Jethro Tull Biography

Jethro Tull was an English agricultural pioneer who developed new farming techniques and invented mechanical agricultural tools. His farming improvements and inventions such as the seed drill & horse-drawn hoe, laid the foundation of modern and much more efficient British agriculture. Born into a family of Berkshire gentry, he studied at Oxford University and Gray's Inn in preparation for a legal career, but his ill health suspended these plans and he started farming with his father. While touring Europe, Tull had noticed new and improved agricultural practices in France and Italy and upon becoming a farmer, he began to think of more competent ways to do it. He noticed that at the time, seeds were distributed manually for sowing without any well-organized technique which prompted him to invent the seed drill that economically sowed the seeds in arranged rows. Subsequently, he also came up with the idea of horse-drawn hoe and invented the four-culter plow in order to improve the conventional agricultural techniques. Later, he published two editions of The Horse-Hoeing Husbandry which spread his ideas to other farmers, detailing his system and its machinery. Although initially his ideas and methods faced much protest, eventually they were accepted on account of increased production and profits. His numerous implements and farming techniques had a notable influence on the Agricultural Revolution and its impact can still be seen in today’s farming methods