The Agricultural Revolution

Until the end of the 17^th century, farming methods in Europe remained unchanged from the Middle Ages. Most people still lived in the country and were able to grow just enough food to feed themselves, with a little spare to sell at the local market.

People farmed small strips of land, scattered over three or four large, open fields that surrounded their village. To keep the land fertile, each year one field was left unplanted, or fallow, and so produced nothing. This system worked well while the population was small. However, in time the population increased, and more people moved to the newly expanding towns where there was no land on which to grow crops had to be found.

Some of the earliest experiments in agriculture were carried out in the Netherlands, where more land was needed that was suitable for farming. The Dutch drained lakes and reclaimed large areas of land from the sea, building dykes. They used pumps powered by windmills to keep the water out. Dutch farmers could not afford to leave any fields unplanted. Instead, they experimented with crop rotation, in which four different crops were planted in the same filed over a four-year period. This idea was later copied in Britain. Other agricultural breakthroughs were made: the plough was improved and the horse-drawn seed drill and hoe were invented. These allowed several rows of seeds to be sown at the same time, and later weeded.

In many places, the land was reorganized. Large, open fields were divided into smaller ones, separated by hedges or walls. Laws were passed in Britain giving landowners the right to enclose common land, which everyone had previously used for grazing.

As more people moved to the new industrial towns, fewer farmers had to provide more food. Agricultural changes between 1700 and 1850 helped farmers to feed the growing population.

CROP ROTATION

Crop rotation increased the fertility of the soil. A farmer planted wheat in the first field, turnips in the second, barley in the third and clover in the fourth. Each year the crops were rotated, so in the second year wheat was grown in the second field, and so on.