Horse-drawn seed drill

Jethro Tull's seed drill of 1701 planted seeds in straight rows at controlled depths, replacing the ancient practice of broadcasting seeds by hand. The improvement was dramatic: broadcast sowing wasted seed, placed seeds at random depths, and made weeding nearly impossible. Row planting used less seed, ensured proper germination depth, and allowed horse-drawn hoes to cultivate between rows.

Tull, a lawyer turned farmer, developed his drill after observing that plants grew better when spaced and that soil cultivation improved yields. His device created a furrow, dropped seeds from a hopper at regular intervals, and covered them with soil—all in one pass. Horses pulled the mechanism; a worker guided it.

The technology was not entirely new. Chinese and Babylonian farmers had used seed drills centuries earlier. Tull's innovation was systematizing the approach for English conditions and promoting it aggressively through his 1731 book "The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry."

Adoption was slow. Tull's specific designs had mechanical problems; his theoretical justifications were often wrong (he believed plants consumed soil particles directly). But the core insight—that controlled seeding and cultivation outperformed broadcast sowing—proved correct. Later inventors refined the seed drill into the machines that mechanized agriculture.

The agricultural revolution that preceded industrialization depended partly on improved tools like the seed drill. Higher crop yields freed labor from farming, providing workers for factories. More food supported larger populations. The sequence from seed drill to industrial revolution was indirect but real.

Modern agriculture uses precision planting that Tull would recognize conceptually: GPS-guided tractors place seeds at exactly specified locations, control fertilizer application by the square meter, and vary seeding density based on soil maps. The principle of precise placement, rather than random scattering, persists.