StudyNotes.ie

Background

Needed because of the increase in the population and the growth of towns.

Problems with the Open Field system:

Fallow land

No point in making improvements

Lazy neighbours

Diseases spread

Selective breeding impossible

New developments

  • Enclosure Acts had to be passed and commissioners divided the land.
  • Commonage gone (poor to the towns)
  • Viscount Townshend developed Norfolk system (wheat, turnips, barley, clover and grass)
  • Cattle could be fed in winter.
  • Robert Bakewell (selective breeding)
  • Arthur Young’s ‘The Annals of Agriculture’

New machines

  1. Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill
  2. Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper
  3. Andrew Meikle’s Threshing Machine

Results:

Labourers had to move to the towns

Towns could be fed.