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
- Jethro Tull’s Seed Drill
- Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper
- Andrew Meikle’s Threshing Machine
Results:
Labourers had to move to the towns
Towns could be fed.