[lkrubner]

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."

[beebmam]

Is your claim that the fertilizer industry came from Townshend?

[bee_rider]

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

[krick]

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.