Jethro Tull (agronomist)

Jethro Tull

Henry Jethro William Tull ( baptized March 30, 1674 in Basildon , Berkshire ; † February 21, 1741 in Shalbourne , Berkshire) was an English agricultural pioneer. He is considered the father of agricultural science .

Tull is responsible for many improvements in this area responsible, especially for the seeder (Engl. Seed drill ) (1708), by means of which seeds are no longer scattered by hand irregularly across the floor had. The seeder opened a preset size hole, placed a seed in it, and sealed the hole. Three rows were processed at once. The germination rate as well as the yield have been increased. Tull's colleague John Worlidge , who wrote the book Systema Agriculturae in 1669 , had already proposed such a device, but no evidence of its construction during his creative period can be provided.

Tull also invented a line drawn by a horse hoe for weeding weed and brought changes in the appearance of the plow , which are still present in modern design. His interest in plowing stemmed from his fight against weeds and his belief that plants draw their nourishment exclusively from the minerals in the soil and that organic enrichment is not necessary. He knew that horse manure contained weed seeds and hoped to avoid using it as fertilizer by pulverizing the soil to make the minerals more accessible.

His inventions are part of the foundations of modern agriculture . In his time, his inventions met with little understanding and were only used many years later.

The rock band Jethro Tull named themselves after him.

Web links

Commons : Jethro Tull  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biography in English with picture
• The relevant page in Robert Chambers : Chambers's Book of Days . A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in connection with the Calendar. Philadelphia: JB Lippincott & Co., 1879. Digitized in the Library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison