English

A horsedrawn seed drill

Alternative forms

• seed-drill

Noun

seed drill ‎(plural seed drills)

1. (agriculture) A type of sowing machine.
   • 1984, Joseph Needham, Francesca Bray, Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 6, Part 2, page 270,

     Most Chinese seed-drills sow not only seed but also manure. The idea was almost as old as the seed-drill itself in Europe, and it was common in India too.

   • 2002, R. Douglas Hurt, American Agriculture: A Brief History, Revised Edition, page 102,

     American farmers began using the seed drill on a limited basis by 1775.

   • 2003, Ron Shaw, Great Inventors and Inventions, page 17,

     Another major advancement in the field of agriculture was the seed drill. The seed drill helped the row farming of the Chinese. […] The first seed drill was introduced into Europe 1600 years after the Chinese had improved upon their original design.

   • 2004, D. S. Pathic, R. K. Shrestha, 11: No-Till in the Rice-Wheat System: An Experience from Nepal, Rattan Lal, Peter R. Hobbs, Norman Uphoff (editors), Sustainable Agriculture and the International Rice-Wheat System, page 215,

     Seeding with the Chinese seed drill requires higher than normal soil moisture compared to conventionally tilled wheat.

   • 2005, Rick Kubik, How to Use Implements on Your Small-Scale Farm, page 43,

     In 1701, English inventor Jethro Tull built a prototype seed drill that planted a metered stream of seeds at the right depth and covered them with soil to optimize growth. The fact that the seed drill sowed seeds in regular straight rows also meant that a mechanical horse-drawn hoe (another invention by Tull) could be used to remove weeds from between the rows.

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