S1 - Matu 4 - The Industrial Revolution - Lesson 2

Lesson 2 - The economic impact of the Industrial Revolution - Agriculture

This lesson deals with innovations in the British economy that made the industrial revolution happen. Paradoxically, the industrial revolution began in the countryside not in the towns. If the industrial revolution was going to happen, Britain needed to produce enough food for more people with fewer farmers than ever before. This was called the agricultural revolution.

Agricultural change 1750-1900
 
In the sixteenth century, most arable land (land used for crops) in England, especially in the Midlands and East Anglia, was organised in what was known as the open field system.
 
•       large fields were divided into strips (dark colour)
•       farmers would farm strips in each of the fields
•       fields would be sown every year with wheat, barley and oats
•       each field would have a different crop each year and one year in three it would be left fallow (with nothing growing in it)
•       crops would be rotated (changed) every year to allow the soil to recover some of its goodness
•       common land on which all the villagers could graze their animals would be available near the village
•       meadows and woodlands were also common land; from the meadows, villagers could collect wood for fires and building and keep their pigs there.

​The open field system worked well as the means of feeding a stable population, but there were disadvantages. Farmers' strips were often scattered far and wide, so time was wasted travelling between them. The arrangement of the strips meant that there was little possibility for innovation (new ideas) or the use of new machines. This meant that land was often badly drained and less productive than it could have been. Seed was sown by hand, most often by the broadcasting method, where seed was simply thrown onto the ground. Another problem was that disease could spread quickly amongst the animals on the common land.

Why was there pressure on farmers to produce more?
 
•       The population began to rise steadily.
•       Urbanisation resulted in a larger number of people who did not grow their own food.
•       From 1793-1815 Britain was at war with France (Matu 3). During this war Napoleon attempted to blockade Britain, to prevent food coming into the country. (Continental System)

Enclosure
 
Enclosure was when a field, made up of a number of strips, was surrounded by a fence or a hedge. The move from the open field system to enclosed fields was a very important change to how the land was farmed. Enclosure meant that more land, including common land, was put under cultivation (planted with crops). ​

​The owners of the new fields could experiment with new farming methods.  However, enclosure was expensive - hedges, ditches, drains and roads cost a considerable amount to maintain. Many farmers lost their strips and could not afford to enclose the land given to them. Many were forced to sell their land, often to wealthy landowners, and work as labourers. As a result, many more large farms were created.
 
The Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) had a great impact on the development of agriculture: food prices rose, and farmers rushed to enclose the land after the Enclosure Act of 1801 - during the war around 3 million acres were enclosed. As prices rose, so did farmers' incomes and they were able to spend money on new machinery and develop new techniques of farming.

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The innovators

18th Century

Charles 'Turnip' Townshend (1725-67) copied the Dutch by encouraging a rotation of turnips, barley, wheat and clover. The turnips and clover put nitrogen back into the soil. Unlike the crop rotation of the open field system, there was not the waste of a fallow year.

Jethro Tull (1674-1741) believed that the broadcasting method of sowing seed was wasteful. His answer was to invent the seed drill in 1701. This new machine would sow seeds by drilling into the earth and then cover the holes.

​​Robert Bakewell (1725-95) experimented by crossbreeding animals. He cross-bred sheep to produce the New Leicester variety because this provided more meat. He did the same with cattle and horses.
 
Benjamin Huntsman (1704 – 1776) experimented in steel manufacture in Sheffield. Improved steel production was essential to the production of higher quality scythes and ploughs. Eventually, after many experiments, Huntsman was able to make satisfactory cast steel, in clay pot crucibles, each holding about 34 pounds of blistered steel.  His secret was discovered by a Sheffield iron-founder called Walker. Walker, according to legend, entered Huntsman's works in the disguise of a starving beggar asking to sleep by a fire for the night. (See video right)

1815-1870
 
One of the most important changes in agriculture was the introduction and wider use of steam-powered machines. Steam threshers had been introduced in the 1820s and 1830s and by 1880 two-thirds of the corn harvest was threshed by machine. Also important in improving productivity was the increasingly widespread use of fertilisers. In 1843, J. B. Lawes showed that treated crushed animal bones could make excellent fertiliser. The result of the growth in fertilisers is clear - from the late 1830s to the late 1850s, wheat yields increased by 50 per cent. Most important to the growth in agriculture were the developments in transport. The new railways linked food-producing areas with expanding and prosperous towns.

Activities

1. Explain carefully how the traditional open field system worked, include a diagram to help illustrate your answer. 
2. Explain the system of enclosure and how this transformed British agriculture. Why do you think many poor farmers opposed enclosure?
3. Make a table of the key technical innovations of the agricultural revolution.