Jethro Tull (1674 - 1741)

Jethro Tull was an English agricultural pioneer from Berkshire who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows. He later developed a horse-drawn hoe. Tull's methods were adopted by many great land owners and helped to provide the basis for modern agriculture.

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Jethro Tull was born in 1674 into a family of Berkshire gentry. He studied at Oxford University and Gray's Inn in preparation for a legal and political career, but ill health postponed these plans and, after his marriage in 1699, he began farming with his father.

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At the time, seeds were distributed into furrows ('drilling') by hand. Tull had noticed that traditional heavy sowing densities were not very efficient, so he instructed his staff to drill at very precise, low densities. By 1701, his frustration with their lack of cooperation prompted him to invent a machine to do the work for him. He designed his drill with a rotating cylinder. Grooves were cut into the cylinder to allow seed to pass from the hopper above to a funnel below. They were then directed into a channel dug by a plough at the front of the machine, then immediately covered by a harrow attached to the rear. This limited the wastage of seeding and made the crop easier to weed.

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Initially the machine was only a limited success. Seed drills of this and successive types were both expensive and unreliable, as well as fragile. Seed drills would not come into widespread use in Europe until the mid-19th century. Early drills were small enough to be pulled by a single horse, and many of these remained in use into the 1930s.

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In 1709, he moved to Prosperous Farm in Hungerford, and two years later decided to travel around Europe to improve his health and study agricultural techniques there. Upon his return in 1714, he perfected both his system and machinery. He pulverised the earth between the rows, believing that this released nutrients would act as a substitute for manure. While apparently successful - he grew wheat in the same field for 13 successive years without manuring - it is more likely that he merely prevented weeds from overcrowding and competing with the seed.

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Tull's other innovations included a plough with blades set in such a way that grass and roots were pulled up and left on the surface to dry.

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Eventually, as agricultural improvement became fashionable, more interest began to be taken in Tull's ideas. In 1731, he published his book, 'The New Horse Hoeing Husbandry', detailing his system and its machinery. It caused great controversy at the time, and arguments continued for another century before his eventual vindication. While several other mechanical seed drills had also been invented, Tull's complete system was a major influence on the agricultural revolution and its impact can still be seen in today's methods and machinery.

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The availability of steam, and later gasoline tractors saw the development of larger and more efficient drills that allowed farmers to seed ever larger tracts in a single day.

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Jethro Tull died on 21 February 1741.

Source: Wikipedia/BBC

Images: Believed to be in the Public Domain or used with permission

Jethro Tull

Early design for the Jethro Tull Seed Drill

Drilling using horsepower in Maryland, USA, 1917