Jethro tull biography seed drill

Jethro Tull  ©Tull was an agricultural pioneer and the inventor of the seed drill, a major development in the agricultural revolution.

Jethro Tull was born in 1674 into a family of Berkshire gentry.

He studied at Oxford University and Gray's Inn in preparation for a legal and political career, but ill health postponed these plans and, after his marriage in 1699, he began farming with his father.

At the time, seeds were distributed into furrows ('drilling') by hand.

Tull had noticed that traditional heavy sowing densities were not very efficient, so he instructed his staff to drill at very precise, low densities.

Jethro tull biography seed drill video

By 1701, his frustration with their lack of cooperation prompted him to invent a machine to do the work for him. He designed his drill with a rotating cylinder. Grooves were cut into the cylinder to allow seed to pass from the hopper above to a funnel below.

They were then directed into a channel dug by a plough at the front of the machine