RUSSELL, JOSEPH (1760–1846), agriculturist, son of Richard Russell, of the Forge in the parish of Lillington, Warwickshire, was born at Ashow, Warwickshire, in 1760. Educated at Birmingham, he settled at Cubington about 1780, renting a farm of 320 acres from Edward Leigh, fifth lord Leigh. He introduced the breed of Leicester sheep into Warwickshire, and imported Talavera wheat into England as early as 1810. He also improved the subsoil plough, and invented the clover-head gathering machine. A model of the latter was exhibited at the Society of Arts. Abandoning the pursuit of agriculture, he removed in 1820 to London, and in 1829 to Kenilworth, where he died in 1846.
Russell published: 1. ‘A Treatise on Practical and Chemical Agriculture,’ Warwick, 1831, 8vo; 2nd ed. with additions, 1840. 2. ‘Observations on the Growth of British Corn,’ 1832. 3. ‘A New System of Agriculture,’ 1840, 8vo.
[Work in Brit. Mus. Libr.; Colvile's Worthies of Warwickshire, pp. 614–20.]