British Agricultural Revolution
The British Agricultural Revolution, or Second Agricultural Revolution, was an unprecedented increase in the agricultural production in Britain arising from increases in labour and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the hundred-year period ending in 1770, and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world. This increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801, though domestic production gave way increasingly to food imports in the 19th century as the population almost quadrupled to over 35 million. From 1700 to 1850, agricultural productivity per labourer increased by a factor of 2.5. The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agricultural share of the labour force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialisation depended: the Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as an enabling factor for the Industrial Revolution. However, historians continue to dispute when exactly such a revolution took place and of what it consisted. Rather than a single event, G. E. Mingay states that there were a profusion of agricultural revolutions, one for two centuries before 1650, another emphasising the century after 1650, a third for the period 1750, 1780, and a fourth for the middle decades of the nineteenth century. This has led more recent historians to argue that any general statements about the Agricultural Revolution are difficult to sustain.
One of the most important innovations of the British Agricultural Revolution was the development of the Norfolk four-course rotation, which greatly increased crop and livestock yields by improving soil fertility and reducing fallow. Turnips first show up in the probate records in England as early as 1638 but were not widely used till about 1750. Fallow land was about 20% of the arable area in England in 1700 before turnips and clover were extensively grown in the 1830s. Guano and nitrates from South America were introduced in the mid-19th century, and fallow steadily declined to reach only about 4% in 1900. Ideally, wheat, barley, turnips and clover would be planted in that order in each field in successive years. The turnips helped keep the weeds down and were an excellent forage crop, ruminant animals could eat the tops and roots through a large part of the summer and winters. There was no need to let the soil lie fallow as clover would add nitrates (nitrogen-containing salts) back to the soil. The clover made excellent pasture and hay fields as well as green manure when it was ploughed under after one or two years. The addition of clover and turnips allowed more animals to be kept through the winter, which in turn produced more milk, cheese, meat and manure, which maintained soil fertility.
The Dutch acquired the iron-tipped, curved mouldboard, adjustable depth plough which was invented in Chinese Han dynasty from the Chinese in the early 17th century. It had the advantage of being able to be pulled by one or two oxen compared to the six or eight needed by the heavy wheeled northern European plough. The Dutch plough was brought to Britain by Dutch contractors who were hired to drain East Anglian fens and Somerset moors. The plough was extremely successful on wet, boggy soil, but was soon used on ordinary land as well. British improvements included Joseph Foljambe's cast iron plough (patented 1730), which combined an earlier Dutch design with several innovations. Its fittings and coulter were made of iron, and the mouldboard and share were covered with an iron plate, making it easier to pull and more controllable than previous ploughs. By the 1760s Foljambe was making large numbers of these ploughs in a factory outside of Rotherham, using standard patterns with interchangeable parts. The plough was easy for a blacksmith to make, but by the end of the 18th century it was being made in rural foundries. By 1770 it was the cheapest and best plough available. It spread to Scotland, America, and France.
In Europe, agriculture was feudal from the Middle Ages. In the feudal open-field system, peasant farmers were assigned individual narrow strips of land in large fields which were used for growing crops. For the right to work this land they would pay a percentage of the yield to the aristocracy or the Catholic Church, who owned the land. A separate section of land in the same area would be held in common as grazing pasture. Periodically the grazing land would be rotated with the crop land to allow the land to recover. As early as the 12th century, some fields in England tilled under the open-field system were enclosed into individually owned fields. The Black Death from 1348 onward accelerated the break-up of the feudal system in England. Many farms were bought by yeomen who enclosed their property and improved their use of the land. More secure control of the land allowed the owners to make innovations that improved their yields. Other husbandmen rented property they share cropped with the land owners. Many of these enclosures were accomplished by acts of Parliament in the 16th and 17th centuries. The process of enclosing property accelerated in the 15th and 16th centuries. The more productive enclosed farms meant that fewer farmers were needed to work the same land, leaving many villagers without land and grazing rights. Many of them moved to the cities in search of work in the emerging factories of the Industrial Revolution.
