1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,680 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. After this week's episode on the Swing Riots, 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:08,840 Speaker 1: we are staying in the world of British agriculture today 3 00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:12,719 Speaker 1: for Today's Saturday Classic. It is our episode on Jethro Tull, 4 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:17,800 Speaker 1: most well known for creating a seed drill. This episode 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:22,439 Speaker 1: talks more about the long term impact of mechanization and 6 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:27,320 Speaker 1: the British agricultural Revolution, rather than the immediate impacts. 7 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 2: On farm workers in the short term. 8 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: Which is what we talked about more in the Swing 9 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: Riots episode. The big exception is Tull's own workers, who 10 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:41,199 Speaker 1: he very obviously wanted to replace with machines. This episode, 11 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: which is very fun in many ways, originally came out 12 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:50,120 Speaker 1: on December twenty second, twenty twenty one. Enjoy Welcome to 13 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. 14 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 2: Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. 15 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:07,399 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. My comfort TV viewing lately 16 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:11,000 Speaker 1: has been those BBC historic farm shows that came out 17 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: in the two thousands and the twenty teens. I haven't 18 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: actually seen the first one, which is called Tales from 19 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,000 Speaker 1: the Green Valley. I'm not sure if that's streaming anywhere, 20 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: but I have made my way through Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, 21 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,839 Speaker 1: Wartime Farm, and Tudor Monastery Farm. If you've never seen these, 22 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: they are filmed over a year at a living history site. 23 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:33,920 Speaker 1: There's a historian named Ruth Goodman and then archaeologist. They 24 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:36,960 Speaker 1: started out with Peter Ginn and Alex Langlan's and then 25 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 1: Tom Pinfeld replaced Alex in Tudor Monastery Farm. So in 26 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:44,240 Speaker 1: each of these series they try to recreate what life 27 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 1: was like for British farmers at a particular place in time, 28 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 1: and they have been like my downtime viewing for the 29 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: past little stretch. 30 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 2: So watching these. 31 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: In the order that they came out means that I 32 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: had seen a lot of fields being planted us a 33 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: seed drill, which is a machine that digs a place 34 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: for the seeds to grow and it drops the seeds 35 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: into that place and then it covers them up. And 36 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:12,239 Speaker 1: then I got to Tudor Monastery Farm, which is set 37 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:16,639 Speaker 1: before the seed drill was used in Britain, and there's 38 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: this whole scene where Peter and Tom are getting ready 39 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: to sow their seeds by manual broadcasting, which just means 40 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: flinging them out by hand into the field. And the 41 00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: narrator says something about how this is how it was 42 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:35,520 Speaker 1: done before Jethro Tull invented the seed drill, And I 43 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:39,240 Speaker 1: had one of those record scratch mental moments because I 44 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: think of Jethro Tull as. 45 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 2: The name of a band, and while I probably. 46 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,360 Speaker 1: Assumed that this band was named for a person, I 47 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:55,040 Speaker 1: definitely did not recall that the person was an eighteenth 48 00:02:55,080 --> 00:03:00,240 Speaker 1: century gentleman farmer often credited with inventing the seed drill. Well, 49 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,160 Speaker 1: so that became what I had to do a podcast 50 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: on next. He could or could not play the jazz flute. 51 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 2: We don't know. 52 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: We actually don't know Jethro Tull's birth date, but he 53 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:19,359 Speaker 1: was baptized on March thirtieth, sixteen seventy four in Basilton, Berkshire, England. 54 00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: His parents were Dorothy and Jethro Tull, and they were 55 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,240 Speaker 1: an established farming family, but not a wealthy one. 56 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 2: In fact, the. 57 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: Greater Tull family had a range of legal and financial problems, 58 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: some of them connected to their work as land agents 59 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 1: for other people. The elder Jethro Tull also had an 60 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: uncle who was also named Jethro Tull. This other Jethro 61 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: Tull was married to a woman named Mary, and at 62 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: various points Jethrow, husband of Dorothy, and Jethrow, husband of Mary, 63 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: transferred lands to one another as they tried to keep 64 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: it from being seized in legal action or as payment 65 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 1: for a debt. It is all a confusing enough tangle 66 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 1: that some early biographies thought that these two older Jethro 67 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: Tulls were the same person, and a paper that I 68 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: read that tried to sort all of this out used 69 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 1: Roman numerals to differentiate them, even though they were not 70 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:17,159 Speaker 1: really Jethro Tell. 71 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:18,719 Speaker 2: The first, second and third. 