Relocating with his bride to the family farm, Tull eschewed law to work the land. Inspired by agrarian practices he saw in Europe — including pulverized soil around evenly spaced plants — Tull was determined to experiment at home. Jethro Tull invented the seed drill in as a way to plant more efficiently. Prior to his invention, sowing seeds was done by hand, by scattering them on the ground or placing them in the ground individually, such as with bean and pea seeds. Tull considered scattering wasteful because many seeds did not take root.
His finished seed drill included a hopper to store the seed, a cylinder to move it, and a funnel to direct it. A plow at the front created the row, and a harrow at the back covered the seed with soil. It was the first agricultural machine with moving parts. It started as a one-man, one-row device, but later designs sowed seeds in three uniform rows, had wheels and were drawn by horses.
Using wider spacing than previous practices allowed horses to draw the equipment and not step on the plants. His horse-drawn hoe or hoe-plow dug up the soil, loosening it for planting while also pulling up unwanted weed roots.
He mistakenly thought that the soil itself was the food for plants and that breaking it up allowed the plants to take it in better. The real reason that you loosen soil for planting is that the act allows more moisture and air to reach plant roots. Coinciding with his theory on the way plants fed, he also believed that you should till the soil while the plant is growing, not just during planting. His idea that plants grow better with tilled soil around them, though, is correct if not his theory on why.
Tilling around plants reduces weeds competing with the crops, allowing the desired plants to grow better. Tull also improved designs of the plow. Even spacing; less seed waste; better aeration per plant; and less weed growth all increased his yields. Farming, thanks to Tull, had become a bit more rooted in science. Although he was admitted to the bar in the same year, he never practised law. Tull was far more interested in the farming methods employed on his land, which he called Prosperous Farm.
Tull travelled throughout Europe to study new farming techniques. On his return to Prosperous Farm in , he developed a horse-drawn mechanical Seed Drill. The Seed Drill not only planted seeds at regular intervals but also planted them at the right depth and covered them with earth.
Because the seed drill planted seeds in straight lines, a mechanical horse-drawn hoe, which Tull also invented, could be used to remove weeds from between the lines of crop plants. Tull advocated the importance of pulverising crumbling the soil so that air and moisture could reach the roots of the crop plants.
His horse-drawn hoe was able to do this. He also emphasised the importance of manure and of tilling the soil during the growing season. At the time, Tull's ideas came under attack, mainly because they were new. Leaving the majority of the soil surface undisturbed under a straw cover provides good protection against water and wind erosion. Losses of soil and plant nutrients via erosion have negative economic and environmental effects. Omitting other tillage operations naturally decreases the time requirement and the costs per hectare.
The decreased time requirement is an important consideration on large farms and also in e. Omitting soil cultivation in a cropping system requires stubbles to be managed effectively. Straw harrowing will help break down harvest residues and distribute them evenly across the field.
It will also destroy weeds and slug populations. Cover cropping and good crop rotation will also help manage weed and pest issues. We are a farming family who have been growing crops since the early s.
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