Consider the agricultural revolution of the early 1700s, Charles Townshend, walking around after his cows, noting every poop, taking detailed notes about every poop, and then a year later, what grew where that poop was, and what were the cows eating when they created that poop? His neighbors certainly regarded him as eccentric, having such a fascination with poop. And yet the whole modern world is indebted to him for his odd obsession. And likewise, Jethro Tull's obsession with designing a machine that could replace the workers his father and grandfather had worked with.
<side note> If I remember how the band Jethro Tull got its name, it is because they had to change the band's name after every gig. The band was that unpopular, and would be told to never come back. Until one day they got lucky, and that day's name was Jethro Tull.
Do you understand what the 4 crop rotation system is? The key thing is what he did with animals on the fields that were fallow. He brought in animals and had them poop on the fields that were fallow, so in future years they'd be more productive. The poop is a key part of the 4 crop rotation system.
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.
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.
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."
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.