72 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:24,159 Speaker 1: Uh. The agriculturist Jethro Tell, that is, the Jethro Tell 73 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,800 Speaker 1: who this episode is about, did not disclose very much 74 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,040 Speaker 1: about his personal life after becoming very well known for 75 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: his farming methods. Some of this is probably connected to 76 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,479 Speaker 1: his family history. All those debts and lawsuits would have 77 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: been embarrassing, and they also kind of left him on 78 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:45,279 Speaker 1: financially shaky ground. He also got a lot of criticism, 79 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: which we will get to, which seems to have made 80 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,719 Speaker 1: him just reluctant to talk about himself. So what we 81 00:04:50,839 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: know about his life is mostly pieced together from his writing. 82 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: Jethro Tull attended Saint John's College, Oxford, but there's no 83 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:02,839 Speaker 1: evidence that he earned a degree that In sixteen ninety 84 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:05,719 Speaker 1: three he was admitted as a student at Gray's Inn, 85 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:08,920 Speaker 1: which is one of the four inns of court in London. 86 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:12,279 Speaker 1: He was going to study law. This was in preparation 87 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: for a career in politics, but his family's legal and 88 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: debt drama combined with his own chronic illness to derail 89 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 1: that plan. As is often the case with historical figures, 90 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: we don't know the details of his illness, but it's 91 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: often described as a respiratory disorder, possibly tuberculosis. Tull was 92 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: called to the bar in sixteen ninety nine, but rather 93 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: than practicing law, he started working on one of the 94 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: Tolls farms in Oxfordshire. He also got married that year 95 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:44,839 Speaker 1: to a woman named Susannah Smith on October twenty sixth. 96 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: The pair would go on to have five children, four 97 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: daughters and one son. Although Jethro Tull is most associated 98 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 1: with the seed drill, his methods went beyond just using 99 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:00,839 Speaker 1: a machine to plant seeds instead of broadcasting them by hand. 100 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,599 Speaker 1: Francis Forbes was a follower of Tull's reforms, and here's 101 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:11,039 Speaker 1: how he described the quote old husbandry pre Tull. This 102 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:15,320 Speaker 1: is from the extensive practice of the new husbandry exemplified 103 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:17,800 Speaker 1: on different sorts of land for a course of years, 104 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:20,679 Speaker 1: in which the various methods of plowing, hoeing, in every 105 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:24,159 Speaker 1: other process and agriculture recommended by mister Tull et cetera 106 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:29,680 Speaker 1: are considered. Forbes published that in seventeen eighty six he wrote, 107 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: quote in the old husbandry, the tillage, namely the plowing 108 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:38,360 Speaker 1: and harrowing is done first, the plowing to open the land, 109 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:41,320 Speaker 1: and the harrowing to make it fine and get out 110 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: the weeds. Dung or other manure is then spread upon 111 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:49,160 Speaker 1: the land which is plowed in, and then the seed 112 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:52,159 Speaker 1: as of wheat or other corn, is sown by hand 113 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:57,160 Speaker 1: broadcast which is covered by the plow or harrow Nothing 114 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: more is usually done till harvest, except wheat when the 115 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: weeds are grown up pretty large. A lot of these 116 00:07:04,160 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: basic steps had been documented in Virgil's Georgics, which were 117 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:11,240 Speaker 1: written in the first century BCE, and that is a 118 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: very long, multi volume work of verse that praised the 119 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:18,960 Speaker 1: agricultural life of rural Italy and also offered instruction on 120 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: subjects like planting and tending fields. And orchards, keeping bees, 121 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:27,440 Speaker 1: and raising livestock. It was definitely a didactic work, but 122 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 1: there was debate over the centuries about whether Virgil had 123 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: really intended it as a step by step set of 124 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:38,320 Speaker 1: instructions for agriculture. Regardless, by the time Tull started farming, 125 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:42,080 Speaker 1: a lot of Virgil's poetic recommendations were being taken for 126 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:45,440 Speaker 1: granted as the right way to farm. They had been 127 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: incorporated into other farming and agricultural manuals. In addition to 128 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 1: the application of manure that Forbes mentioned, there was also 129 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: the burning of the stubble that was left on the 130 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:59,040 Speaker 1: field at the end of the harvest, and allowing the 131 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:03,600 Speaker 1: land to pureeriodically life fallow. It was, in Toll's words, 132 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: quote accident, not choice that made me a farmer, or 133 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 1: rather many accidents which could not then possibly be foreseen. 134 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,520 Speaker 1: Those many accidents meant that he had a farm that 135 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:17,680 Speaker 1: quote I could not well dispose of. And it being 136 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:21,360 Speaker 1: about the time when plow servants first began to exalt 137 00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 1: their dominion over their masters, so that a gentleman farmer 138 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: was allowed to make but little profit of his arable lands, 139 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:32,000 Speaker 1: and almost all mine being of that sort, I resolved 140 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,920 Speaker 1: to plant my whole farm with Saint Foin. If you 141 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,319 Speaker 1: think that he sounds a little resentful of his workers 142 00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:44,360 Speaker 1: in this passage, you're correct. He seems to have resented 143 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:49,000 Speaker 1: needing to hire people to do anything. So san Foyn 144 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,960 Speaker 1: is a legume that was grown for forage, and at 145 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:56,199 Speaker 1: this point Sanfoyn's seed was almost exclusively important to England, 146 