Wellmann Imre szerk.: A Magyar Mezőgazdasági Múzeum Közleményei 1971-1972 (Budapest, 1973)
Blake, Susan: A geographical analysis of agricultural engineering in Britain in the 19th century
2. Secondly, there was the need for mechanization of tillage so that greater productivity per man-hour and more thorough cultivation of the soil could enable British agriculture to meet most of the demand for food made by the rapidly expanding and industrializing population. The need for mechanization was felt most acutely in the North American context, which consequently produced the first large-scale labour saving implements. 3. Thirdly, there was the need for increased specialization in agriculture, which was enhanced and facilitated by the evolution of implements for the various branches of agriculture. The development of the agricultural engineering industry not only forms part of the application of the ideas propounded in the "Agricultural Revolution". By the adoption of industrial organization and the application of steampower and contemporary technology to the implements themselves, links were forged also with the so called "Industrial Revolution". Thus viewed, as a nexus and indicator of developments in 19th c. agriculture and industry alike, the ramifications of the evolution of the implements become the central focus of study, rather than the technical processes involved. Agricultural implements evolved in a six-fold sequence in the 19th c, with emphases on ploughing, drilling, threshing, steam cultivation, harvesting, and dairying implements in turn. These phases were not short, sharp and well defined, but they do represent the general chronology and direction of effort to solve some of the problems facing 19th c. agriculture, and have important locational effects. For example, as attention was not directed to implements of dairying until the 1880's and 90's, there are still no important agricultural engineering establishments in pastoral areas, because the industry was already firmly established in arable areas by the time dairying appliances were being developed. 1. At first, emphasis lay on improvement of the plough 2 . By the late 18th c. and the first few years of the 19th c. there was no agricultural engineering industry per se, just a general scatter of craftsmen producing their own design of implement from local materials and to the demands of local farmers, according to traditional designs in many cases little different from their Saxon originals. The first improved ploughs were made under Dutch influence in 17th c. East Anglia 3 and JAMES SMALL of Dalkeith (Scotland) produced the first all iron plough share in 1763, using iron from the local Carron ironworks, itself a pioneer in the "Industrial Revolution"/ 1 Efforts were heightened between 1780 and 1830, and with RANSOME's patents for self-sharpening chilled steel shares in 1803, and for jointed metal plough frames in 1808."' the foundations were laid for a standardized plough. From then on, the intense localism in design began to dissipate and the emergence of a nationally-based rather than a village craft industry was initiated. -See: Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England 1: 1840. 140—147, 219—244. — Catalogue of Implements exhibited at Royal Agricultural Society Shows. — RANSOME, J. A. Implements of Agriculture. 1843. 3PASSMORE, J. B. The English Plough. OUP 1930. 10. '•RANSOME, J. E. Ploughs and Ploughing. 1865. — Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England 3: 1842. 100—125. ^Patent Abridgment Vols, Old Series 8/12. Patent Office, London.
