The Agrarian Revolution
The Agrarian Revolution is a catch-all term covering an unprecedented increase in British agricultural production between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Soaring output contributed to a rapid rise in population at the same time as changing farming practices displaced much of the rural population.
The displacement is often cited as a cause of the so-called Industrial Revolution.
While historians will quibble about starting points and details, agrarian revolution remains a convenient shorthand term for a range of changes in agricultural techniques and social arrangements, including:
- Reallocating strips of land into fields enclosed by hedges or fences allocated to individual owners or tenants (enclosure) required fewer labourers to work the same land area.
- Removing previous rights a community held over farmlands and parish commons left many villagers without land and grazing rights. While enclosure was underway in England as far back as the 12th century, the process accelerated in the 15th and 16th centuries and continued into the 20th; it was essentially complete by the end of the 18th century. The Westminster Parliament passed 5,200 individual enclosure acts, affecting 28,000 km2 between 1604 and 1914. (UK Parliament website)
- Changing crop rotation practices, growing crops such as turnips and clover provided fodder for stabled livestock during winter rather than leaving the land fallow every third or fourth season. The animals, in turn, provided manure as additional (in many cases, the only) fertiliser.
- Introducing previously unavailable crops such as potatoes and maise produced greater yields. It enabled crops to be grown in fallow or nutrient-deficient soils.
- Adopting techniques developed in Flanders and the Netherlands to reclaim marshland for agricultural purposes applied in low-lying areas increased the amount of arable land between 10 and 30%.
- Selective livestock breeding developed new breeds of beef and dairy cattle, sheep and pigs.
- Larger, enclosed fields allowed farmers to introduce machinery to make farming more economical, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Mechanical seed drills replaced sowing by hand (broadcasting), placing seeds at the appropriate depth, reducing wastage and delivering fields of evenly spaced plants that were easier to till for weeds. Dutch modifications of a Chinese plough required fewer oxen or horses to pull it.
