Townshend, << TOWN zuhnd, >> Viscount (1674-1738), was an English politician and promoter of agricultural reform. In 1730, he retired from a successful political career to his estate in Norfolk, where he experimented with cultivation. Townshend supported a crop-rotation system that used four different crops. Under the right conditions, such a system made some farms more productive. Townshend’s belief in planting turnips to improve the soil earned him the nickname “Turnip” Townshend. He also urged farmers to use turnips as winter livestock feed. With them, some farmers could raise more cattle, which in turn would produce more manure for fertilizer.
Townshend was born on April 18, 1674, in Norfolk, England. His given name was Charles Townshend. He died on June 21, 1738.
