Mechanization in 1801, displacing the centuries-old hand method of making individual sheets of paper. One of the first mechanical devices used in agriculture was the seed drill invented by Jethro Tull around 1700. The seed drill allowed more uniform spacing of seed and planting depth than hand methods, increasing yields and saving valuable seed. Mechanized agriculture greatly increased in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with horse drawn reapers and horse powered threshing machines. By the late nineteenth century steam power was applied to threshing and steam tractors appeared. Internal combustion began being used for tractors in the early twentieth
The Seed Savers' Network peasants who have the skills and knowledge of its utilisation. Seeds with proprietary rights – plant variety rights – are not suitable for home seed saving as it is illegal to propagate from patented seed. Since its establishment in 1986, The Seed Savers' Network has collected and conserved local varieties within a network of gardeners who save and swap locally adapted seeds. From 1986 to 2008 it had a seed bank that received seed samples from around Australia. Over the space of eight years, culminating in 2008, that seed flow has been decentralised out to sub-groups, Local Seed Networks. These