Agricultural Revolution

Agricultural Revolution The agricultural changes that occurred in Britain during the 18th century. Some historians stress that agriculture was already undergoing evolutionary change, but that this was speeded up by ENCLOSURE, particularly the parliamentary enclosures of the 18th century. The medieval economy rested on the manorial system and open-field cultivation in strips which hampered change. The Agricultural Revolution saw this replaced by large-scale farming in consolidated units, the extension of arable farming over heaths and commons, the adoption of intensive livestock husbandry, the conversion of a largely self-subsistent peasantry into a community of agricultural labourers, and considerable attention to the improvement of agricultural techniques like CROP ROTATION, new crops, for example turnips and potatoes, and improved grasses. Viscount TOWNSHEND (1674–1738) and Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester (1752–1842) were notable for their adoption and promotion of crop rotation; Jethro Tull (1674–1741) for his seed drills; and Robert Bakewell (1725–95) was the most famous of the livestock improvers.