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: and this made it expensive and kind of hard to get. 147 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:02,480 Speaker 1: And in Tull's experience, once a farmer did get it, 148 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:06,240 Speaker 1: a lot of it just did not sprout. So Tall 149 00:09:06,320 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: started trying to figure out how to get the biggest 150 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: result out of the smallest amount of seed, including examining 151 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 1: how deeply the seeds should be planted and how much 152 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,920 Speaker 1: room they needed to grow. He later wrote, quote, I 153 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: observed in several fields of same foins sown with that 154 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:25,960 Speaker 1: proportion of seed that in those parts of them which 155 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,319 Speaker 1: produced the best crop there was, as I counted them 156 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: when the crop was taken off, but about one plant 157 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 1: for each square foot of surface. And yet the number 158 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:39,600 Speaker 1: of seeds in seven bushels sown on each acre being calculated, 159 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:43,160 Speaker 1: amounted to one hundred and forty to each square foot. 160 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:46,880 Speaker 1: And what was yet more observable in other parts of 161 00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:49,760 Speaker 1: the same fields, where a much less number of seeds 162 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: had miscarried, the crop was less. Then after I had 163 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:57,640 Speaker 1: learned perfectly how to distinguish good seeds from bad, and 164 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: had by many trials found that s scarce any even 165 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 1: of the best, would succeed unless covered at a certain depth, 166 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 1: especially in my strong land. In other words, rather than 167 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:15,640 Speaker 1: throwing large numbers of seeds to land randomly, Tull wanted 168 00:10:15,679 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 1: to take a more controlled approach, with fewer seeds sorted 169 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:22,560 Speaker 1: to include only the best ones. I mean, it seemed like, 170 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Speaker 1: based on how much seed people were using and where 171 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: the plants are growing the best, they were using like 172 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:30,679 Speaker 1: one hundred and forty times more seeds than was necessary. 173 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:36,199 Speaker 1: So to try to make this whole process more controlled quote, 174 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:40,400 Speaker 1: I employed people to make channels and sow a very 175 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:45,840 Speaker 1: small proportion therein and cover it exactly. This way succeeded 176 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: to my desire, and was in seed and labor but 177 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:51,760 Speaker 1: a fourth part of the expense of the common way. 178 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:55,480 Speaker 1: And yet the ground of seed was better planted ten 179 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:59,200 Speaker 1: acres being so well done, I did not doubt, but 180 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: a thousand and might have been as well done in 181 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:06,560 Speaker 1: the same manner. This sounds like a success. But the 182 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,360 Speaker 1: next season, when Tull instructed his workers to once again 183 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,600 Speaker 1: make channels and carefully sow the seeds in them quote, 184 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,240 Speaker 1: I discovered that these people had conspired to disappoint me 185 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:21,680 Speaker 1: for the future and never to plant a row tolerably well. Again, 186 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 1: perhaps jealous that if a great quantity of land should 187 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:28,800 Speaker 1: be taken from the plow, it might prove a diminution 188 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: of their power, I was forced to dismiss my laborers, 189 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:36,120 Speaker 1: resolving to quit my scheme unless I could contrive an 190 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:40,000 Speaker 1: engine to plant sane foiin more faithfully than such hands 191 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: would do. In other words, Jethrotol concluded that his workers 192 00:11:44,679 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: were doing a bad job just despite him, so he 193 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,360 Speaker 1: fired them and decided he would make a machine to 194 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:55,559 Speaker 1: sow his sane foin seed instead. We will talk more 195 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: about that after a sponsor break. Jeffro Tull was not 196 00:12:08,640 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 1: the first person to try to use some kind of 197 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:14,680 Speaker 1: a tool or a machine to plant his crops. I 198 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:17,680 Speaker 1: should also note, like we're talking about ways to sew 199 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,760 Speaker 1: large fields of one crop, not like a little garden, 200 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:24,000 Speaker 1: like a little kitchen garden where you would have a 201 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: couple of rows of different things, like things that require 202 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:31,800 Speaker 1: lots of seeds. Basic tools like planting sticks used to 203 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,480 Speaker 1: prepare the soil and plant the seeds and dig out 204 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:37,920 Speaker 1: root crops. Those have existed around the world for millennia. 205 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:42,160 Speaker 1: There's evidence of early seed drills in China as far 206 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:44,880 Speaker 1: back as the second century, but it is not clear 207 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: when or whether those might have been introduced into Europe. 