tenant‐held capitalist farms was also deemed important (see ENCLOSURE).
The original conception was challenged. Earlier revolutions were proposed: 1560–1650, which saw innovations such as ‘convertible husbandry’ (alternating land use between cultivation and pasture) and irrigated meadows; or 1650–1760, when new crop rotations were spreading and CAPITALISM was influential. Though output growth is difficult to quantify, the original proposal has remained persuasive because farming became based on large units of production (farms) employing a workforce of labourers, and agriculture supported an expanding industrial sector. Developments are sometimes seen as culminating in a ‘Second Agricultural Revolution’ of so‐called HIGH FARMING (from 1840s). The Revolution also affected parts of Scotland and Wales but had little impact in Ireland. From 1945 far greater increases in productivity were obtained by mechanization, intensive use of chemicals, new strains of plants and improved animal breeds.
AGRICULTURE, ENGLAND BEFORE MID 18TH CENTURY
In the 5th–6th centuries, GERMANIC IMMIGRATON made no observable differences to agricultural practices. Livestock rearing, especially of cattle, was important. Sufficient cereals were grown for domestic needs and élites. Changes in the 8th–9th centuries included increasing arable cultivation, larger fields, and more sheep‐ and pig‐keeping. Possibly in the 9th–10th centuries, extensive open fields emerged, associated with villages, mainly in a ‘central region’ (NE England across Midlands to S coast), though chronology and causation are obscure. Elsewhere, small fields remained normal.
By the 12th century, open‐field agricultural systems were well developed, regulated by lords’ manorial courts (see MANOR). They typically comprised two or three fields divided into ‘selions’ (strips of land). ‘Mixed farming’ was practised, whereby crops were grown (variously barley, wheat, oats, rye, peas, beans) and sheep kept for manure (as well as wool). One field was annually left fallow for manuring. Upland areas were dominated by livestock. In the 12th–13th centuries, agriculture was stimulated by commercialization and POPULATION increase. Population decline from the mid 14th century, and increased labour costs, eventually caused contraction of arable farming and (in 15th century) widespread sheep grazing on permanent pasture (see ENCLOSURE). Many tenants acquired larger holdings (origin of ‘yeoman farmers’).
Re‐expanding population from the 16th century increased demand for grain. Arable farming was extended, and yields were increased by more intensive manuring and ‘convertible husbandry’ (alternating periods of cultivation and pasture). Irrigation of meadows in southern England (from early 17th century) increased hay production for livestock. When population stagnated in the later 17th century, grain prices and profitability fell (despite the CORN LAWS), enabling landlords to buy farmers’ lands or introduce shorter leases. Livestock rearing increased, facilitated by new crop rotations involving nitrogen‐fixing grasses (e.g., clover) and turnips. Agricultural production probably doubled in the 16th–18th centuries, enabling the population to be fed without significant imports. See also FENS; ENCLOSURE AND ENGROSSING, ENGLAND 1480S–1630S; TENURES, ENGLAND FROM 1066; RURAL SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY, ENGLAND.
AGRICULTURE, ENGLAND FROM MID 18TH CENTURY
The gradual spread of new crop rotations (cereals, clover, turnips), sowing by seed drill (from 1770s) and selective stock‐breeding increased output. Open‐field systems disappeared from the mid 18th century as land was enclosed under parliamentary legislation (at peak, 1790–1815; see ENCLOSURE). Loss of grazing worsened conditions of the poor.
In the 19th century, industrialization meant that agriculture ceased to be the basis of the economy: in 1800 it employed a third of the workforce, by 1900 only a tenth (see INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION). Industrial interests seemingly triumphed over the ‘landed interest’ with repeal of the CORN LAWS (1846), which ended protection for arable farming, though HIGH FARMING helped to sustain profitability. RAILWAYS stimulated dairying by enabling rapid transport of milk. There was a long‐term trend towards larger units of cultivation, although farms of over 500 acres (200 ha) remained rare outside East Anglia.
Large‐scale imports of chilled meat from 1875, grain from the late 1870s, and frozen meat from 1880 reduced prices and profits, and encouraged change from arable to livestock, and rural depopulation (see AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION, LATE 19TH CENTURY). From 1908, the National Farmers’ Union operated as a pressure group. WORLD WAR I (1914–18) stimulated grain production, and provided an opportunity (1919–21) for large‐scale land sales by landlords to tenants (36% of land was owner‐occupied by 1927). Renewed price falls left agriculture depressed in the 1920s–30s, eventually provoking government intervention (see AGRICULTURE, STATE INVOLVEMENT, GREAT BRITAIN).
By the 1930s, 70% of food was imported, but agricultural output nearly doubled during WORLD WAR II (1939–45), with little extra labour, due to more mechanization (tractors, milking machines, combine harvesters). From the mid 20th century, intensive methods became prevalent (e.g., spraying crops with chemical pesticides). From 1973, agriculture was subject to the COMMON AGRICUTURAL POLICY of the European Union. See also AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION; TENURES, ENGLAND FROM 1066; RURAL SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY, ENGLAND.
AGRICULTURE, IRELAND BEFORE 17TH CENTURY
Until the late 12th century, agriculture was mostly pastoral, predominantly cow keeping (sheep were less important). Cattle were measures of value for social status and wealth, and conflicts between kingdoms often consisted of cattle raids. Cow keeping involved transhumance (or booleying, i.e., seasonal movement to upland pastures). Cereals were also cultivated (mostly oats), and bees were widely kept for honey. Flax was widely grown for domestic linen production.
Following the Anglo‐Norman invasion (1169–70), agriculture in English‐inhabited areas was organized within MANORS, as elsewhere in Europe (see NORMANS, IMPACT ON IRELAND). Cultivated land expanded greatly, especially in E and S Ireland, with wheat and oats as the main crops. Sheep were kept to provide manure (so‐called ‘sheep–corn husbandry’). Individual holdings consisted of small strips of land distributed among a few large, open fields. Agricultural regimes were subject to communal organization. Lords’ unfree tenants were predominantly Gaelic Irish (so‐called betaghs), who undertook LABOUR SERVICES, though they were less onerous than in lowland England to attract settlers. Much labour was hired.
The reduced POPULATION of the late 14th and 15th centuries resulted in a contraction of arable cultivation and expansion of sheep‐farming in English areas. The shrinkage of English‐occupied areas led to an expansion of Gaelic pastoralism, though around English areas (in E and SE Ireland) English and Gaelic practices were intermixed. In the 16th century, English PLANTATIONS attempted to expand arable cultivation in Gaelic areas. See also TENURES, IRELAND; RURAL SETTLEMENT AND SOCIETY, IRELAND.
AGRICULTURE, IRELAND 17TH CENTURY TO 1921
Pastoral farming (cattle, sheep) continued to predominate in W and N Ireland, while arable farming or ‘tillage’ remained prominent in E and parts of S Ireland. Demand from England for live cattle and wool stimulated pastoral farming, though warfare in the 1640s–50s depressed activity (see IRISH WARS, 1641–52). In the mid 1660s, half of Ireland’s exports by value were cattle or cattle‐based products (hides, beef, tallow, butter).
From the mid 18th century, landowners raised arable productivity and rents by enclosing open fields and converting pasture. The government from 1758 provided bounties (incentive payments) on exports of corn and flour to expand tillage and employment (reinforced 1784 by FOSTER’S CORN LAW). Grain exports increased until the 1840s, turning Ireland into Great Britain’s ‘bread basket’. (Grain exports rose c.1815–45 from 125,000 to 513,000 tons per year.)
