The Spread of the New Farming Ideas of the Agricultural Revolution

The Spread of the New Farming Ideas of the Agricultural Revolution

Many farmers of this time were experimenting, with different

techniques of farming, and many wrote books of specific topics that

they had trialled. One of these men was called Jethro Tull. He had

invented the horse hoe and wrote a book called “Horse Hoeing

Husbandry”. His invention was not very successful until after his

death, as it tended to break very easily. Many Farmers of this time

however, were not educated, and could not read or write, so therefore

did not know about his ideas and methods.

Another for of spreading ideas was through model farms. These were

working farms that tested new ideas, and other farmers and members of

the public could come and see how they worked. This meant that people

could go and take back ideas to try on there own farms. They were

quite successful at spreading these ideas, however transport was not

very good at in the 1700, and so many people could not afford to go

and visit these farms.

Agricultural shows were also popular use of spreading ideas at this

time, as they showed all new ideas to do with animals, machinery and

crops. Thomas Coke was one man that helped promoted these new ideas

through agricultural shows. Farmers would come to the shows and learn

of the new techniques and ideas, and try them on there own farms.

Other than books, magazines were also set up to help spread ideas at

this time. One man to do this was called Arthur Young. He wrote many

books on farming and started his own magazine called Annals of

Agriculture. Due to the growing interest in farming, the government

set up a board of Agriculture and Young was appointed as secretary.

George III also tried to help spread the ideas of the farming

improvers by writing articles in Young’s magazine under the name Ralph

Robinson.

Many people went on tours of the county too, to talk to the poor

people, that could not read the magazines or books, and who couldn’t