It can be argued that committing seed to soil is the most critical operation in agriculture, with many factors limiting the success of germination, and thereby the efficiency of agrarian productivity. From the age of the first Neolithic cultures, farmers have pitted their wits to win the battle between seed, soil, pests and weather. The aim has always been to sow the seed with precision and economy in order to maximise the yield per seed sown.
The three ancient methods of sowing by hand are:
1
Scattering (broadcasting)
2
Dibbling (making holes, placing a seed in the hole, and covering the seed)
3
Drilling (making a shallow furrow (drill), funnelling seed into it continuously at an appropriate rate), then closing the furrow
It is the process of drilling that has stimulated human inventiveness to ensure precision and economy of sowing by mechanical means. In this connection, the Chinese drill or drill-plough was an ancient device to ensure the efficient use of precious rice seed. The drill plough is the basis of all mechanised sowing.
In modern Europe the Italians can claim priority of date. The first patent was granted to Camillo Torello in 1566 by the Venetian Senate, but details of the machine, if one was used in this system of sowing grain, are lacking. Torello was followed by Tadeo Cavalini (or Cavellina) of Bologna whose drill was described by Canon Battista Segni in 1602 as wonderfully useful for flat country.
"By means of it the corn is planted rather than sown, and there is a great saving of grain on the sowing. Its construction resembles that of a flower sieve carried on a small, simple carriage, with two wheels and a pole. Part of the body holds the grain to be sown and part is constructed under the sieve and is perforated, and to every hole there is fitted an iron tube directed toward the ground and terminating in an anterior knife-blade of sufficient length to make a furrow into which the sifted grain at once passes through the tube and where it is so completely buried that none of it is damaged. It is then immediately covered, by means of another iron implement, with the earth that has been excavated in the making of the furrow."
Cavalini had solved the problem of the seed-drill or perhaps re-solved it. Segni is not sufficiently explicit about the seed-dropper, but all the elements of the modern seed-drill were embodied in this device.
The problem of mechanical sowing was first taken up by Europeans in the 17th century. The first English patent for a seeding machine was granted to Alexander Hamilton in November 1623, but the machine is not described in the specifications, and as no plate is printed, no idea of its practical character can be formed.
Gabriel Platte in 1638-1655 described a crude dibbling machine formed of iron pins "made to play up and down like Virginal Jacks".
A little later John Worlidge in his Husbandry, published in 1669, advocated the use of a seed drill and a manure drill. A drill (drill-plough) was defined as an implement for the distribution of seed and manure (fertilizer) at regular distances. Evelyn in the same year recommends a drill-plough that had been invented in Germany and certificated by the German Emperor in 1663. The device had found its way into Spain, where its existence had been noted by the Earl of Sandwich, British Ambassador, who recorded that it had been the invention of a Don Leucatilla (Locatelli).
According to Marshall, the Leucatilla invention was: "
The seed box was divided into two parts, the first holding the seed, and the second containing the seed dropper. This device consisted of a wooden axle or drum into which were placed four rows of brass spoons (at first made of tin), which, with the turning of the drum, caught the seeds in the lower part of the box and dropped them into funnels from which they fell to the ground. This drill which was tied closely to the plough, sowed the strip as ploughed. Like the Babylonian drills it had a drill shoe in the form of a plough, but it had no seed pipes to ensure accurate and even spacing of the seed. Its contribution was a seed dropping device which has proved successful. It is the common type of dropper in use in Europe today. . .
,"
The following time line of British individuals who wrote about inventions for the mechanical sowing of seed indicates a flow of ideas. However, most of the descriptions seem to have been conceptual without any practical impact.
1623: Hamilton
1634: Ramsey
1637: Worsley
1639: Plattes
1669: Worlidge
It was not until Jethro Tull produced his drill and horse hoe that these ideas made an visible impact on the farm. Tull (1709-1740) devoted his energies to promote the introduction of the Leucatilla machine "more especially as it admitted the use of the horse-hoe". This horse hoe had been Tull's own invention. He also invented his own drill-plough to sow wheat and turnip seed, in drills, three rows at a time. There were two boxes for the seed, and these with miniature plough shares (coulters) were placed one set behind the other, so that two sorts of seed might be sown at the same time. A harrow to cover the seed was attached behind.
Tull also invented a turnip-drill somewhat similar, but of a lighter construction. The feeding spout was so arranged as to carry one half of the seed backwards after the earth had fallen into the channel; a harrow was pinned to the beam, and by this arrangement, half of the seed would spring up sooner than the other, and so a part of it would more likely escape the turnip fly. The manner of delivering the seeds to the funnel in both drills was by notched barrels. It seems that Tull was the first who used cavities in the surfaces of solid cylinders for the feeding of seed.
After Tull there was a flurry of invention across the length and breadth of the country by John Randall, of Heath near Wakefield; David Young, of Perth: Francis Forbes (drill made by Joseph Tyler, a London cabinet maker); George Winter, of Charlton, Gloucestershire; and others were John Horn, the Rev. James Cooke, William Amos and Erasmus Darwin.
This post Tullian activity came to a head in 1782. In this year, Sir John Anstruther presented a model of an improved horse drawn drill-plough of his own invention to the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society. It was a double drill-plough of simple construction, by which two furrows could be sown at a time, the horse walking between them, and by this means the damage done by the horse's feet to the seedbed was avoided. It was also in 1782 when the Rev. James Cooke's cup fed drill was patented. The latter was used as a basis by later inventors and its principles underly the commercial success of businesses set up to mass produce corn drills in the 19th century.