208 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:52,960 Speaker 1: The first setting boards, which used spaced holes to distribute 209 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 1: the seeds more evenly, those day back to at least 210 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:59,840 Speaker 1: sixteen oh one. John Worlidge included a design for a 211 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 1: seed drill in his systema Agriculture in sixteen ninety nine, 212 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:06,880 Speaker 1: but it doesn't appear that he ever actually managed to 213 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 1: build a working model. The same is true for several 214 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 1: seed drill designs that were patented in various parts of 215 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:17,920 Speaker 1: Europe in the late seventeenth century. When Tull decided to 216 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: contrive an engine to plant his same fin, he thought 217 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:24,640 Speaker 1: about other devices that he was already familiar with, writing quote, 218 00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:27,559 Speaker 1: when I was young, my diversion was music. I had 219 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: also the curiosity to acquaint myself thoroughly with the fabric 220 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,360 Speaker 1: of every part of my organ But as little thinking 221 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:37,439 Speaker 1: that ever, I should take from thence the first rudiments 222 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:42,000 Speaker 1: of a drill. After dismissing his workers for not sowing 223 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:46,439 Speaker 1: the seeds. To his satisfaction, Tull quote examined and compared 224 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:50,199 Speaker 1: all the mechanical ideas that had ever entered my imagination, 225 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:54,480 Speaker 1: and at last pitched upon a groove, tongue, and spring 226 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:58,680 Speaker 1: in the soundboard of the organ. With these a little altered, 227 00:13:58,760 --> 00:14:02,160 Speaker 1: and some parts of two other instruments as far into 228 00:14:02,240 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: the field as the organ is added to them, I 229 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: composed my machine. It was named a drill because when 230 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: farmers used to sew their beans and peas into channels 231 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:16,000 Speaker 1: or furrows by hand, they called that action drilling. Tull 232 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 1: first used this machine in seventeen oh one, and, as 233 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 1: he wrote decades later, quote it planted that far much 234 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,080 Speaker 1: better than hands could have done, and many hundred acres besides, 235 00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:31,640 Speaker 1: and thirty years experience shows that same foiin thus planted 236 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:36,200 Speaker 1: brings better crops and lasteth longer than sown same foiin. 237 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:40,240 Speaker 1: So this device had a grooved, rotating cylinder that would 238 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 1: carry the seeds from a hopper above to a funnel underneath. 239 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: The cylinder was also the axle for the drill's wheels, 240 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: so it turned as the wheels did. There was a 241 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:53,960 Speaker 1: plow toward the front of the drill that created a 242 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:56,120 Speaker 1: channel for the seeds to drop into, and then there 243 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:58,520 Speaker 1: was a harrow in the back of the drill and 244 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:01,680 Speaker 1: that covered the seeds up. So this meant that the 245 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: seeds were dropped in a straight line to do a 246 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:07,560 Speaker 1: specific depth, and then covered all at once, as long 247 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: as your horse was going in a straight line while 248 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:14,560 Speaker 1: pulling it. So, in Tull's words, his drill did this 249 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: quote with great exactness and expedition. Tall made various refinements 250 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: to the device itself and how it was used, ultimately 251 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:26,040 Speaker 1: ending up with a process in which two or three 252 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:29,600 Speaker 1: rows of plants were planted between eight and ten inches apart. 253 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:32,880 Speaker 1: Those two or three rows were on ridges that were 254 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 1: four to six feet apart, leaving enough room for a 255 00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: horse to walk down on the field without trampling anything. 256 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,360 Speaker 1: In Tull's mind, this was just a huge improvement over 257 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:48,280 Speaker 1: manually broadcasting seeds. Even if somebody was pretty good at 258 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:51,880 Speaker 1: scattering seeds by hand, there was typically too much seed 259 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,000 Speaker 1: in some places and too little in others. If the 260 00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:58,680 Speaker 1: field was furrowed ahead of time to accommodate the seeds. 261 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: Some of the seeds landed in the furrows, but other 262 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: ones didn't. Seed that was too deep in the soil 263 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:07,640 Speaker 1: might not grow as well, and if it was too shallow, 264 00:16:07,720 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: it was more likely to be eaten by birds. Planting 265 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: in rows also made it easier to get into the 266 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,880 Speaker 1: field to check on the crop and to remove weeds 267 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: and to harvest, and as Tull noted, a field that 268 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: was fully planted with this method required far fewer seeds 269 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,800 Speaker 1: than manual broadcasting did. But other farmers who saw what 270 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: he was doing, a lot of them thought he was 271 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:34,720 Speaker 1: letting a lot of plantsable land go to waste by 272 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:38,160 Speaker 1: leaving these four to six foot gaps in between his rows. 273 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:42,040 Speaker 1: Tull farmed in Oxfordshire for about ten years before moving 274 00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: to Prosperous Farm in Shelbourne, Berkshire, which was another farm 275 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: that had been in the Tall family, and sometime in 276 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: the early seventeen teens he traveled to Italy and France 277 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,440 Speaker 1: for the sake of his health. He returned to England 278 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: after somewhere between two and four years, but these dates 279 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:01,720 Speaker 1: are again unclear, with the only clue to try to 280 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,520 Speaker 1: pin it down being the baptism of his daughter Sarah 281 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: in October of seventeen thirteen. Something that Tull noticed while 282 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:13,240 Speaker 1: in Italy and France was how carefully the vineyards were 283 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,159 Speaker 1: planted and managed. The soil in between the rose was 284 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,120 Speaker 1: carefully tilled to the point of being pulverized, and workers 285 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:25,800 Speaker 1: meticulously hoed the earth around the plants as well. Tall 286 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:30,400 Speaker 1: came to the conclusion that this pulverized soil was providing 287 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: more