Topic: Crop Rotation? What’s that?
Crop rotation is a series of different types of crops grown in
each field in sequential seasons which helps to produce more
crops with more fertile soil and not having to have a fallow
year.
For example:
Field 1: Wheat - clover - turnips - barley
2: Barley - wheat - clover - turnips
3: Turnips - barley - wheat - clover
4: Clover - turnips - barley - wheat
How crop rotation changed agriculture was that it enabled
some workers to keep their land continually productive, instead
of using up their nutrients which would lead some workers to
move to the city to find work. Also, the manure of the animals
grazing was an excellent fertilizer for the soil which increased
production. Furthermore, by planting fodder crops, the fertility
of the soil increased. The turnips and clover used for the
rotation had its uses too. The turnips were useful for livestock
and animals and clover had the ability of providing nitrogen.
Why it changed agriculture in Great Britain is once people
found out about crop rotation, they didn’t have a fallow year,
and could grow crops annually, so they just followed the
rotation and could grow enough crops for food as well to sell
and also breed animals for different seasons.
There are positive and negative consequences when it comes
to crop rotation. One of the positive consequences are that you
could grow more crops and sell more and there would not be
any problems associated with food shortages anymore. A
negative consequence is if there are many crops grown already,
there won’t be much to do on the farm anymore and not many
workers are needed so they might have to move to the city to
find work there.
Key Vocabulary (4 -7 terms)
To be put onto this list, these
terms should appear in the
explanation.
- Fallow: Empty field; left unsown
to replace the fertility of the soil.
- Fertility: Capable of producing
abundant vegetation.
- sown: planting seed by
scattering on the Earth.
- Manure: Animal dung
- Fodder crops: any food used to
feed domestic livestock.
- Crop Rotation: practice of
growing a series of dissimilar
types of crops in the same
area in sequential seasons,
which increased the
agricultural production.
Diagram for Charles Townshend’s Crop Rotation method
Charles Townshend (1725 – 1767)
Follow Up Question:
Here you need to make a question for your classmates to
complete. It should be a thinking / discussion question for
people respond to via blog comments (open ended!). Include
your follow up question on your blog post for people to respond
to.
How do you think the Crop Rotation lead to the Industrial
Revolution? Why is it considered as one of the consequences of
the Industrial revolution?