“The Seed Planter” During the Industrial Revolution, The seed drill was a significant discovery that allowed seeds to be planted in the ground rather than on the surface, where they would be blown away or devoured by animals. This technique dramatically enhanced food yields by merely planting seeds in the soil.
What made the seed drill such a significant innovation?
History 344 Cruel Families/Inventions/Seed Drill The Seed Drill was a groundbreaking device that was conceived by John Worlidge in 1699 and constructed and utilized by Jethro Tull in 1701 during the later Stuart Age. The seed drill was employed to assist an agricultural boom and ushered in a movement of scientific rationalism that would come to dominate the Industrial Revolution.
- Invention-wise, the seed drill functioned by churning the soils and dropping seeds into the ground, as opposed to doing it manually.
- Utilizing a seed drill that is drawn by livestock.
- This technology was significantly more efficient than performing the activity manually, since it enabled work to be completed more quickly, on a greater scale, and with less reliance on manpower.
These variables led to an increase in profit as well as a reduction in the time and labor needed to expand agriculture. At the time, sources harshly attacked Tull for this innovation. This resulted from the separation of labor and work, which diminished the labor force due to the capacity of machines to perform the same tasks as many laborers.
Although Tull was attacked and dubbed a quack for his ideas, they provided the basis for contemporary automated agriculture.
- “Tull, Jethro,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, January 2012 edition, s.v.
- The Guardian, Roger Redfern, “Sowing Seeds of a Farming Revolution: Discoveries and the People Behind Them, Jethro Tull (1674-1740),” Sowing Seeds of a Farming Revolution: Discoveries and the People Behind Them, Jethro Tull (1674-17 (June 1993).
- History of Soil Science and Geology, vol.18, Laura Sayre, “The Pre-History of Soil Science: Jethro Tull, The Invention of the Seed Drill, and the Foundations of Modern Agriculture”
History 344: Cruel Families/Inventions/Seed Drill
Was the seed planter significant?
A seed drill is an agricultural implement that sows crop seeds by placing them in the soil and burying them to a predetermined depth while being pulled by a tractor. This ensures that seeds are evenly distributed. The seed drill ensures that the seeds are covered with soil by sowing them at the correct pace and depth.
- This prevents them from being eaten by birds and animals or dried up by sun exposure.
- With the use of seed drill machines, seeds are disseminated in rows, allowing plants to receive adequate sunshine, nutrients, and water.
- Prior to the invention of the seed drill, the majority of seeds were planted by hand using a procedure that was inaccurate, costly, and inefficient, resulting in poor seed dispersal and low production.
The use of a seed drill can increase crop output by as much as ninefold (seeds collected per seed sown). Utilizing a seed drill saves time and effort. Some machines that dispense seeds for planting are known as planters. Ancient Chinese practice inspired the development of devices that pick up seeds from a bin and deposit them into a tube.
Seed drills in earlier ages included single-tube seed drills in Sumer and multi-tube seed drills in China, as well as a seed drill by Jethro Tull that had a significant impact on the development of agricultural technology in recent decades. Even a century after Tull, grain planting by hand remained prevalent.
Numerous seed drills consist of a hopper filled with seeds positioned atop a series of tubes that may be placed at specific distances apart to allow for optimal plant development. A geared drive from one of the drill’s land wheels rotates fluted paddles that are used to space out the seeds.
Changing gear ratios modifies the rate of sowing. Most current drills use air to transport seeds from the seed hopper to the colters in plastic tubes. This configuration permits seed drills to be significantly broader than the seed hopper, in some cases up to 12 m. The seed is metered mechanically into an air stream formed by a hydraulically driven onboard fan and initially sent to a distribution head that subdivides the seed into the pipes transporting the seed to the various colters.
Before a conventional seed drill can be used, the soil must be plowed and harrowed to soften it enough to allow the seeds to be placed at the proper depth and to create a good “seedbed” that provides the ideal combination of moisture, stability, space, and air for seed germination and root development.
- The plow loosens the soil, while the harrow smooths it and separates any clumps.
- Before drilling, if the soil is not so compacted as to necessitate a plow, it can also be tilled using less profoundly damaging instruments.
- Direct” refers to sowing into narrow rows opened by single teeth put in front of each seed-dispensing tube, straight into/ between the partially decayed leftovers (stubble) of the previous crop (directly into an untilled field).
The drill must be adjusted to accommodate the seed size. Following this, the grain is placed in the hopper at the top, from which the seed grains flow downward into the drill, which plants and spacing the seed. This technique is still in use, but it has been upgraded and improved in various ways throughout time; the most obvious example is the broad machines that allow a single farmer to plant many rows of seed simultaneously.
