Changes in Agriculture and Population
In the early 1700s, Europe's population was beginning to grow. In response. landowners began experimenting to increase food production. They tried new methods of managing their land to get more out of it. Inventors designed new machines that increased the productivity of land. Together these changes both raised production and reduced the number of people needed to work the land. That meant that many laborers were free to or were forced to find other types of work.
The Enclosure System
One new approach to agriculture, the enclosure system, brought about some of the earliest and most drastic changes. It was first widely practiced in the Netherlands during the 1600s. When British farmers heard about the benefits of the system, they too adopted it.
Open-Field System For centuries, Europeans farmed under the open-field system, in which a landowner's land was divided into small strips and one farm family might be able to use several strips that were separated from each other, mostly to raise food to eat. Traditionally, they would cultivate two out of three strips each year. They would leave the third one fallow, or unused, so it could restore its fertility.
The Commons In addition, the landlords might have land that was not good for growing crops. It might be too rocky, or too damp, or too wooded. By tradition, landowners allowed local farmers to graze livestock in these areas. These jointly used lands were called commons.
Specializing Production The small strips of land in the open-field system were not efficient. They did not supply the surplus of agricultural goods necessary to meet the demands of a broader market. Landlords began to combine these small plots and enclose them with a fence or a wall. They then hired some of the people who used to grow food for themselves to be their laborers, growing food the landowner could sell for a profit.
Further, the growing demand for food caused landowners to also enclose the commons. They removed the rocks from the meadows, drained the swampy land, or cut down the forests, and hired workers to grow food crops. Small farmers could no longer use the large landowner's land to plant their own crops. As a result, many went from being farmers in their own right to laborers on the landowners' properties.
Crop Rotation Farming changed from a way to provide food for farming families to a business raising crops to sell. As it did, landowners looked for new
ways to increase their profits.
One way was to make each plot of land more productive. In the 1730s, Charles Townshend, an English nobleman, presented a new idea. He argued that none of the fields had to be kept fallow. They could be planted with turnips and clover. These plants return to the soil the nutrients that wheat and barley take from it. The turnips and clover could then be used for animal feed during the winter. Instead of killing many of their lambs and calves in the autumn, farmers could instead keep them to provide milk and wool year-round.
Landowners who used the enclosure system no longer grew a variety of crops to meet the needs of their workers. They could, therefore, respond more easily to changes in the market. They were able to plant all their fields with grain when prices for grain were high or use their fields as pastures when animal products brought better prices.
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Read Closely: Plausible Claim The text indicates that because of innovation in agriculture, farmers were able to raise cattle and sheep year-round. What impact could that change have made on the health of farm families?
written like a 8th grader and short