History of Agriculture

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History of Agriculture

• David A. Sleper

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Agriculture Defined

• The art, science, and business of managing the
  growth of plants and animals for human use.

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Agriculture Defined

• Cultivation of the soil
• Growing harvesting crops
• Breeding raising of livestock
• Packing, processing, and marketing

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World Agriculture

• Began over 10,000 years ago
• Humans discovered the value of wild plants and
  animals and domesticated and bred them
• Cereals
• Meat animals
• Poultry, fish, milk, cheese, nuts, oils, fruits,
  vegetables etc

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World Agriculture

• 50 worlds labor force employed in agriculture
• gt 60 in Africa
• lt 4 in USA and Canada
• 15 former Soviet Union
• 7 in Western Europe

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World Agriculture

• Agricultural income also from nonfood crops
• Rubber
• Fiber plants
• Tobacco
• Oilseeds for synthetic chemical compounds
• Animals for pelt

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World Agriculture

• Nations depend on agriculture for food, income,
  and raw materials
• Food Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the UN
  concerns itself with agricultural trade and
  policies

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History

• Four broad periods of unequal length depending on
  location
• Prehistoric
• Historic through Roman period
• Feudal
• Scientific

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Prehistoric Agriculture

• Largely of Neolithic culture
• Early centers of agriculture
• (SW Asia) Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria,
  Turkey
• (SE Asia) Thailand
• (Africa) Nile river
• (Europe) Danube river

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Prehistoric Agriculture

• Early centers of agriculture continued
• (China) Yellow River
• (India Pakistan) Indus River
• (Mexico) Tehuacan Valley, NW of the Isthmus of
  Tehuantepec

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Dates Plants Animals Domesticated

• Dates of domestication vary by regions
• Earliest may be from 10,000 BC
• Scientists used carbon-14 testing of plant
  animal remains

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Dates Plants Animals Domesticated

• Sheep 9000 BC (N Iraq)
• Cattle 6th millennium BC (NE Iran)
• Goats 8000 BC (Iran)
• Pigs 8000 BC (Thailand) 7000 BC (Thessaly)
• Horses 4350 BC (Ukraine)
• Llama alpaca 3rd millennium (Andean region of S
  America)

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Dates Plants Animals Domesticated

• Wheat barley 8th millennium BC (Middle East)
• Millet rice 5500 BC (China SE Asia)
• Squash 8000 BC (Mexico)
• Legumes 6000 BC (Thessaly Macedonia)
• Flax for textiles in early Neolithic period
• Transition from hunting and food gathering to
  dependence on food gathering was gradual
• Has not been accomplished worldwide

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Neolithic Farmers

• Lived in caves, sun-baked mud houses, of reed or
  wooden houses
• Housed grouped into small villages with
  surrounding fields
• Growth of cities such as Jericho (9000 BC) was
  stimulated by production of surplus crops

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Pastoralism

• A later development
• Mixed farming, combining cultivation of crops and
  stock raising was a common Neolithic pattern
• Nomadic herders roamed steppes of Europe and Asia
  where the horse and camel were domesticated

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Neolithic Settlements

• More permanent than camps of hunting populations
• Needed to move periodically
• Soils deteriorated
• Practiced slash burn in Europe
• Nile settlements more permanent
• River kept soils fertile

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Historical Agriculture Through the Roman Period

• Roughly defined as 2500 BC to 500 ad
• Introduction of metals
• Information from
• Bible
• Near Eastern record monuments
• Chinese, Greek, Roman writings
• Later dev in Central S. America

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Historical Agriculture Through the Roman Period

• Trade in wine and olive oil mentioned in Egyptian
  records (2900 BC)
• Rye oats cult widely in N. Europe (1000 BC)
• Dates/figs important source of sugar in Near East
• Cotton spun in India 2000 BC
• Linen silk in 2nd millennium in China

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Historical Agriculture Through the Roman Period

• Metal tools longer lasting more efficient
• Ox-drawn plow (iron tipped)
• Funnel added to plow for seeding
• Horses for work
• Threshing done with animal power

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Historical Agriculture Through the Roman Period

• Irrigation in China, Egypt, Near East
• Allowed more land to be cultivated
• Windmills and water mills added at end of Roman
  period
• Introduction of fertilizers
• Animal manures
• Crop rotations

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Historical Agriculture Through the Roman Period

• Rome started as rural agriculture society
• Large estates supplied grain to many cities
• Used slave labor
• Tenants paid predetermined share to estate owner
• By 4th century AD serfdom was well established
  and former tenant was attached to the land

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Feudal Agriculture

• Began soon after the fall of the Roman empire
• Reached its peak in about 1100 ad

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Feudal Agriculture

• Irrigation extended in Egypt Spain
• Grain production was sufficient in Egypt to sell
  wheat internationally
• Irrigation from Mountain streams increased
  vineyards in Spain
• In Spain silkworm was raised and its food the
  mulberry tree was grown

