Origins (17th century):

England
Low Countries

The keys to Understanding

the Agricultural Revolution:

Science
Entrepreneurship

Technology

The Farmer as

Scientist

(Middle Ages)

OUT
with the old.

Wheat
Oats
Fallow

(Middle Ages)

OUT
with the old.

Fallow

Wheat
Oats

(Middle Ages)

OUT
with the old.

Oats
Fallow

Wheat

(Seventeenth Century)

Wheat Oats

IN

Clover
with the new!

Turnips

(Seventeenth Century)

IN

T
urnips
Clover
Oats

TClover
urnips
Wheat

TOats
urnips
Wheat

Clover
Wheat
Oats

with the new!

(Seventeenth Century)

IN

T
urnips
Oats

TClover
urnips

Wheat
Oats

Clover
Wheat

with the new!

(Seventeenth Century)

IN

Oats

Turnips

Wheat

Clover

with the new!

The four-field system produced a higher crop

yield because none of the land had to lie
fallow.

The application of

to agriculture

I have a genetic
defect thats been
perpetuated by
selective breeding.
THANKS, SCIENCE!

The Farmer as

Entrepreneur

Bruegel, The Harvesters (1565)

The Old
Way

Enclosure
Movement
The New Way

Enclosure Movement
THE DOWNSIDE:
Hurt poor farmers
who lost grazing
rights for their cattle
on the common land

THE UPSIDE:
Agricultural
production, as a
whole, became more
market-oriented and
efficient.

Workhouses, such as this one, provided shelter

and employment for the able-bodied poor.

Large landowners were able to make use of the

latest developments in science and technology,
producing higher crop yields.

The Farmer as

Inventor

Its been
awhile...

The Sower

Jethro Tull
(1674-1740)

Tulls horse-drawn seed drill

made sowing seed more
efficient and precise.

Agricultural

Inventions
In the United States

Jeffersons Moldboard Plow

A mathematics text from

Washingtons library

Before the Scientific Revolution

A lot less complicated than a

sixteen-sided barn, but not
nearly as cool!

Technological inventions like Tulls seed drill

resulted in more efficient agricultural practices,
producing higher crop yields.

Due to advances in
Science,
Entrepreneurship, &
Technology,
Europe was all SET to feed a larger
population to provide the manpower
for the Industrial Revolution.