Olivier de Serres

Olivier de Serres (1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose Théâtre d'Agriculture (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century.[1]

For the school, see École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art.
Olivier de Serres

Biography
See also: Serres

Serres was born at Villeneuve-de-Berg, Ardèche. His brother, Jean de Serres, was a well-known French humanist and translated the complete works of Plato.

His book was notable for recommending winegrowers to plant 5 to 6 varieties in their vineyards to balance the risk of a crop failing, an early advocacy of crop rotation.

It also recommended métayage (sharecropping) so that cash tenants would take all the risks and thus demand lower rent, as hired labour is expensive to manage. Sharecroppers administer themselves and risks are divided with the landlord. According to him, only large landowners should take the risk of hiring labourers and running the estate themselves.[2]

See also
Le theatre d'agriculture, 1608

Notes
  1. Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine pg 122. Simon and Schuster 1989
  2. The Economic Theory of Sharecropping in Early Modern France, Philip Hoffman, The Journal of Economic History 1984, page 312


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