nutrients to the plants. Basically, he thought that the 288 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:40,280 Speaker 1: soil itself, tiny tiny particles of soil were what the 289 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:44,320 Speaker 1: plants were eating through what he called lacteal mouths on 290 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: their roots. He decided that soil and only soil was 291 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,000 Speaker 1: what plants needed to survive, not something in the soil, 292 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:57,200 Speaker 1: not water, not air, not sunlight, just very very finely 293 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:01,359 Speaker 1: tilled soil, and his mind the roll of water, and 294 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:06,080 Speaker 1: this equation was to carry the tiny soil particles closer 295 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:10,359 Speaker 1: to those lacteal mouths. The cartoon that has formed in 296 00:18:10,400 --> 00:18:14,479 Speaker 1: my head is so delightful right now. Tall decided to 297 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:18,359 Speaker 1: try pulverizing the soil around his crops at Prosperous Farm, 298 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 1: where much of the land was relatively shallow and chalky. 299 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: He developed a horse drawn plow for this purpose, using 300 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,920 Speaker 1: it in that gap between his rose while workers manually 301 00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:33,120 Speaker 1: hoed the soil around the plants themselves. He thought new 302 00:18:33,240 --> 00:18:36,040 Speaker 1: roots had more mouths than old roots, so if a 303 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:39,480 Speaker 1: plant's roots were broken by all this hoeing, that was okay. 304 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: It just meant new roots would grow in to replace them, 305 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:47,399 Speaker 1: complete with more mouths. Tull tried this method on several 306 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:51,120 Speaker 1: different crops at his farm, including turnips, potatoes, and wheat, 307 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:54,919 Speaker 1: and he reported that it was enormously successful in terms 308 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:58,840 Speaker 1: of efficiency and yield, and as a bonus, it allowed 309 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,560 Speaker 1: him to replace some of it higher paid workers with 310 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:04,080 Speaker 1: women and children who he could pay a lot less 311 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:08,360 Speaker 1: since their jobs mostly involved moving clods of dirt out 312 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:10,080 Speaker 1: of the way if they fell in a bad spot 313 00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:14,960 Speaker 1: after plowing. And in his opinion, this method eliminated the 314 00:19:15,080 --> 00:19:19,120 Speaker 1: need for manure, something he was extremely pleased about since 315 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:23,280 Speaker 1: he thought manure spread weeds. He claimed that this method 316 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:25,560 Speaker 1: allowed him to grow wheat in the same field for 317 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: thirteen years without using manure or allowing the soil to 318 00:19:29,359 --> 00:19:33,120 Speaker 1: lie fallow. He said, quote the finer land is made 319 00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: by tillage. The richer will it become and the more 320 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:40,200 Speaker 1: plants will it maintain? Or more briefly, tillage is manure, 321 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,960 Speaker 1: so to be fair, the details about how plants grew 322 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:48,639 Speaker 1: and what it took to nourish them were poorly understood 323 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: in Britain at this point. All around the world for 324 00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:56,040 Speaker 1: the whole history of agriculture, people had been using techniques 325 00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:00,320 Speaker 1: like crop rotation, planting different types of plants to together, 326 00:20:00,840 --> 00:20:04,120 Speaker 1: and using things like manure, urine, fish parts, and other 327 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:08,600 Speaker 1: materials to restore the soil. But while people knew that 328 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:12,080 Speaker 1: these steps usually led to a better harvest, they didn't 329 00:20:12,119 --> 00:20:16,320 Speaker 1: know why they worked exactly. Today we understand that specific 330 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:22,040 Speaker 1: nutrients are critical to plant growth, especially phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen, 331 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:27,320 Speaker 1: but when Tull was farming, only phosphorus had even been discovered. 332 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:32,840 Speaker 1: Europeans also only had a partial understanding of photosynthesis, and 333 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:36,160 Speaker 1: as we noted earlier, a lot of the conventional farming 334 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,879 Speaker 1: wisdom was drawn from Virgil that was more than seventeen 335 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:43,680 Speaker 1: hundred years old. That doesn't mean it was necessarily bad. 336 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:47,160 Speaker 1: It's just been around for a really long time. Did 337 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 1: not have the benefit of newly developed ideas and discoveries right. 338 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,360 Speaker 1: But even with all of that in mind, Tull's ideas 339 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: about plants being better able to consume very fine particles 340 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,119 Speaker 1: of pulverized soil oil, we're just not correct. His intensive 341 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:06,439 Speaker 1: hoeing definitely helped remove weeds that would have competed with 342 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,960 Speaker 1: his crops for nutrients, and it probably allowed water to 343 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:13,919 Speaker 1: penetrate more easily, especially of rainfall and dew. Meant that 344 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:17,240 Speaker 1: that soil never totally dried out, But he was not 345 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:20,720 Speaker 1: making it easier for plants to take in soil particles 346 00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 1: through these tiny theoretical root mouths, and hoeing definitely did 347 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:28,440 Speaker 1: not take the place of replenishing the soil's nutrients with 348 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: something like manure. Yeah, I think a big reason that 349 00:21:32,119 --> 00:21:34,160 Speaker 1: he was able to make that thirteen years of wheat 350 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,040 Speaker 1: in the same field number one. We're taking his word 351 00:21:36,119 --> 00:21:39,199 Speaker 1: on that, right, But it was still as great in 352 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:41,919 Speaker 1: year thirteen as it had been in year one. But 353 00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:43,919 Speaker 1: the fact that he had these big spaces in his 354 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:46,680 Speaker 1: rows probably meant that the soil was not being exhausted 355 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:48,800 Speaker 1: as it would have been if it had been packed 356 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: more tightly together with plants. In seventeen thirty one, Tell 357 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 1: published some of his ideas in a work called The 358 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,960 Speaker 1: New horse Hoeing Husbandry, or an Essay on the print 359 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,520 Speaker 1: Sciples of Tillage and Vegetation, wherein is shown a method 360 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:07,440 Speaker 1: of introducing a sort of vineyard culture into the cornfields. 