richard bowyer smith developed a seed drill that planted seeds in straight rows.
who developed a seed drill that planted seeds in straight rows?
richard bowyer smith
the first known european seed drill was attributed to camillo torello and patented by the venetian senate in 1566. a seed drill was described in detail by tadeo cavalina of bologna in 1602. in england, the seed drill was further refined by jethro tull in 1701 in the agricultural revolution. however, seed drills of this and successive types were both expensive and unreliable, as well as fragile. seed drills would not come into widespread use in europe until the mid to late 19th century, when manufacturing advances such as machine tools, die forging and metal stamping allowed large scale precision manufacturing of metal parts.
seed drill
the seed drill sows the seeds at the proper seeding rate and depth, ensuring that the seeds are covered by soil. this saves them from being eaten by birds and animals, or being dried up due to exposure to sun. with seed drill machines, seeds are distributed in rows, however the distance between seeds along the row cannot be adjusted by the user as in the case of vacuum precision planters. the distance between rows is typically set by the manufacturer. this allows plants to get sufficient sunlight, nutrients, and water from the soil. before the introduction of the seed drill, most seeds were planted by hand broadcasting, an imprecise and wasteful process with a poor distribution of seeds and low productivity. use of a seed drill can improve the ratio of crop yield (seeds harvested per seed planted) by as much as nine times.the use of seed drill saves time and labor
seed drill