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Enclosure Act
The Enclosure Acts were essentially the abolition of the open-field system of agriculture which had been the way people farmed in England for centuries. The ownership of all common land, and wasteland, that farmers and Lords had, was taken from them. Any right they had over the land was gone. -
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge advocates the potato
The Royal Society of London advocated for the potato when it was proven to be a superior crop to many others since they are so resilient. The potato can feed a whole family and is responsible for low child mortality rates. They claimed it was food for the poor. -
Dutch and Rotherham swing (wheel-less) plough
In the mid 1600s, there was an attempt to redesign the plough. Rotherham built the swing plough which was more efficient and lighter than the other ploughs of the time and many would have been the first to be mass-produced in the factories of the industrial revolution. -
Development of a National Market
The market that developed from the increasing labor and goods because of the industrial and agricultural revolution evolved into a national market. This was also aided by the expansion of roads. -
Land Conversion, Drainage, and Reclamation Programs
Converting pasture land into usable land for farming allowed for more farming to establish itself, increasing the number of goods that could be produced. Soil drainage and soil maintenance became procedures that farmers took part in. Water meadows that are subject to irrigation increased productivity. -
Norfolk Four Course Crop Rotation
The Norfolk four-course system is a method of agriculture that involves crop rotation. Unlike earlier methods such as the three-field system, the Norfolk system is marked by an absence of a fallow year. Instead, four different crops are grown in each year of a four-year cycle: wheat, turnips, barley, and clover or undergrass. -
Jethro Tull and the Seed Drill
Jethro Tull invented the seed drill in 1701 as a way to plant more efficiently. Prior to his invention, sowing seeds was done by hand, by scattering them on the ground or placing them in the ground individually, such as with bean and pea seeds. Tull considered scattering wasteful because many seeds did not take root. -
Charles “Turnip” Townsend
Viscount Townshend successfully introduced a new method of crop rotation on his farms. He divided his fields up into four different types of produce with wheat in the first field, clover (or ryegrass) in the second, oats or barley in the third and, in the fourth, turnips or swedes. -
Aurther Young
Young was an important propagandist for the progressive agricultural practices of his time. He advocated such innovations as the seed drill, improved crop rotations, and the use of marl as fertilizer. He advocated the enclosure of open fields and the settlement of the indigent on newly enclosed waste agricultural lands. His many books on agriculture were highly influential in their day. -
Robert Bakewell, Thomas Coke, and the development of Selective Breeding
In the mid-18th century, two British agriculturalists, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke, introduced selective breeding as a scientific practice and used inbreeding to stabilize certain qualities in order to reduce genetic diversity. Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle to be used primarily for beef.