AGRICULTURE: ORIGINS AND HISTORY

Life for human beings was difficult before they found out how to grow food. Prehistoric people lived in small groups, because it was difficult for a large number of people to find food. The groups roamed the countryside, constantly looking for animals to kill or wild plants to pick. If they could not kill an animal, and if they did not find plants to eat, they went hungry. Agriculture, often called the ``mother of civilization,'' changed all that.

The word agriculture comes from two Latin words meaning ``to care for the fields.'' But agriculture is far more than planting and raising crops. Agricultural scientists today study soil, climate, how plants grow, how to stop plant disease, and how to develop better plants. They also study farm animals. They try to find new ways to raise better animals, and to prevent and cure diseases. Farms, ranches, plantations, orchards, gardens, dairies, beehives, and a great many laboratories and factories are now part of agriculture. The areas where most plants and animals are cared for are called rural areas. Rural means ``open country.''

Agriculture employs more than half the people on Earth. But in the United States, only about 3 out of every 100 working people work full- or part-time on farms. Many machines are used on North American farms, ranches, and plantations. Scientific methods are used in the production of crops and livestock care. Although they are a small group of people, U.S. farmers produce more food each year than all the people in the United States can eat.

Other parts of the world cannot run farms with as few people as the U.S. does. Three main reasons for this are: the lack of good farmland, the cost of buying and using machines, and the slow rate of change from ancient ways of farming. About 60 out of every 100 people in Africa live in rural areas and work on the land. About 15 out of every 100 people in Europe are farmers. So are about 55 out of every 100 in Asia, and 40 out of every 100 in South America. Some of the cattle and sheep stations, or ranches, in Australia cover thousands of square miles, and about 20 out of every 100 Australians live and work in farm areas.

The Start of Agriculture

People living in the sunny, fertile lands between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf are believed to have started agriculture more than 10,000 years ago. The first farmers discovered that wild seeds planted in plots, kept clean of weeds, and watered regularly produced reliable harvests. They lived near their plots to guard them from both human and animal robbers. So, instead of wandering, they settled down to live in huts by their fields, with nearby pits for storing crops. After a time these places became villages. Then roads were made between the villages, and people became acquainted.

The first animal to live side by side with people was probably the dog, which was used in hunting. Animals such as goats, sheep, and pigs were hunted, not kept on farms. The first farm animal to be tamed, or domesticated, was probably the goat. Soon sheep too were domesticated, then--hundreds of years apart--chickens, pigs, cattle, donkeys, and finally horses. Domestication of these animals took place mostly along the shores of the Mediterranean, and farther east, on the grassy plains of Russia, called steppes, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. These changes caused agriculture to split into three major divisions.

Kinds of Agriculture

LIVESTOCK FARMING. Some families chose to tame and care for herds of animals. These were the herders. In the years of the American frontier, herders, especially cattle ranchers and shepherds, often raised sheep and cattle on the open prairies. Until recently, slow transportation forced dairy and poultry farmers to keep their animals close to the cities. Today, in Asia and Africa there are still people called nomads, wanderers, who live as herders. They move from place to place, seeking food and water for their herds.

ONE-CROP FARMING. The ancient Greeks discovered many uses for the fruit and wood of the olive tree. Some Greeks became specialists in growing olives and processing olive oil. Many Egyptian farmers specialized in growing and harvesting cotton. They learned how to harvest the puffy bolls of the cotton plant, remove the seeds, and weave the fibers into cloth. The efforts of the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians were the beginning of another major branch of agriculture--one-crop farming.

Examples of one-crop agriculture in the U.S. today are the Midwest wheat farms, the southern cotton and tobacco farms, and the citrus groves of Florida and California. Each of these places, as well as many other farming areas in the world, have a climate and soil that are very good for the one crop of the region.

DIVERSIFIED FARMING. Several different crops can be grown on one farm. Diversified farming was, and still is, the most common type of farming. It got its start in America from European farmers such as those from Estremadura, in Spain. They brought their knowledge of this farming to the New World.

European Farming in America

Spanish soldiers conquered Mexico and Peru and first explored the southern and southwestern U.S. between 1521 and 1550. These Spaniards were called conquistadors, meaning ``conquerors.'' Many of them grew up in Estremadura, one of the most beautiful areas of diversified farming in Europe. It is a region of many mountains, river valleys, and red-earth fields along the border between Spain and Portugal. It has been famous for more than 2,000 years for its crops of wheat, olives, fruit, and cork, and for its herds of sheep, goats, and pigs.

The conquistadors quickly realized that the mountains, plains, and climate of Southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico were very much like the countryside and weather of their Spanish homeland. The first Spanish settlers in the Southwest planted the crops they had known in Estremadura--oranges, olives, figs, grapes, and wheat. They brought cattle, horses, and pigs from Spain, too.