361 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:10,679 Speaker 1: He called this a specimen. It was something that he 362 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:14,679 Speaker 1: planned to expand on in a longer work. Tell nearly 363 00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,160 Speaker 1: abandoned this plan after a plagiarized version of his essay 364 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: showed up not long after. He claimed his was the 365 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,840 Speaker 1: first book on agriculture ever to be so pirated, But regardless, 366 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,800 Speaker 1: his friends encouraged him to continue on, and in seventeen 367 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:32,679 Speaker 1: thirty three he published the much longer The horse Hoeing Husbandry, 368 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: or an Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation, 369 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 1: designed to introduce a new method of culture whereby the 370 00:22:39,640 --> 00:22:43,080 Speaker 1: produce of land will be increased and the usual expense lessened, 371 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:47,119 Speaker 1: together with accurate descriptions and cuts of the instruments employed 372 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:52,280 Speaker 1: in it. Not everybody was happy about this. We will 373 00:22:52,320 --> 00:23:05,119 Speaker 1: talk about it after a sponsor break. Jeffro Tull's book 374 00:23:05,240 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: The horse Hoeing Husbandry explained his process for planting and 375 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:12,680 Speaker 1: hoeing the fields and his reasoning behind it. It included 376 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,879 Speaker 1: diagrams of the equipment that a farmer would need for 377 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:19,119 Speaker 1: such an enterprise, with explanations of what the parts of 378 00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:22,560 Speaker 1: those machines did and how they worked. There were different 379 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,160 Speaker 1: seed drills for different types of crops, plus horse drawn 380 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,399 Speaker 1: hoes and other tools, all of his design. This on 381 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,119 Speaker 1: its own would have caused at least some controversy. The 382 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 1: upfront costs for equipment would have been significant, especially since 383 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,960 Speaker 1: manufacturing methods had not progressed to the point that things 384 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,920 Speaker 1: like this could really be mass produced. You would need 385 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: experienced crafts people who could build the machines mostly from scratch. 386 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:51,520 Speaker 1: Plus a lot of farmers still found that six foot 387 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:56,480 Speaker 1: gap between rows to just be incredibly wasteful. Beyond all that, though, 388 00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:59,919 Speaker 1: Tull also took the time in his book to criticize 389 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:04,840 Speaker 1: existing farming practices, which he framed as old husbandry or 390 00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:09,320 Speaker 1: even bad husbandry. His own method was the New husbandry 391 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,399 Speaker 1: or the Good husbandry, and at times he took aim 392 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:17,320 Speaker 1: directly at Virgil, criticizing Virgil's recommendations for how to do 393 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 1: things like plow, burn and till. The land gardner and 394 00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:25,240 Speaker 1: nurseryman Stephen Switzer was particularly outraged by all of this, 395 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,520 Speaker 1: It's possible that at least some of his outrage stemmed 396 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: from the fact that part of his income came from 397 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:35,240 Speaker 1: selling seeds, so if everyone started using methods that required 398 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,640 Speaker 1: just a fraction of their normal seed purchases, that would 399 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,280 Speaker 1: damage his business. But he also seems to have been 400 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,960 Speaker 1: incensed on principle, seeing Virgil's work as the foundation of 401 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,000 Speaker 1: good husbandry that had quote stood the test of so 402 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:53,120 Speaker 1: many ages, and probably seeing Virgil himself as a man 403 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,320 Speaker 1: who should not have to face this kind of insolence. 404 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:02,520 Speaker 1: So Switzer established a private society of Husbandmen and Planters 405 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: in opposition to Tull, although it's not clear how many 406 00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:10,879 Speaker 1: members there were besides Switzer, if any. He accused Tull 407 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:15,680 Speaker 1: of plagiarizing John Worlidge as well as earlier agricultural writers. 408 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:19,359 Speaker 1: Switzer also pointed out specific flaws that he saw in 409 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:24,080 Speaker 1: Tull's ideas. For example, it was quote ridiculous to affirm 410 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: that one in the same culture and one in the 411 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:30,720 Speaker 1: same kind of manure is common to all sorts of land. 412 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:34,760 Speaker 1: Switzer even accused Tull of being an atheist. Oh the 413 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:40,760 Speaker 1: very worst. Switzer published Practical Husbandman and Planter, or Observations 414 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:44,480 Speaker 1: on the Ancient and Modern Husbandry, Planting and Gardening over 415 00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: a series of installments. These volumes lay out Switzer's ideas 416 00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,080 Speaker 1: of good husbandry, many of which were drawn from Virgil, 417 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:56,080 Speaker 1: and they directly criticized Tull's work as well as criticizing 418 00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 1: Tull as a person. Here is a sample quote. If 419 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,840 Speaker 1: known by their words, as a tree is by its fruit, 420 00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 1: there never was a man who has distinguished himself more 421 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,520 Speaker 1: than the author of the horse hoeing husbandry has. The 422 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,040 Speaker 1: deepest rivers are generally allowed to be the most silent, 423 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 1: and the greatest noise is ever found where there is 424 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,200 Speaker 