The Agricultural Revolution

1750-1900

By Mrs. Paytonwww.SchoolHistory.co.uk

 During the early 1700's, a great change in farming called the Agricultural Revolution began in Great Britain. The revolution resulted from a series of discoveries and inventions that made farming much more productive than ever before. By the mid-1800's, the Agricultural Revolution had spread throughout much of Europe and North America. One of the revolution's chief effects was the rapid growth of towns and cities in Europe and the United States during the 1800's. Because fewer people were needed to produce food, farm families by the thousands moved to the towns and cities.

The Agricultural Revolution

THE AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

• 1. Agriculture means.....

• 2. Farming changes resulted in what?

• 3. Revolution can mean…....

The Agricultural Revolution was: 

• Change, fast or slow

• Over hundred and fifty years

• It was a slow process

 

OPEN FIELD SYSTEM

• All villagers worked together

• All the land was shared out

• Everyone helped each other

• Everyone had land to grow food

• For centuries enough food had been grown

ADVANTAGES

OPEN FIELD SYSTEM

•Strips in different fields

•Fallow land:

cropland that is not seeded for a season; it may or may not be plowed.

•Waste of time

•Waste of land

•Common land

DISADVANTAGES

Why did the Open field system change?

012345678

millions

1700 1720 1740 1760 1780

year

population

What was

Happening to population?

What came next?

• How are the fields different?

• Can more food be grown? Why?

• What’s missing?• Who wanted

change?• Who did not want

change?

What was farming like in 1750? 

1. The open field system was called this because there were no f _______ around them. 

2. Each year a field had to be left f_________. This meant that

n_____________ was grown in the field. This was to let the field rest and regain its goodness or fertility. They had to do this because they did no have fertilizers. 

3. The common land was for grazing a___________ everyone including the poor could use it.

 

Agriculture means………………….   Revolution means…………………….

 The changes in farming were fast/slow taking place over along/short period of time.

OPEN FIELD SYSTEMAdvantagesAll the village land was sharedVillagers shared work (ex. Harvest time)

Disadvantages…………………

…………………

Each villager had land to grow crops for his family.

………………….

…………………..

Enclosing of land

• Read Enclosure reading in your packet and answer questions with a partner. Partner A read Partner B summarize after each paragraph what Partner A read.

McCormick’s ReaperThe McCormick reaper was a boon to wheat farmers; the first model could do the work of three men. As Cyrus McCormick perfected and improved the capabilities of the new implement, more land was put into production.

Jethro Tull: Horse-drawn cultivator

Jethro Tull designed the horse drawn cultivator (also known as a hoe).  His design pulled out weeds and other unwanted shrubs, and left them on the surface to die. He also improved the design of the plow which had a similar mechanism as the horse drawn cultivator.

Food SurplusAGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

• The Agricultural Revolution resulted in a food surplus. New techniques of cultivating land such as the crop rotation allowed more surplus. Furthermore, enclosure allowed formerly public lands that were shared during the Middle Ages were enclosed by fences and sectioned for private farming and private gain (a prime example of capitalism at work). In addition to these embellishments of farming, new machinery and tools were developed. Plowing, seeding, reaping were all revolutionized, and chemical fertilizers allowed even more product, maximizing the productivity of the land, employing less people, created an immense surplus of food and people. So these people traveled to the cities, resulting in a drastic increase of Urbanization.

Food Surplus

1. When reading this passage what do you think the writer meant when he said, “a prime example of capitalism at work” when talking about enclosed lands for private farming?

 

 

 

2. What did this passage mean when it says, “drastic increase of Urbanization”?

 

 

Selective Breeding

Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits.

Can you think of anything that you have learned in science that is like selective breeding?

Selective breeding was further improved in this period. There were signsthat p_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___farming was becoming more important than arablefarming. There were new breeds such as the L_ _ _ _ _ _ sheepproduced by Bakewell, Aberdeen A_ _ _ _ beef cattle, and the SuffolkP_ _ _ _ (huge work horses).

Pastural Lincoln Angus Punch