Key Terms – The Agrarian Revolution Open field system Specializing Enclosure System Crop Rotation Jethro Tull Seed Drill Cyrus McCormick Reaper

Open Field System As the world's population grew, farmers sought new ways to increase the amount of food they were producing. Initially, small farmers were allowed to use small tracts of field on larger farms owned by large landowners. This system would be known as the open field system. Local farmers were also allowed to graze their livestock on land known as “commons”

Specializing and the Enclosure System As trade expanded, the open field system proved to be inefficient at generating enough crops to turn a profit. Landowners realized that if they grew produce and raw materials for city and foreign markets, or specialize (work or grow only one type of crop), they would make more money. Large landowners would enclose their fields to grow more crops and push small farmers off of their land. This was considered to be the enclosure system.

Crop Rotation Charles Townshend would suggest a new idea; he believed that no fields needed to be used as fallow. Townshend believed that one could plant turnips or clover on a field which would have been used as fallow and the field would maintain its fertility while still growing a viable crop. Crop rotation → the shifting of crops from one field to another to maintain soil fertility. The crops could then be used as animal feed which gave the farmers another viable source of income.

Jethro Tull and the Seed Drill Tull → English farmer who invented the seed drill in Seed drill → device that planted seeds in rows. This allowed a farmer to save seeds that were normally wasted by previous methods of scattering them across fields.

Cyrus McCormick and the Reaper McCormick → American farmer who invented the reaper. Reaper → horse drawn machine that pulled grain from the ground and separated the heads from the stalks. This allowed farmers to need less workers to work the fields since harvesting time was now cut in half.

Results Small farmers would suffer greatly from the new inventions. Many would have to work in cities and later take up the jobs created by factories. Large landowners would begin to make large amounts of profit through the new inventions and systems which paved the way for the Industrial Revolution.