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Feudal Agriculture

• Middle East agriculture became static by 12th
  century
• Fell back to subsistence levels
• Irrigation systems destroyed by Mongols
• Crusades increased European contact with Islamic
  lands familiarized W Europe with citrus, silk
  cotton

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Feudal Agriculture

• In Scandinavia and E Germany, small farms and
  villages remained
• The manorial system could not flourish in most of
  Europe
• Stock raising and grape culture were normally
  outside the system

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Feudal Agriculture

• Manorial system
• 900 to 2000 acres
• Self-contained community
• Large home for the lord
• One or more villages as part of the manor
• Peasants were the actual farmers
• Raised crops and livestock and paid taxes to the
  lord
• Large mill for grinding grain vegetable gardens

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Feudal Agriculture

• Manor system
• Woolen garments from sheep
• Linen textiles from flax and the oil also
• Food served in feudal castle varied according to
  season hunting ability
• Hunting done by the lord
• Castle residents ate meat from poultry, cattle
  and etc produced by peasant farmers

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Feudal Agriculture

• Independent manorialism affected by wars of 14th
  15th centuries widespread plague outbreaks
• Villages were wiped out and land was abandoned
• Remaining peasants were discontented

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Scientific Agriculture

• By 16th century population agriculture were
  expanding in Europe
• New period of exploration colonization
• Circumvent Turkeys control of the spice trade
• Provide homes for religious refugees
• Provide wealth for European nations

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Scientific Agriculture

• Colonial agriculture
• Feed colonies
• Produce cash crops feed home country
• Cultivation of sugar, cotton, tobacco, tea,
  animals for wool and hide etc
• From 15th to 19th centuries slaves were used
• Slaves worked in Caribbean on sugar plantations
  in N America

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Scientific Agriculture

• Colonial agriculture
• Indians enslaved in Mexico
• Slaves from Englands prisons provided skilled
  and unskilled labor for colonies
• Slavery and serfdom wiped out in the 19th century

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Scientific Agriculture

• Scientific revolution occurred from the
  Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment in Europe
• Plant breeding
• Breeding cattle sheep
• Guernsey cow breed
• Crop rotations
• Drainage brought more land into cultivation

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Scientific Agriculture

• Livestock breeding in 1700s
• Limestone on soils in late 1700s
• Cast-iron plow
• 1797 by Charles Newbold
• John Deere improved it in 1830s made it from
  steel
• Seed drill in early 1700s
• Reaper by Cyrus McCormick in 1831

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Scientific Agriculture

• By late 1800s steam power replaced animal power
  in drawing plows and operating threshing
  machinery
• Science and technology developed for industrial
  purposes in agriculture
• Resulting in agribusinesses of the mid-20th
  century
• Poisons for pests developed in 19th century
• Improvements in transportation (19 20th)

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Scientific Agriculture

• After World War II
• Green revolution
• Selective breeding of crops
• DNA technology
• Intensive cultivation methods
• Machinery development

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Agriculture in USA

• Until 19th century, shared history of European
  colonial areas
• Dependent upon Europe for seeds, livestock,
  machinery
• Forced farmers in new world to be more innovative
• Government policies encouraged land settlement
• Homestead Act of 1862
• Establishments of Land Grant Colleges

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Agriculture in USA

• Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862
• Annual appropriations to each state to support
  Land-Grant Colleges by 1890
• 15,000 first year increased in 1,000
  increments until reached 25,000
• 1890 Colleges
• Support for African American Colleges
• Research tied to teaching

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Agriculture in USA

• 20th century
• Steam, gasoline, diesel, electric power
• Chemical fertilizers manufactured
• Loss of soil combated
• Selected breeding of plants animals
• Hybridization of corn in 1930s
• Improvements in storage, processing,
  transportation marketing
• Chemical control of pests

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Agriculture in USA

• In 1980s high technology farming
• Hybrids for many crops
• Better methods of soil conservation
• Irrigation systems improved
• Growing use of fertilizers
• Genetic engineering of many crops

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Food Sources for Humans Today
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Future of Agriculture

• Genetic engineering will be important
• Pests to pharmaceuticals to industrial products
• Identity preserved crops
• From farm gate to table top to industrial uses
• Need students well versed in the basic sciences
• Ever growing world population is of great concern
• Space?

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References

• www.adbio.com/science/agri-history
• www.aces.uiuc.edu/sare/columbian.html
• Franklin, R.B. 1948. A history of agriculture. G.
  Bell and Sons Ltd, London.
• Kerr, N.A. 1987. The legacy, a centennial history
  of the agricultural experiment stations
  1887-1987. Missouri Ag Exp Sta., Univ of
  Missouri-Columbia.