Agriculture

The Industrial Revolution

Dutch Plough

1760 - 1830

Seed Drill

The cast iron wheel-less Dutch plough was invented in 1730 by Joseph Foljambe. Before it was invented, ploughs often needed 7 oxen to pull it. With the Dutch plough, only 1 or 2 oxen were needed. It was extremely successful on boggy soil, but was also used on ordinary land. The plough's iron parts made it much easier to pull and control than previous ploughs. By 1770, it was the cheapest and best plough available, and it spread to Scotland, America, and France.

Before the seed drill was invented in 1701 by Jethro Tull, seeds were imprecisely planted by hand. This led to poor distribution of seeds, which meant low productivity. However, after the seed drill was introduced, it enabled seeds to be sowed at equal distances and proper depth, so birds wouldn't get to them. It improved the ratio of crop yields by as much as 9 times, which meant less labour, cheaper expenses (seed drills cost about 58 pounds, eventually cheaper than farmer wages), and more food.

A farmer ploughing a field with a Dutch plough.

A worker supervising a seed drill.

Threshing Machine

The threshing machine was invented by Andrew Meikle in 1786. It threshes grain, which means that it makes seeds fall out from their stalks and husks by beating the plant. Before it was invented, threshing was done by hand with flails, which took one quarter of agricultural labour by the 18th century. Threshing machines allowed for higher efficiencies, a lot less labour, and cheaper expenses.

Swing Riot

Not everyone was happy with all these revolutionary labour-displacing inventions. Many agriculture workers lost their jobs, and in 1830, the Swing Riot happened. It began in East Kent, August 1830, and by December it had spread throughout Southern England and East Anglia. The protesters also started wage and tax riots. If they were captured, they were faced with charges of arson, robbery, rioting, machine breaking and assault. Convicted protesters were imprisoned, transported, and sometimes executed.