1: the least depth of water. And it is the general 425 00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,359 Speaker 1: but true observation that those who are weakest in understanding 426 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,960 Speaker 1: are the strongest in opinion. This author has, by uttering 427 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,399 Speaker 1: his precipitate and crude conceptions, discovered himself to be little 428 00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,479 Speaker 1: better than the animal in the fable, who, putting on 429 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,880 Speaker 1: the lion's skin, terrified all the beasts of the forest, 430 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,400 Speaker 1: till by his voice they knew who he was. Had 431 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:49,440 Speaker 1: some very clear opinions about Jethrotel. So jethroat Al responded 432 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 1: to Switzer's many criticisms with a supplement to the Essay 433 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,840 Speaker 1: on horse Hoeing Husbandry in seventeen thirty six. This he 434 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: tried to refute Switzer point by point. He called the 435 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:06,240 Speaker 1: society of husbandmen and planters the equivocal society, or just equivocus. 436 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: This appeared in later editions of horse Hoeing Husbandry as 437 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:15,439 Speaker 1: Jethro Tull's supplement answering the objections of Equivocus in defense 438 00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:21,480 Speaker 1: of Virgil. Among his points, quote Equivocus falsely accuses Tull 439 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: of disrespect and not finding one useful truth in the Georgic. 440 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: By quoting falsely, Equivocus does not prove his case. I 441 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:32,600 Speaker 1: feel like these two men would have loved Twitter, but 442 00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,879 Speaker 1: that's it. I'm imagining like one of the like a 443 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:42,040 Speaker 1: tumbler fight wherever right well, just going on forever. Switzer 444 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,159 Speaker 1: was not, though, the only person Tull was not getting 445 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 1: along with Jethro's son, John, was extravagant in his spending, 446 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,840 Speaker 1: and his relationship to his family seems to have become strained. 447 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,040 Speaker 1: After Tull died on February twenty first, seventeen forty one, 448 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 1: at the age of sixty six, He left his property 449 00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,239 Speaker 1: to his sister in law and his daughters. But he 450 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:08,560 Speaker 1: left John only a shilling. John ultimately died in a 451 00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:13,960 Speaker 1: debtor's prison in seventeen sixty four. Jethroatell was widely read 452 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,119 Speaker 1: and hotly debated from the seventeen thirties until the end 453 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,280 Speaker 1: of his life in seventeen forty one, but after his 454 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,680 Speaker 1: death most of his techniques sort of fell out of 455 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:25,639 Speaker 1: favor for a time, at least in Britain. His work 456 00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,120 Speaker 1: was translated into French, although the French translations mostly focused 457 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,760 Speaker 1: on the techniques that were most demonstrably workable and not 458 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:36,800 Speaker 1: on the things that seemed a little more far fetched. 459 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:39,040 Speaker 2: The roots have mouths. 460 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,000 Speaker 1: Tull's legacy as a farmer is kind of a mixed bag. 461 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 2: In the words of th. H. 462 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 1: Marshall, writing in the Economic History Review in nineteen twenty nine, 463 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:52,360 Speaker 1: quote he had apparently first evolved his system of husbandry, 464 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: then invented a scientific theory to explain it, and finally 465 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 1: begun to study the literature of his subject. Overall, Marshall's 466 00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:06,360 Speaker 1: analysis of Tull's agricultural reforms it's not favorable, he wrote, 467 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:10,600 Speaker 1: Quote posterity is apt to be overkind to the inventor. 468 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: It remembers only those of his ideas which have been 469 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 1: incorporated in the life of the present, and forgets all 470 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:22,600 Speaker 1: those which time has rejected. It assumes that his mistakes 471 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,480 Speaker 1: and false notions were due to the ignorance of his age, 472 00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:31,920 Speaker 1: rather than to his own incompetence, and convicts of pusillanimity 473 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:36,520 Speaker 1: those of his contemporaries who hesitated to follow his inspiration, 474 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,600 Speaker 1: shedding his errors as they traveled onwards. And so it 475 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: is with Tull. But the picture is false. His mistakes 476 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: were not those of his age. The experts of his 477 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 1: day could and did denounce them as mistakes. The bad 478 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:56,000 Speaker 1: elements in his system were not merely traditions from the 479 00:29:56,120 --> 00:30:00,120 Speaker 1: past which he was not yet ready to throw aside. 480 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 2: They were new. 481 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:04,600 Speaker 1: He was asking men to make a revolution in order 482 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,600 Speaker 1: to adopt what was unsound. It is not surprising that 483 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: they hesitated. A lot of Tull's ideas were just wildly incorrect. 484 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,120 Speaker 1: But there were elements to his work that were useful 485 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,520 Speaker 1: and withstood the test of time, like developing ways to 486 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:24,479 Speaker 1: plant fields more uniformly and efficiently in wasting less seed. 487 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:28,440 Speaker 1: In seventeen sixty two, the London based Society for the 488 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and commerce established a metal for 489 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:35,880 Speaker 1: people who improved on the seed drill and who tested 490 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: methods of old and new husbandry to determine what worked 491 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,479 Speaker 1: best and what didn't. Tull was also part of what 492 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 1: came to be known as the agricultural revolution in Britain, 493 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: as people developed improved ways to prepare the soil, plants, tend, 494 00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:56,240 Speaker 1: and harvest. This ran alongside the enclosure movement, in which 495 00:30:56,360 --> 00:31:00,960 Speaker 1: previously common land was enclosed in fences and small farms 496 00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:04,320 Speaker 1: were consolidated into large estates that were controlled by one 497 00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:08,840 Speaker 1: wealthy landlord, often one who wanted very large fields of 498 00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,959 Speaker 1: a single crop to be sold for the best possible price. 