1.1. Agricultural Agricultural RevolutionRevolution

2.2. Why did it start in Why did it start in England?England?

3.3. The Growth of the The Growth of the Cottage IndustryCottage Industry

4.4. The Industrial The Industrial RevolutionRevolution

•Cooperative plowing

•Conserved the quality of land

•Balanced distribution of good land

•Farmers were part of a “team”

•Gleaning

AFTERAFTEREach landowner Each landowner received a single received a single piece of propertypiece of propertyNo common landsNo common lands

BeforeBefore

Large Land Owners Large Land Owners (Benefited)(Benefited)

Had the political strength to pass the enclosure law

Owned large unified farms under this systemFarming was more efficientDidn’t need consent of the village to

experiment with new crop methods

Small FarmersSmall FarmersForced off Their LandForced off Their Land

Had to pay for :Required fencingA team of oxenCould no longer glean or gather wood

Often had to sell plots to large landowners:Forced to Rent orWork for someone else

Increasing the # of men looking for work

Planted seed in neat rows

Improved germination by making furrow, dropping seed into them, and covering them

Reduced amount of seed used in planting

Additional MachinesAdditional Machines Horse-drawn cultivator – Jethro Tull Cast-iron plow (1797) – American Charles Newbold Reaper – Englishman Joseph Boyce (1799) and American

Cyrus McCormic (1834) Self-cleaning steel plow – John Deere(1837) Thresher – separated grain from stalk Harvester – cut and bind grain Combine - cut, thresh, and sack grain Tractor – pulled equipment through the field Corn planter Potato digger Electric milker Cotton picker

Crop Rotation English gentleman

farmer Viscount Charles “Turnip” Townsend

Alternating grain crops: wheat and barley, with soil enriching crops: turnips and clovers.

No longer had to leave land fallow

Scientific Breeding 1725-1795 Selective breeding of

animals Produced more and

better animals Produced more milk

and meat

Selective Breeding?

Some farmers such as Robert Bakewell and the Culley

brothers concentrated on selective breeding. This meant only allowing the fittest and strongest of their

cattle, sheep, pigs and horses to mate. You can tell how successful they were:

In 1710 the average weight for cattle was 168 (370 lbs) Kg by 1795 - it was 363 (805 lbs) Kg

Today – 1600 lbs

1. Agricultural production increased

2. Cost of foodstuffs dropped

3. Increased production of food resulted in part, in a rapid growth of population

4. Large farms, using machines and scientific methods, began to dominate agriculture

5. Number of small farms began to decline

6. The number of farmers, in proportion to total population, decreased sharply

7. Many farmers moved to the cities

8. The population of cities increased rapidly

9. Farmers found their work less difficult because machines performed the back breaking labor

10. Farming changed from a self-sufficient way of life to big business