1. Notes #1: The Agricultural Revolution

2. Peasants in the Middle Ages used communal farming .
Farmers had to use the King’s common land to survive.
Farmers were subsistence farming; meaning farmers grew enough to feed themselves, not to make a profit.
Farmers used a three field-system (2 planted; 1 left fallow or empty)

4. Three-Field System
Barley
Oats
Fallow

5. There were advantages and disadvantages to this communal system.
People worked together
No one was given an unfair advantage
Created a sense of community
Disadvantages:
Inefficient crop production
Did not encourage experimental farming

6. Fertilizer is used to renew soil
Pioneering Dutch & English farmers help create the Agricultural Revolution by introducing the following changes:
Fertilizer is used to renew soil
The use of soil mixing resulted in higher crop yields
Crop rotation produced larger crops & restored overused soil
Jethro Tull developed the seed drill (helped to eliminate seed waste)
Farmers develop journals to educate others

7. The Enclosure Movement
The changes in farming resulted in factors that contributed to the Industrial Revolution.
The Enclosure Movement
This involved nobles taking over the smaller tracts of land to create larger fields.
Results:
Increased production & profits
Large land owners controlled more land & became richer.
Fewer workers needed – farmers lose jobs & land
Farmers become labor supply for the Industrial Revolution.

8. The changes in farming resulted in factors that contributed to the Industrial Revolution.
2. Population explosion
Immediate reasons:
better food production,
reduced famine & people eating better and healthier
Long term reasons:
better hygiene and sanitation, improved medical care,
and lower death rate

9. 3. The population explosion increases demand for manufactured goods
The changes in farming resulted in factors that contributed to the Industrial Revolution.
3. The population explosion increases demand for manufactured goods
More people meant an increased demand for more shirts, more shoes, more pants, and etc.
This demand created opportunities to make a lot of money supplying these goods.