In England, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke systematised selective breeding, managing the reproduction of animal stock to reinforce desirable traits. Bakewell's most important breeding programme was with sheep. Using native stock, he was able to quickly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep, with long, lustrous wool. The Lincoln Longwool was improved by Bakewell, and in turn the Lincoln was used to develop the subsequent breed, the Dishley Leicester. It was hornless and had a square, meaty body with straight top lines. Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle to be used primarily for beef. Previously, cattle were first and foremost kept for pulling ploughs as oxen or for dairy uses, with beef from surplus males as a secondary product, but he cross-bred long-horned heifers and a Westmoreland bull to eventually create the Dishley Longhorn. As knowledge of Bakewell's innovation spread, farm animals increased dramatically in size and quality. The average weight of a bull sold for slaughter at Smithfield was reported around 1700 as , though this is considered a low estimate: by 1786, weights of were reported, though other contemporary indicators suggest an increase of around a quarter over the intervening century. In 1300, the average milk cow produced 100 gallons of milk annually. By 1800, this figure rose to 566 gallons.
High wagon transportation costs made it uneconomical to ship commodities very far outside the market radius by road, generally limiting shipment to less than 20 or 30 miles to market or to a navigable waterway. Water transport was (and indeed still is) much more energy-efficient than land transport. In the early 19th century it cost as much to transport a ton of freight 32 miles by wagon over an unimproved road as it did to ship it 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. A horse could pull at most one ton of freight on the best type of improved roads (Macadam roads). Comparatively, a single horse could pull a barge weighing over 30 tons down a canal or river; a ship required no horses at all. Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways. Road transport capacity grew from threefold to fourfold from 1500 to 1700, and many canals were built during a period known as Canal Mania, which enabled efficient water transport to more markets. Starting in the 1820s, railways were developed, which eventually reduced shipping costs by more than 90% compared to wagon transport.
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Common questions
What was the British Agricultural Revolution and when did it occur?
The British Agricultural Revolution, also known as the Second Agricultural Revolution, was an unprecedented increase in agricultural production arising from increases in labour and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. This period saw agricultural output grow faster than the population over the hundred-year period ending in 1770.
How did the Norfolk four-course rotation improve soil fertility during the British Agricultural Revolution?
The development of the Norfolk four-course rotation greatly increased crop and livestock yields by improving soil fertility and reducing fallow time through a specific sequence of planting wheat, barley, turnips and clover. Turnips first appeared in probate records in England as early as 1638 but were not widely used until about 1750, while fallow land declined to reach only about 4% in 1900.
When was Joseph Foljambe's cast iron plough patented and how did it change farming practices?
Joseph Foljambe patented his cast iron plough on the 2nd of May 1730, combining an earlier Dutch design with innovations that made it easier to pull and more controllable than previous ploughs. By 1770 it became the cheapest and best plough available, spreading to Scotland, America, and France from a factory outside Rotherham where he produced large numbers using standard patterns with interchangeable parts.
What role did enclosure acts play in the British Agricultural Revolution between the 16th and 17th centuries?
Many enclosures were accomplished by acts of Parliament in the 16th and 17th centuries, accelerating the process of enclosing property during the 15th and 16th centuries to allow owners to make innovations that improved yields. The more productive enclosed farms meant fewer farmers were needed to work the same land, leaving many villagers without land and grazing rights who moved to cities for work in emerging factories.
How did Robert Bakewell's selective breeding programs affect livestock weights and milk production by 1800?
Robert Bakewell systematised selective breeding to reinforce desirable traits, creating breeds like the Dishley Leicester sheep and Dishley Longhorn cattle which increased dramatically in size and quality. By 1800 the average milk cow produced 566 gallons annually compared to 100 gallons in 1300, while bull slaughter weights rose significantly over the intervening century.