Jethro Tull
Birth date- March 30, 1674, in Basildon, Berkshire
Nationality- English
Invented- The Seed Drill
Nationality- English
Invented- The Seed Drill
Jethro Tull's History
Jethro Tull is an English agriculturist whose work is central to the development of mechanized farming and increasing agriculture prodcution. He is particularly well known for devising certain farming implements which increased production amongst English farmers, the most famous of which is .
Tull was born into an aristocratic family in Berkshire in 1604. He was educated at Oxford and Gray’s Inn universities. Although he evidenced an early interest in farming and plant life, he originally intended a legal career. After Susannah Smith, he settled on his father’s farm in Howbery where Tull conducted a number of agricultural experiments. Shortly thereafter he contracted a pulmonary infection which caused him to seek a cure in the milder climates of Italy and the South of France.
Tull was a keenly interested in farming methods, most notably planting. In many countries seed planting was done by scattering seeds over the ground, a method which Tull saw as wasteful and resulted in an inconsistent sowing. He devised a horse-drawn machine he called a “seed drill” which consisted of a series of pipes which bore holes into the ground in which a seed was dropped. The drill allowed the planting of the seeds in long rows which could then be more easily weeded.
The seed drill, despite its obvious advantages, was met with significant opposition from agricultural workers. Prior to its widespread acceptance, a large field would require dozens of seed scatterers to plant; with the seed drill, a single individual with a horse could more effectively plant the field in much reduced time. Landowners, however, saw great advantage in the drill – fewer workers were needed to work a given amount of land.
Tull was also an advocate of cultivation: frequent hoeing of the soil around plants to allow air and moisture to the roots, and removal of weeds that would complete with the crops for soil nutrients. Like many farmers of his day, Tull was not an advocate of fertilizer; he believed that all the nutrients a plant needed was already in the soil, getting a verdant crop was a matter of removing the weeds and pulverizing the soil to release the nutrients. Tull invented a horse drawn hoe which would remove weeds more efficiently than hand-hoeing.
Oxen were the preferred beast of burden for farmers of the 17th century. Tull believed that horses were more suitable, as they were more maneuverable and could operate between rows more effectively. He also speculated that ox dung contained a high concentration of weed seeds. He published a treatise on the topic, The New Horse-Hoeing Husbandry; or, an Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation in 1731.
Tull’s theories of mechanized farming were slow to catch on. But a burgeoning population in Europe made increased food production an imperative, and as large landowners began to see increased production and lower operating costs, the controversy around Tull’s methods began to diminish. Various farm implement manufacturers came out with variations on Tull’s weeding plow and seed drill, and numerous universities and agriculture societies published papers on mechanized farming techniques. Interestingly, although he was a lawyer, Tull never patented or otherwise trademarked any of his innovations.
*copyright http://randombios.blogspot.com/2011/03/jethro-tull-agriculturalist.html
Tull was born into an aristocratic family in Berkshire in 1604. He was educated at Oxford and Gray’s Inn universities. Although he evidenced an early interest in farming and plant life, he originally intended a legal career. After Susannah Smith, he settled on his father’s farm in Howbery where Tull conducted a number of agricultural experiments. Shortly thereafter he contracted a pulmonary infection which caused him to seek a cure in the milder climates of Italy and the South of France.
Tull was a keenly interested in farming methods, most notably planting. In many countries seed planting was done by scattering seeds over the ground, a method which Tull saw as wasteful and resulted in an inconsistent sowing. He devised a horse-drawn machine he called a “seed drill” which consisted of a series of pipes which bore holes into the ground in which a seed was dropped. The drill allowed the planting of the seeds in long rows which could then be more easily weeded.
The seed drill, despite its obvious advantages, was met with significant opposition from agricultural workers. Prior to its widespread acceptance, a large field would require dozens of seed scatterers to plant; with the seed drill, a single individual with a horse could more effectively plant the field in much reduced time. Landowners, however, saw great advantage in the drill – fewer workers were needed to work a given amount of land.
Tull was also an advocate of cultivation: frequent hoeing of the soil around plants to allow air and moisture to the roots, and removal of weeds that would complete with the crops for soil nutrients. Like many farmers of his day, Tull was not an advocate of fertilizer; he believed that all the nutrients a plant needed was already in the soil, getting a verdant crop was a matter of removing the weeds and pulverizing the soil to release the nutrients. Tull invented a horse drawn hoe which would remove weeds more efficiently than hand-hoeing.
Oxen were the preferred beast of burden for farmers of the 17th century. Tull believed that horses were more suitable, as they were more maneuverable and could operate between rows more effectively. He also speculated that ox dung contained a high concentration of weed seeds. He published a treatise on the topic, The New Horse-Hoeing Husbandry; or, an Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation in 1731.
Tull’s theories of mechanized farming were slow to catch on. But a burgeoning population in Europe made increased food production an imperative, and as large landowners began to see increased production and lower operating costs, the controversy around Tull’s methods began to diminish. Various farm implement manufacturers came out with variations on Tull’s weeding plow and seed drill, and numerous universities and agriculture societies published papers on mechanized farming techniques. Interestingly, although he was a lawyer, Tull never patented or otherwise trademarked any of his innovations.
*copyright http://randombios.blogspot.com/2011/03/jethro-tull-agriculturalist.html