The British Agricultural Revolution

1700 - 1850

What is a revolution?A revolution is any fundamental change or reversal of conditions, a great and sometimes violent change or innovation.

Crash Course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I

The Basics

• As the population grew, it needed more food to survive. Without food, the population would enter a famine, and reduce itself to a point where the food available could meet demand.

• In 1750, Britain’s population was 5.7 million.• It was also estimated at 5.7 million in 1300 and

1650. • Agricultural efficiency grew out of the need to

feed people. This led to a move away from hunting and gathering.

• In Medieval times, the majority of land operated as ‘strip farms’, where one family would have access to a strip of land to do whatever they wanted with it.

• Subsistence living: generating enough food for you and your family to survive.

• Lot’s of wasted space around strips; limited efficiencies.

Strip farming replaced by field system; where you would only have access to land if you could prove you owned it. Led to greater efficiency, and more purposeful use of land.Effects on One Village

Land Cultivated Crops Grown Sheep Bred Annually

2800 km2 9,360kg 200

4680 km2 30,680kg 1800

1801: 69% of Britain’s population lived in a rural setting.

1881: 32% of Britain’s population lived in a rural setting.

Prior to the Revolution

• Prior to the 19th Century the #1 farm tool was an Ox – known as a ‘beast of burden’.

The Seed Drill

The Seed Drill (1701)Jethro Tull invented the seed drill (in 1701), the horse-drawn hoe, and an improved plough. Tull was educated at Oxford, England where studied law, he later studied agriculture during his travels across Europe. Jethro Tull inherited land in the southern part of England where he put into practice his study of agriculture.

His seed drill would sow seed in uniform rows and cover up the seed in the rows. Up to that point, sowing seeds was done by hand by scattering seeds on the ground. Tull considered this method wasteful since many seeds did not take root. The first prototype seed drill was built from the foot pedals of Jethro Tull's local church organ.

Andrew Meikle’s Threshing Machine (1784)

Andrew Meikle’s Threshing Machine (1784)

• The thrashing machine, or, in modern spelling, threshing machine (or simply thresher), was a machine first invented by Scottish mechanical engineer Andrew Meikle for use in agriculture. It was invented (c.1784) for the separation of grain from stalks and husks. For thousands of years, grain was separated by hand with flails, and was very laborious and time consuming, taking about one-quarter of agricultural labour by the 18th century. Mechanization of this process took much of the drudgery out of farm labour.

John Deere’s Plough (1837)

John Deere’s Iron Plough (1837)• The farmers used the plough to loosen up the soil to allow moisture to

reach the roots of crops and to keep down the weeds. Plough were made of wood, held together with metal bolts and bars. Some blacksmiths experimented with changes to make their plough turn better furrows. (A furrow is the shallow trench of turned soil left behind the plough.) In the 1800s cast iron parts were added to the cutting edge.

• Prairie soil stuck to the wooden or iron plough. Plough took a yoke (pair) of oxen and three workers: one to drive the team, one to steer the plough, and the third to clean dirt off (scour) the blade. Or one person could do all three jobs in turn—very slow work!

• John Deere's plough solved the problem of sticking. It also pulled more easily than any plough that had been tried before. It allowed farmers to switch from slow oxen to faster teams of horses for ploughing power.

1790 – Scythe Introduced

1840s – Chemical Fertilisers

Legacies• By the 1930s, 1 Farmer could feed 10 people. • Large clusters of people could form (cities). Social and Cultural implications. Allowed the Industrial Revolution to begin.• Development of other industries.• Varied diets, more nutrients.• Opportunities for leisure.• Recognition of the importance of science and technology in

assisting in daily life.• Further increases in efficiencies, directly impacting on all our

lives today!

All Good?

• Destruction of environment (to make room for agriculture)

Amazon has been de-forrested to allow cattle to graze which are sold to McDonalds.