499 00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:16,120 Speaker 1: Apart from changes in land use and animal husbandry, the 500 00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:20,200 Speaker 1: agricultural revolution was also connected to the development of machines 501 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:25,520 Speaker 1: like improved plows, cultivators, threshers, and tull seed drill. Through 502 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: all these developments, between seventeen hundred and eighteen seventy, British 503 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 1: farms became about four times more productive. This led to 504 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,040 Speaker 1: a drop in food prices and an increase in the 505 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: varieties of food available. Improvements in food preservation played a 506 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:44,840 Speaker 1: part in all of this as well. All this contributed 507 00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:49,120 Speaker 1: to an increasing in population. Just in the eighteenth century, 508 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,760 Speaker 1: the population of England and Wales almost doubled. We should 509 00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:57,680 Speaker 1: note that this increase in food production did not eliminate 510 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,040 Speaker 1: poverty or famine. Famine in Ireland, which we've covered in 511 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: a two part episode of the podcast, took place during 512 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:08,840 Speaker 1: this same time, but the issue in this famine was 513 00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,080 Speaker 1: not a lack of food. There was plenty of food 514 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,280 Speaker 1: being grown for export, but a blight killed the potato 515 00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 1: crop that Irish farmers were living off of while growing 516 00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,440 Speaker 1: other food to be sold, and the government's laissez faire 517 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,719 Speaker 1: approach to the crisis led to the food continuing to 518 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: be exported even as the people who were growing it 519 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:33,440 Speaker 1: were starving. Even as the agricultural revolution led to more 520 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:37,040 Speaker 1: and more food being grown in Britain's rural areas, more 521 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,560 Speaker 1: of its population moved into the cities because the time 522 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 1: and labor saving devices and methods that were being developed 523 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:47,200 Speaker 1: meant that farmers could do more with fewer workers. As 524 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:52,280 Speaker 1: the agricultural Revolution intersected with the Industrial Revolution, former rural 525 00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,120 Speaker 1: farm workers, many of whom had lost access to land 526 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,040 Speaker 1: they had been using after it was enclosed, started to 527 00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:02,520 Speaker 1: find jobs in urban factories, One of the biggest points 528 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:06,960 Speaker 1: of overlap between the agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution 529 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,840 Speaker 1: was the cotton gen patented by Eli Whitney in seventeen 530 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:15,280 Speaker 1: ninety four and totally shifting the cotton industry. The cotton 531 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:19,240 Speaker 1: gen made harvested cotton much easier to clean, which made 532 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: it more profitable to grow, which led growers to want 533 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:24,960 Speaker 1: to plant more of it, which created a demand for 534 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,640 Speaker 1: more and more enslaved workers in places like the American South, 535 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:32,840 Speaker 1: where cotton became a primary crop. Tull's planting methods for 536 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: efficiency purposes also fed into this process with cotton. As 537 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,040 Speaker 1: for Jethro Tull's most famous invention, the seed drill did 538 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:45,560 Speaker 1: not become a reliable or practical part of farming until 539 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:49,720 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, when improved manufacturing processes led to a 540 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:55,040 Speaker 1: model that was practical, affordable, and generally reliable. Wheelwright James 541 00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,080 Speaker 1: Smith of Suffolk developed a model along with his sons, 542 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,080 Speaker 1: which became known as the Suffolk Drill and was available 543 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,680 Speaker 1: for five pounds in eighteen fifty one. It could sew 544 00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 1: multiple rows at once with adjustable spacing between the rows, 545 00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,000 Speaker 1: and it had a manure box to apply manure at 546 00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:14,440 Speaker 1: the same time. The depth and rate of sewing were 547 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,360 Speaker 1: adjustable as well. These did not follow Toll's template of 548 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,120 Speaker 1: two to three rows in ridges four to six feet apart. 549 00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:25,920 Speaker 1: Many drilled ten to twelve rows of seeds at once. Yeah, 550 00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,719 Speaker 1: they're pretty cool to watch, which I was very much 551 00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 1: enjoying watching on all of these BBC Historic farm shows. 552 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,000 Speaker 1: I also enjoyed watching them throw their I think they 553 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,920 Speaker 1: were planting I think field peas when they were sowing 554 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,920 Speaker 1: the seeds by manually broadcasting them then leading me to 555 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:53,920 Speaker 1: just go down this whole Jethro Toll rabbit hole. Thanks 556 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:56,879 Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd 557 00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,360 Speaker 1: like to send us a note, our email addresses History 558 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,680 Speaker 1: Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe to 559 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,080 Speaker 1: the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 560 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:08,760 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows