British Agricultural Revolution facts for kids
The British Agricultural Revolution was a time of big changes in farming in Britain. It happened between the mid-1600s and the late 1800s. During this period, farmers found new ways to grow more food and raise more animals. This meant they could produce much more food with the same amount of land and fewer workers.
This increase in food helped Britain's population grow a lot. For example, in 1700, about 5.5 million people lived in England and Wales. By 1801, this number had jumped to over 9 million! More food also meant that fewer people were needed to farm. This allowed more people to move to cities and work in factories, which was important for the Industrial Revolution.
Historians still discuss exactly when this "revolution" happened and what it included. Some think it was a long process with many smaller changes over centuries, not just one big event. One key change was using new ways to rotate crops, like planting turnips and clover instead of leaving land empty.
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What Does "British Agricultural Revolution" Mean?
The name "British" suggests these changes started in Britain. However, other countries in Europe, Asia, and North America also saw similar farming improvements later on. It was a bit like the Neolithic Revolution, which also happened in many places around the world at different times.
Some historians, especially from Britain, believe the revolution began there. But Dutch historians disagree. They point out that farming in the Netherlands saw huge improvements between 1500 and 1650. The Dutch were very good at farming and even taught the British some new methods, like using a lighter plow.
The word "revolution" here means a big increase in how much food was grown per field and per worker. It wasn't about completely new inventions, but more about improving existing tools and ideas. Some even suggest that changes in the weather might have helped trigger these farming improvements.
Key Changes and New Ideas in Farming
The British Agricultural Revolution happened because of many changes in society, the economy, and farming technology. Here are some of the most important developments:
- Norfolk four-course crop rotation: Farmers started planting different crops in a specific order, including plants like turnips and clover, instead of leaving fields empty.
- Improved plows: The Dutch made plows better, so they needed fewer animals to pull them.
- Enclosure: Land that was once shared by many farmers became owned by individuals.
- National market: It became easier to sell farm products all over Britain, not just locally.
- Better transportation: Roads, canals, and later railways made it easier to move food.
- Land improvements: Farmers drained wet lands and made new land ready for farming.
- Larger farms: Farms often grew bigger in size.
- Selective breeding: Farmers started choosing the best animals to breed, making livestock bigger and better.
Crop Rotation: A Smart Way to Farm
One of the most important new ideas was the Norfolk four-course rotation. This system greatly increased how much food and livestock could be produced. It made the soil healthier and meant less land had to be left empty.
Crop rotation means growing different types of crops in the same field over several seasons. This helps put nutrients back into the soil. It also stops pests and diseases that often build up when the same crop is grown all the time. For example, turnip roots can reach deep into the soil to find nutrients. Clover plants help add nitrogen to the soil, which acts like a natural fertilizer.
Before this, farmers often used a two-field or three-field system. They would leave one field fallow (empty) for a while to let the soil recover. But the Norfolk system meant no land had to be left empty. The new crops also provided food for more animals, and animal manure further enriched the soil.
Farmers in Flanders (parts of modern-day France and Belgium) were among the first to use a four-field system with turnips and clover. This idea slowly spread to England. By the 1830s, turnips and clover were widely used. This meant less land was left fallow, and more food could be grown.
Better Plows for Easier Farming
The Dutch improved the design of the plough in the early 1600s. Their new plow had an iron tip and a curved part that turned the soil. It was much lighter and easier to pull, needing only one or two oxen or horses instead of six or eight. This "Dutch" plow came to Britain when Dutch workers helped drain wet lands. It worked so well that it was soon used everywhere.
Later, in 1730, an Englishman named Joseph Foljambe patented an even better plow. It had iron parts that were interchangeable, meaning they could be easily replaced if they broke. This made the plow cheaper to make and repair. By the late 1700s, it was considered the best and cheapest plow available.
New Crops from Around the World
The Columbian exchange brought many new foods from the Americas to Europe. The most important of these was the potato. Potatoes produced about three times more calories per acre than wheat or barley. They grew quickly, in just 3-4 months, and could even grow in poor soil. Plus, they were very nutritious. One acre of potatoes could feed a family of five or six, plus a cow, for most of a year!
The potato became very popular in Ireland and then spread to England. By the late 1700s, it was a common food for both rich and poor families.
Another important new crop was maize (corn). Maize also produced much more food per acre than wheat. It could grow in different climates and soils, and unlike wheat, it could be harvested from the same field year after year. Maize became a main food source in parts of Spain, Italy, and later in central Europe.
Enclosure: Changing Land Ownership
In the Middle Ages, much of the land in Europe was farmed under a system called the open-field system. Many farmers worked strips of land in large fields that were shared by the whole village. They often worked for wealthy landowners or the church.
But as early as the 1100s, some fields in England started to be "enclosed." This meant they were fenced off and became privately owned. The Black Death in the 1300s sped up this change. Many farms were bought by individual farmers who then enclosed their land. Having full control of their land allowed them to try new farming methods and improve their yields.
This process of enclosure became much faster in the 1400s and 1500s. While enclosed farms were more productive, they also meant that many villagers lost their land and their rights to graze animals on common land. Many of these people moved to cities to find work in the new factories of the Industrial Revolution. Laws were even made to help these newly poor people. By the end of the 1700s, most of the land in Britain was enclosed.
A National Market for Food
By 1500, there were many local markets in Britain. But a big change was the growth of private trading. By the 1800s, there was a national market for farm products. This meant farmers could sell their food all over the country, not just in their local town. London and other growing cities helped drive this national market. By 1700, there was a national market for wheat.
Britain was unique because it didn't have internal taxes or fees on goods moving between different parts of the country. This made it "the largest coherent market in Europe," which helped trade grow.
Better Ways to Move Goods
Moving goods by wagon on roads was very expensive. It cost as much to move one ton of goods 32 miles by road as it did to ship it 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean! Water transport, like canals and rivers, was much cheaper and more efficient. A single horse could pull a barge weighing over 30 tons on a canal, but only one ton on a road.
The expansion of roads and waterways helped trade a lot. Later, railways made land transport even cheaper, reducing costs by over 95%.
More Land for Farming
Farmers also found ways to get more land. They converted some pasture land into fields for crops. They also drained wet areas like fens and reclaimed land from the sea. It's thought that the amount of farmland in Britain grew by 10-30% because of these efforts.
Dutch experts, like Cornelius Vermuyden, brought their knowledge of draining land and building canals to Britain. This helped British farmers make the most of their land.
Farming Becomes a Business
With regional and national markets, farmers were no longer stuck selling only to their local area. They could sell their extra food to places that needed it, and they were less affected by local price rules. Farming became more of a business, not just a way to feed one's family.
To succeed, farmers had to become good managers. They needed to use the newest farming ideas to produce food at a low cost and stay competitive.
Smarter Farmers
During the 1700s, many farmers could read and do basic math. This was unusual for the time. Farmers needed these skills because farming was changing so fast. They were becoming a smaller group of people who produced food for everyone else.
One reason farmers might have been smarter is that they usually had enough food. Even during times of famine, they could eat more of what they grew instead of selling it. Having enough food is important for brain development and learning. So, farmers likely played a big part in improving education and math skills in Europe during this time.
Breeding Better Animals
In England, people like Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke started using selective breeding in a scientific way. They would choose two animals with the best qualities and breed them together. They even used inbreeding (mating close relatives) to make sure certain good qualities stayed in the animals.
Bakewell's most important work was with sheep. He bred sheep that were large, had fine bones, and long, shiny wool. He improved the Lincoln Longwool sheep, and then used it to create a new breed called the Dishley Leicester. These sheep had no horns and a strong, meaty body.
Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle specifically for beef. Before him, cattle were mostly used for pulling plows or for milk. Beef was just a bonus. But Bakewell bred cattle like the Dishley Longhorn to be good for meat. As more farmers followed his lead, farm animals grew much bigger and better. For example, the average weight of a bull sold for meat increased significantly between 1700 and 1786. Also, the average milk cow produced much more milk each year.
The 1800s: New Fertilizers and Challenges
In the 1800s, new fertilizers were discovered. Huge deposits of sodium nitrate were found in Chile and imported to Britain. Farmers also started importing large amounts of guano (sea bird droppings), which was rich in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Potash from burned trees was also imported.
By-products from the meat industry, like ground-up bones, were also sold as fertilizer. An unusual source of fertilizer was coprolites (fossilized animal waste) found in South East England. When these were mixed with sulphuric acid, they made a high-phosphate mixture called "super phosphate" that plants could easily absorb. This became the first commercial fertilizer industry.
Farmers planted more high-yield crops like potatoes. The amount of land used for potatoes grew from about 300,000 acres in 1800 to 500,000 acres in 1900. While farming productivity slowly increased, it wasn't enough to keep up with Britain's fast-growing population.
Britain's population grew from 10.8 million in 1801 to 37.1 million by 1901. This meant the population was growing twice as fast as food production. So, Britain started to rely more on imported food.
After the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), cheap food imports started coming into Britain. To protect British farmers, laws called the Corn Laws were passed in 1815. These laws put taxes on imported grain. However, these laws were removed in 1846 during the Great Irish Famine. A potato disease ruined most of Ireland's potato crop, causing widespread hunger and death. Millions of Irish people had to leave their homes and move to other countries.
In the late 1800s, British agriculture faced new challenges. Wet summers damaged grain crops, and animal diseases affected cattle and sheep. But the biggest threat was cheap food imports from other countries. Steamships and railways made it possible to bring cheap grain from the United States. Cheap meat from Argentina and Australia also started arriving, thanks to new refrigerator ships.
This led to a period called the Long Depression (1873-1896), which hit farmers hard. By 1900, half the meat eaten in Britain came from abroad, and even tropical fruits like bananas were being imported.
Planting Seeds More Efficiently
Before the seed drill, farmers usually planted seeds by hand, throwing them across the field. Many seeds were eaten by birds or planted too close or too far apart. This was wasteful because only about four or five seeds grew for every one planted.
The seed drill was invented in China and came to Italy in the 1500s. Jethro Tull invented an improved seed drill in 1701. It was a machine that planted seeds evenly and at the right depth. Tull's machine was expensive and easily broken, so it didn't have a big impact at first. But as technology improved in the late 1800s, better and more affordable farm machines became available.
Why Was This Revolution Important?
The Agricultural Revolution was a huge turning point in history. It allowed Britain's population to grow much larger than ever before. It also helped Britain become a powerful industrial nation. By the late 1800s, even with all the improvements, cheap imports started to affect British farming.
The Agricultural Revolution in Britain and other countries made a big difference. Before, most people had to farm just to feed themselves and one other family. But during the revolution, one family could produce enough food for five families! This meant many people were freed from farming and could go work in factories.
This is why the Agricultural Revolution is seen as a key step that made the Industrial Revolution possible. It led to huge population growth and the rise of cities. It also shifted power from landowners to business owners and governments. The "Agrarian Age," where farming was the main activity, ended, and the "Industrial Age" began.
Today, farming still provides the foundation for our modern world. Without the Second Agricultural Revolution, our industries and technology wouldn't exist. It reminds us that we still depend on the Earth for our food.
See also
- Agriculture in the United Kingdom#History
- Scottish Agricultural Revolution
