Jethro Tull

Birth date: 1674

Birth Place: Basildon, Berkshire, England

Baptised: 30 March 1674, Basildon, Berkshire, England

Date of Death: 21 February 1741

Place of Death: Prosperous Farm, nr Hungerford, Berkshire, England

Parents:

Father: Jethro Tull Sr. gentleman farmer

Mother: Dorothy Buckridge – daughter of Thomas Buckeridge.

Marriage: Susannah Smith of Burton Dassett, Warwickshire 1699

Settled on Jethro Tull Snr’s Farm at Howbery where they had a son and four daughters [1]

Children: Ann Tull

Elizabeth Tull

John Tull

Mary Tull born 2 March 1711

Sarah Tull born 13 Oct 1713

Occupation:
English agronomist, agriculturist, writer, and inventor

His ideas helped form the basis of modern British agriculture. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later a horse-drawn hoe. Tull's methods were adopted by many large landowners, and they helped form the basis of modern agriculture.

Tull's other innovations included a plough with blades set in such a way that grass and roots were pulled up and left on the surface to dry.

Honours and Awards:

There is a Blue Plaque Board at 19A The Street, Crowmarsh Gifford. 16-19 The Street, Crowmarsh, Gifford is is the location of Howbery Farm, wjich was where Jethro Tull first invented his horse-drawn seed drill.

Career:

Jethro Tull studied at St. John's College, Oxford Gray's Inn in preparation for a legal and political career, but due to ill health these plans were postponed and after he married in 1699 he bag farming at his father’s farm at at Howberry, near Wallingford. In 1709 he moved to Prosperous Farm in Hungerford, Berkshire.

He was part of a group of farmers who founded the Norfolk system, an early attempt to apply science to farming.

He travelled to France and Italy from 1711-1714 looking for a cure for a Pulmonary disorder. There he sought more knowledge of agriculture. When he returned he perfected his farming system and his machinery. He took to “pulverising” the soile between the planted rows believing that this released nutrients which negated the need for manure. It was apparently successful as he grew wheat in the same field for 13 successive years, but modern day thinking suggests that this was because the method got rid of weeds which eased competition.

He believed that the earth was the plant's food and was absorbed and digested by the plant, therefore, continued cultivation divided the earth into small particles which the plant could absorb. The air was useful to the plant only as a place into which to throw off waste products. Roots were the stomach and the intestines of plants. Leaves were lungs and sap was blood. Manure he said caused bad flavor in crops.

The publication of his book, 'The New Horse Hoeing Husbandry', caused controversy at the time, and arguments continued for another century before his eventual vindication. While several other mechanical seed drills had also been invented, Tull's complete system was a major influence on the agricultural revolution and its impact can still be seen in today's methods and machinery.

Publications:

1731 'The New Horse Hoeing Husbandry', detailing his system and its machinery. It contained advice on plant culture as well as ideas on plant physiology.

Notes:

Notes, References, Sources/Links, Family Trees etc.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_(agriculturist)

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/tull_jethro.shtml

http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/jtull.html

http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jethro-tull/

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There are some trees published on various online sources that suggest Jethro Tull is connected to an ancient family originally "Tully" in Ireland

Comprehensive examination of the genealogy of Jethro Tull by Norman Hidden -Jethro Tull I, II and III

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/16/2/223.full.pdf