Stone to Silicon

Food & agriculture · 1701

Seed drill

A horse-drawn drill planted seeds in even rows at the right depth instead of scattering them.

Jethro Tull perfected his drill in 1701 in Berkshire, England. Row planting wasted far less seed and allowed horse-hoeing between rows, a key tool of the British Agricultural Revolution.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

What it led to 1

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Cereal yields in England/UK since 1275 Latest: Wheat: 7.28 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Cereal yield Latest: 4.21 t/ha (2024) Source: Our World in Data