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Unit One. Agriculture

Agriculture: general review

Agriculture can be defined as art, science, and industry of managing the growth of plants and animals for human use. In a broad sense agriculture includes cultivation of the soil, growing and harvesting of crops, breeding and raising of livestock, dairying, and forestry. Modern agriculture depends heavily on engineering and technology and on the biological and physical sciences. Irrigation, drainage, conservation, and sanitation – each of which is important in successful farming – are some of the fields requiring the specialized knowledge of agricultural engineers. Agricultural chemistry, mechanization, and plant breeding and genetics have contributed immeasurably to farm productivity and efficiency and have eased much of the backbreaking toil of the farmer.

Over the 10,000 years since agriculture began to be developed, peoples everywhere have discovered the food value of wild plants and animals and domesticated and bred them. The most important agricultural products are cereals; sugarcane and sugar beets; meat animals; poultry; and such products as milk, cheese, eggs, nuts, and oils. Agricultural income is also derived from nonfood crops and from raising animals for pelt. Because nations depend on agriculture for food, income, and raw industrial materials, trade in agriculture is a constant international concern, and it is regulated by international agreements. Nearly 45 percent of the world's labor force is employed in agriculture. Farm size varies widely from region to region. Commercial farming usually takes place on large holdings. Individual subsistence farms or small family operations are decreasing in number in developed countries, but they remain numerous in developing countries. Nomadic herders range over large areas in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The history of agriculture may be divided into four broad periods: prehistoric; historic through the Roman period; feudal; and scientific. The dates of domesticated plants and animals vary with the regions, but most predate the 6th millennium BC, and the earliest may date from 10,000 BC. The farmer began, most probably, by noting which of the wild plants were edible or useful, saving the seeds, and replanting them in cleared land. Long cultivation of the most prolific and hardiest plants yielded stable strains. Herds of goats and sheep were captured as young wild animals, and those with the most useful traits were bred. The transition from hunting and food gathering to a dependence on food production was gradual. Crops and domestic meat supplies were augmented by fish, wildfowl, and wild animals.

The Neolithic farmers lived in simple dwellings in small villages or single farmsteads surrounded by fields. Villages had to be moved periodically in some areas, as the fields lost their fertility from continuous cropping. Mixed farming – the combined cultivation of crops and stock raising – was the most common Neolithic pattern, although nomadic herders roamed the steppes of Europe and Asia, where the horse and camel were domesticated. The earliest tools of the farmer were made of wood and stone.

The historical period – roughly defined as 2500 BC to AD 500 – was devoted to improvement. A similar period of development in Central and South America occurred somewhat later. Some plants, such as grapes and olives, became newly prominent. The horse and ox were domesticated and put to use on farms. Improvements in tools and implements were particularly important. Metal tools were longer lasting and more efficient, and cultivation was greatly improved by such aids as the ox-drawn plow fitted with an iron-tipped point. Storage methods for oil and grain were improved. Irrigation systems were elaborated, putting more land into cultivation. The introduction of fertilizer and crop rotation made agriculture more productive.

Rome appears to have started as a rural agricultural society of independent farmers. In the 1st millennium BC agriculture started a capitalistic development. Absentee landlords owned large estates that supplied grain to the cities of the empire. Under the supervision of hired overseers, slaves and dependent tenants provided the labor. Feudalism in Europe began soon after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, reaching its height about AD 1100.

The structure of European agriculture was not uniform. Arab influence in some areas of southern Europe led to irrigation being extended to previously sterile or unproductive land. In Scandinavia and eastern Germany, the small farms and villages of previous years remained. In mountainous areas and in the marshlands of Slavic Europe, the manorial system, which dominated most of Europe, could not flourish. Typically, the manor was a self-contained community consisting of one or more villages. Peasants produced crops, raised meat and draft animals, and paid taxes in services. A large manor had a mill for grinding grain, an oven for baking bread, fishponds, orchards, and gardens. Bees were kept to produce honey. Wool and linen garments were produced. In all systems, the lord's fields came first, but several days a week might be left for work on the family strips and garden plots. Wood and peat for fuel were gathered from the commonly held woodlots, and animals were pastured on village meadows. With the rise of the textile industry in about 1300, a tendency developed to enclose the common lands and to raise sheep for their wool alone. The wars of 14th- and 15th-century Europe and widespread plagues in the 14th century affected manorialism. Villages were wiped out, and much arable land was abandoned.

By the 16th century, population was increasing in Europe, and agricultural production was again expanding. A new period of exploration and colonization began, and colonial agriculture fed the colonists, produced cash crops, and supplied food for the home country. The scientific revolution resulting from the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment in Europe encouraged experimentation in agriculture as well as in other areas. Plant breeding produced improved crops, and new strains of cattle and sheep were developed. Enclosure was speeded up in the 18th century, and individual landowners made use of land previously subject to common use. Drainage brought more land into cultivation, and, with the Industrial Revolution, farm machinery was introduced.

Mechanical improvements of the traditional wooden plow began in the mid-1600s. By the late 1800s, steam power frequently replaced animal power. The demand for food for urban workers and raw materials for industrial plants produced a realignment of world trade. In the 1600s and 1700s the first systematic attempts were made to study and control pests. Improvements in roads, canals, and rail lines enabled farmers to obtain needed supplies and to market their produce over a wider area.

The impetus toward more food production in the era following World War II (1939-1945) was a result of a new population explosion. A so-called green revolution, which involved breeding crops for high yields and developing intensive cultivation methods adapted to the climates and cultural conditions of densely populated countries, temporarily stemmed the pressure for more food. Simultaneously, erratic weather and natural disasters reduced crop levels throughout the world.

2. Match the words and word combinations with their Russian meaning:

a) in a broad sense 1. пастбище

b) to supply food 2. сокращать урожайность

c) to breed 3. дренаж

d) erratic 4. поставлять пищу

e) landowner 5.

f) arable land 6. в широком смысле

g) to reduce crop levels 7.

h) intensive cultivation methods 8. выращивать

i) drainage 9.

j) realignment 10. землевладелец

k) pasture 11.

l) to augment 12.

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