Spanish settlers also moved into Florida during the last half of the sixteenth century. The climate and soil of their new home reminded them of Andalusia, the region of Spain that is Estremadura's southern neighbor. So these settlers brought oranges from Andalusia and found that this fruit grew well in Florida. They learned about a New World plant food when they were given the small, sweet nuts from pine-nut trees by Native Americans. The Native Americans had used these piñones in soups, breads, and candies for a long time.

The French founded New Orleans and began other settlements along the Gulf of Mexico. They, like the Spanish, thought of their European homes when they began to farm. They brought pears and carrots from France to America.

Colonists in Massachusetts and Virginia found their land and climate much like that of their native England. So the colonists brought familiar plants and animals, such as sheep and cattle, to America. These settlers also got help from the Native Americans, who taught them how to plant and raise corn, squash, and tobacco.

All these New World settlers were fortunate that their new homes were very much like their old ones. Plants from one part of the world cannot easily be grown in other parts. Plants do well in certain soils and climates. In different soils, or in different weather conditions, they may not grow at all.

Names for Agricultural Land

The three most common names for agricultural property come from the regions where European methods of caring for the land began. The words ranch, plantation, and farm are really lessons in the history of both language and agriculture.

Ranch comes from the Spanish word rancho, which first meant ``where the cattle graze.'' It was used by the Spanish people who pioneered the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico in 1598. The word spread to Texas, Arizona, and California, and then moved north and east. Most ranches today are west of the Mississippi River, but many of them have no cattle at all. They include mink ranches, horse ranches, fruit ranches, and even rose ranches.

Plantation comes from a Latin word used in the Middle Ages in England to mean ``a rural estate where servants tended the crops and cared for livestock.'' Virginians began to develop large one-crop areas of tobacco or rice. Agricultural properties throughout the South were often called plantations, especially where planters owned slaves to do the hard work. Dairy herds, beef cattle, poultry, fruit, grains, beans, vegetables, and peanuts have now become important agricultural products in the South. Diversified farming has replaced much one-crop farming. Agriculturists in the South now prefer to be called farmers instead of planters.

Farm is an old English word that the Pilgrims brought to New England. The word originally meant ``land that is rented.'' The man who worked a farm was not a serf or peasant, but paid an annual rent to the lord or knight who owned the land.

Technology Comes To Agriculture

Abraham Lincoln was President in 1863. At that time, seven out of every ten Americans worked and lived on farms, plantations, and ranches. Nearly everybody owned a horse, and almost every home had a horsebarn and a horse pasture. Horse-power was the chief method of getting the job done. Horses plowed and tilled the fields, hauled the wagons, carriages, coaches, and harvesting machines, and trampled the kernels of grain free from the stalks on the threshing floors. Horses and mules were the great servants of American agriculture from 1600 until 1920. Slaves on Southern plantations also played a very important part in shaping modern American farming.

Tractors, trucks, and hundreds of planting, spraying, weeding, and harvesting machines took the place of horses and mules in the 1920s. Scientists discovered ways to grow two or three times as much crop on the same amount of land. These inventions and discoveries made it possible for a family to farm three, four, or five times as much land as they could have with horses and mules. Fewer people were needed on farms. Machines and other materials needed for modern agriculture were expensive and complicated. Large properties and scientific training became necessary for successful farming. More and more farmers and ranchers sold their lands and moved to town. Hired workers were laid off or went to cities for better jobs. In 1900 about 35 of every 100 people in the U.S. worked on farms. Today, only 3 of every 100 people are employed in agriculture.

A major division of the U.S. Government is the Department of Agriculture. Its director, the Secretary of Agriculture, is a member of the President's Cabinet. Working for the Department are thousands of scientists, engineers, economists, and other specialists in modern agriculture. Each state in the U.S. has its own department of agriculture. Many also have a state college of agriculture. The local advisers on agricultural affairs in each area, who have offices at each of the 3,000 county seats in the U.S., are called county agents.

Agriculture still faces big problems despite the great changes brought about by machines and science. In the developed world, such as the United States and Europe, farmers can produce far more food than is needed by their own people. This extra food creates a surplus, which may be stored or thrown away. Yet in other parts of the world, such as in the desert lands of Africa, millions of people are hungry. Here local agriculture is suffering from climatic change, and from a breakdown of old village ways as people leave the land.

By using sensible ``intermediate'' technology--some machines and fertilizers, but not so much that small farmers are driven out of business--countries like India have done much to feed their hungry people. Agricultural experts are working to find better ways of feeding everyone.

in: Young Students Learning Library (1996) edited/adapted by Leopoldo Costa