Agriculture

Question 1

how does population relate to agriculture?

Answer 1

rising prices caused by population growth stimulated both agricultural and industrial production, laying the foundations for the agricultural revolution

Question 2

when was the agricultural revolution?

Answer 2

mid 17th century to 18th/19th century

Question 3

what were the changes in agricultural techniques?

Answer 3

• enclosure
• farming techniques
• water meadows
• specialised farming
• capital investment in agriculture
• national markets
• market garden
• transport and infrastructure
• science and technology

Question 4

what was enclosure?

Answer 4

• consolidating scattered holdings into blocks of land
• the land would be reserved for the sole use of a single land owner
• ensured production was not unnecessarily duplicated, fewer rivals would exist
• created negative social conditions, many smalltime farmers lost their land and were unable to compete with enclosed farms
• due to this many farmers the number of wage-depandant agricultural labours grew

Question 5

new farming techniques

Answer 5

enclosure instrumental in allowing the new techniques to be used

• four field crop rotation; no land was wasted, introduced new crops, much of the work to improve farming was carried out by dutch immigrants

Question 6

what were water meadows?

Answer 6

• diverted water from a nearby river or stream to a field
• diversion was regulated by gates and dams
• provided the soil was always damp, reducing the chances of frost and encouraging grass to grow earlier,
• cattle would feed on the grass then moved to ordinary pasture, leaving the grass to grow and hay to be harvested; ensured animals would be well fed throughout the winter

Question 7

specialised farming

Answer 7

• farming would be done based on where people lived; local conditions - national markets
• due to improved transport and infrastructure, national markets developed, therefore farmers could focus on products that suited their local conditions
• improved economic conditions for many farmers, particularly yeomanry

Question 8

what was capital investment in agriculture?

Answer 8

• investments allowed farmers to experiment with new techniques and ensured productivity increased

Question 9

what was capital investment in agriculture?

Answer 9

• investments allowed farmers to experiment with new techniques and ensured productivity increased
• higher gentry and aristocracy to invest in large scale modernisation

Question 10

what markets were developed and why?

Answer 10

• national markets
  as specialist farming developed it allowed farmers to trade for what they couldn’t grow in their local conditions.diets came more varied and land was used more efficiently
• market garden
  specialist producer of fruits and vegetables
  increase in production, there was more food to be sold at markets which led to the developments of markets garden which massively improved the economy and were used to feed most of London

Question 11

benefits to capital investments/ capital farms

Answer 11

• Some farms became huge as a result of investments and were known as capital farms.
• These farms used science and technology to improve the speed and scale of framing, for example, the seed drill and machine for threshing wheat these massively improved farming.