Agricultural Revolution in England
Known as the "Transformation of the Agrarian Economy" in England
took place in the period between 1500-1850, wherein science and industry of
bringing out the growth of plants and animals were being studied and adopted
by the native people. It includes the cultivation of soil, the growing and harvesting
of crops, breeding and raising of animals and forestry.
From the 16th century toward a point ahead, the required organic agriculture
was gradually replaced by a new farming system that depends on the energy characterized
data and information. For many years the agricultural status in England was
only thought to have occurred because of the selective breeding of livestock,
the discharged of property rights to land and the adoption of new systems to
cropping due to a group of heroic individuals known as the "Great Men"
having victory over preserving group of awkward and unsophisticated individual
of the country.
Agricultural Revolution involves technological changes which brought large
increase in agricultural productivity and net output supported by the rapid
growth in population, increasing percentage on the working force and thereby
helped drive the Industrial Revolution. Historians cited four key changes in
agricultural practices in England evolving in recent decades.
Separation and Appropriation of land is the practice of converting or making
land belonging equally to the people in England into private ownership under
a law of ownership that gave owners the right to the crops but also meant that
other people have also the right to incompletely use the land. It is also the
division and privatization of fence, grassy vegetation and other wastes which
turned equal land into owned land. This practice differs from region to region
affecting many places particularly in the more compact areas where pasturage
are insufficient and farmers relied only on their harvest to support their needs
and animals.
Operation by machinery is the use of mechanical tools to replace manual and
animal labor into the use of power machinery to help a human operator in some
task. Example, the steam powered tool used to cut woods that reduces the amount
of time needed to carry out various task improving and resulting to increase
productivity. A job or a work that make use of hand is not an example of mechanization.
Various crop rotations is the practice in England growing a series of crops
of different type in the same space and subsequent series of seasons to avoid
the build up of plant bacteria and pest often occurs when one variety only is
continuously crop. To avoid serious decrease of soil nutrients crop rotation
is practiced to balance the fertility requirement of various crops while it
nourishes nitrogen with use of green manure alternatively with cereals and other
crops. Another component of crop rotation is the polyculture that uses multiple
crops in the same space in imitation of diversity of natural ecosystems.
Own-choice animal breeding is the reproduction of certain genetically determined
characteristic of animals or plants over the other engaged also by some inhabitants
of England. It was originally defined by Charles Darwin to consider on the improvement
of survival in the reproductive ability of living organism.
For this reason, historians argued that there is no such thing as revolution,
but simply a rapid evolution of methods in spreading various types of plants
and animals that led to a cutting edge increase in productivity.
Original Authors: Phil Post
Edit Update Authors: None
Updated On: 21/01/2007
