Agricultural Revolution

 

Life on farms was difficult before the Agricultural Revolution

·        1 seed = 5 seed return

·        Droughts, famine, starvation, and malnutrition

·        Food supply very unreliable

 

The basic method of farming was “Open Farming”

·        Communal type of farming, although property owned privately

·        Joint system – Everyone harvests and plants at the same time by village consent

·        No one has the right to absolute proceeds of the land

o       This will change with complete privatization

·        “Gleaners” – right of women (by tradition) to come in and pick up by hand anything left behind (grains, seeds, etc.)

 

Those Crafty little Dutchmen! (the Dutch are very good)

·        Many of the techniques are used by the English were designed by the Dutch. (They had more grain, so they were able to)

·        Old-Time System = Manorialism

o       3-field crop rotation with 1/3 of the land fallow

§        This will allow the field to replace its nutrients (NO₂)

 

The Key of the Agricultural Revolution is to get rid of FALLOW

(Why? You are losing potential food)

 

·        How do you put nitrogen back in the soil without having fallow fields?

o       Manure

o       Clover

·        Why is Clover so important?

o       Here is where you remember the cow!

§        Cow eats the clover, digests the clover, passes the clover

§        With the help of the cow, Clover becomes

·        Labor

·        Fertilizer

·        Food

o       Clover = Your Friend and Mine