Features of the Agricultural Revolution:1.) Increased production of food.
--Increased crop and animal yields could feed more people. 2.) New methods of cultivation --Crops were grown on wastelands and uncultivated common lands. 3.) Selective breeding of livestock --led to better cultivation as a result of healthier animals. |
Agriculture in 1700s
Population growth--Eighteenth century Britain was very different from today. In the 1690's the population had been estimated at about 5,750,000 people, less than one-tenth of the population at the beginning of the twenty-first century. As the population grew more food was needed!
Nature of farming
--Agriculture was self-sufficient not commercialized This meant that farmers grew what they needed for themselves and sold any surplus at market. This is called subsistence farming and was undertaken on the Open Field System with three fields around the village.
Village Life
--Most people lived in small villages and gained their living from farming. The village was at the center of the Open Field System. Only about 15 percent of the British people lived in towns and cities. Farming methods had changed little for over a thousand years.
Was change needed?
--During the eighteenth century the population of Britain doubled. As a result, agriculture became more commercialized with more food having to be produced to meet the needs of the growing population, especially the rapidly growing population of towns and cities.
Was the open field system effective?--At the beginning of the eighteenth century, British agriculture under the Open Field System met most of the needs of the nation. The British people could be supplied with all of the wheat, vegetables and meat that it needed.
Social structure--Large landowners rented out land. These were rich people and few of them were actually involved in farming themselves
--They had tenant farmers who rented the land and then grew crops. Most tenants had short leases.
--Laborers and squatters worked on the land.
Nature of farming
--Agriculture was self-sufficient not commercialized This meant that farmers grew what they needed for themselves and sold any surplus at market. This is called subsistence farming and was undertaken on the Open Field System with three fields around the village.
Village Life
--Most people lived in small villages and gained their living from farming. The village was at the center of the Open Field System. Only about 15 percent of the British people lived in towns and cities. Farming methods had changed little for over a thousand years.
Was change needed?
--During the eighteenth century the population of Britain doubled. As a result, agriculture became more commercialized with more food having to be produced to meet the needs of the growing population, especially the rapidly growing population of towns and cities.
Was the open field system effective?--At the beginning of the eighteenth century, British agriculture under the Open Field System met most of the needs of the nation. The British people could be supplied with all of the wheat, vegetables and meat that it needed.
Social structure--Large landowners rented out land. These were rich people and few of them were actually involved in farming themselves
--They had tenant farmers who rented the land and then grew crops. Most tenants had short leases.
--Laborers and squatters worked on the land.