, much like the previous one, that included stirrups. Then perhaps he could solve the food crisis this village was facing.
Whatever caused these drams and visions, Marcellus was just glad he received one now. As it would soon be time to plant the crops for the fall harvest, and if that was the case, he had decided that he would experiment in his fields with these new technologies.
However, that was a concern for another time. Upon seeing Sigefrida so defenseless, Marcellus reached his hand over and grasped hold of one of her bountiful breasts. It was so large that his hand could not contain it fully. He smiled as he kissed the woman on the lips, causing her to awaken from her beauty sleep. The slave woman quickly rose from her covers and wiped her eyes as she gazed upon her lover with affection.
"Is it morning already? I should help you get dressed. Give me a moment..."
After saying this, the woman rose from beneath her covers to reveal her naked figure. No matter how many times Marcellus saw this, he could not help but get excited. However, he was well accustomed to restraining himself, and thus he waited patiently as the woman dressed him in his clothes for the day.
This was not the early days of the Roman Empire, where it was considered barbarous to wear pants. Such ancient customs had long sensed been abandoned. Instead, the most common attire of a Roman citizen was a tunic, a set of trousers, and a cloak. The Suebi slave carefully adorned all of these items across Marcellus' muscular body, as she ensured that he was properly dressed for the day. As she finished up wrapping the man's cloak around him, the enslaved beauty could tell something was bothering her master, and thus raised her brow as she asked the question on her mind.
"Is everything alright? You look troubled..."
Marcellus sighed heavily before shaking his head in defeat. He did not intend to reveal the full extent of his newfound visions. Such information would only make others look at him weirdly. After all, this was the christian era, and to speak of receiving visions from the gods would surely result in persecution.
"It's nothing serious. I've just been having some strange dreams lately..."
Sigefrida glanced at the expression that her master was making and knew he was hiding something from her. However, she did not press him for an answer. If he did not want to speak about these dreams, then there was no helping it. Instead, she told Marcellus the same thing she always did whenever he acted this way.
"Well, I'm here for you if you need someone to talk to..."
Marcellus nodded in silence before kissing the woman on the forehead. In his mind these visions were no trivial matter, but since they had proven to be harmless thus far, he did not worry about it too much and smiled as he replied to the woman.
"I know you are. Honestly, it is nothing important. I am sure they will go away with time..."
Sigefrida nodded her head while she dressed herself in her ragged clothing. After doing so she placed her slave collar around her neck, where Marcellus fastened it. Though it pained Marcellus to see the woman he loved wear such a symbol of oppression, he had no choice. It would not be wise to let her walk about without the symbol of her servitude. In the end, the couple descended from the staircase and prepared the day's breakfast.
Marcellus had much work to do now that the time to plant the fall's harvest was nearing. If he wanted to introduce these new agricultural advancements, then he had little time to do it. Thus, while he was sharing a meal with his beloved, his mind was focused on more important things. With a heavy sigh, he expressed the thoughts that dwelled within his mind.
"It appears things are going to become interesting real soon..."
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