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Comment by gamblor956 | Hacker News Reader

Fertilizer was used for centuries before this. He did not invent fertilizer.

He invented the 4 crop rotation system, which involved the strategic use of farm animals and their poop. You might want to do some research on this.

Your original statement focused on fertilizer and didn't mention the rotation system. This person pointing out that he didn't invent fertilizer is correct. It's not a big deal.

No, I was being light-hearted, but "taking detailed notes about every poop" is the essence of what made the 4 crop system different. His focus on different kinds of poop lead to his focus on turnips, which is what made his system unique. Turnips, poop, crops: a revolution. I didn't think any level of detail was necessary since it was a light-hearted but good example of what the title mentions: "New industries come from crazy people."

Is your claim that the fertilizer industry came from Townshend?

I believe their claim is that a particular way of using fertilizer came from Townshend.

Yet it isn't explained anywhere in his comments what this "particular way" exactly is. I guess it's supposed to be common knowledge, but I'm as clueless on that matter as the downvoted commentators in this thread are. Neither does Wikipedia on "Norfolk four-course system" (which it claims Townshend popularized, not invented) mention anything about the fertilizer, simply claiming that inclusion of a turnip as the fodder crop allowed livestock to be bred year-round.

Townsend did not invent the use of animal poop as fertilizer, or the use of specific animal poops to fertilize specific crops, or rotating crops, or the even combination of the two, unless we completely ignore agricultural practices outside of Europe and pretend that all agriculture was invented in Europe.

But he didn't even invent the 4-year crop rotation system; that was already in use in Holland when he introduced it in England. (http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/003f.html)

He was basically the Elon Musk of post-medieval agriculture: taking credit for the work of others because he marketed it (and himself) better than they did.

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