1. Agriculture

2. Agricultural Hearths – 1st Agricultural Revolution

4. Carl Sauer’s beliefs on domestication
Domestication probably did not develop in response to hunger
Starving people must spend every waking hour searching for food
Started by people who had enough food to remain settled in one place
Did not occur in grasslands or river floodplains because of thick sod and periodic flooding
Must have started in regions where many different kinds of wild plants grew
Started in hilly district areas, where climates change with differing sun exposure and altitude
Vegetative Planting 1st (transplanting part of actual plant) then Seed Planting

5. Diffusion along Trade Routes
Techniques as well as foods

6. Subsistence Agriculture Commercial Agriculture
Found in LDC’s
Commercial Agriculture
Found in MDC’s
Distinguishing features
Purpose of farming
% of farmers in the labor force
Use of machinery
Farm size
Relationship of farming to other businesses
Rubenstein p

8. Percent of Labor Force engaged in Agriculture
Rub. Map 331

9. Agricultural Regions By Derwent Whittlesey, 1936
11 main agricultural regions
5 in LDC’s
6 in MDC’s
Plus 1 where ag is nonexistent

14. LDC: Shifting Cultivation
Characterized by
Slash and burn agriculture
Using field for only a few years
Cleared land called Swidden or ladang, milpa, chena or kaingin
Crops
SE Asia: rice
S America: maize & cassava
Africa: millet & sorghum

16. LDC: Pastoral Nomadism
A form of subsistence agricultural
Located in semiarid lands of: N. Africa, Middle East, Central Asia
Only 15 million people are pastoral nomads but use 20% of Earth’s land area
Transhumance

18. LDC: Intensive Subsistence Agriculture w/wet rice
Intensive: farmers more work more intensively to subsist
Areas of high population density resulting in less land available/farmer
Some are wet rice areas
Some have double cropping

20. LDC: Intensive Subsistence Agriculture wet rice not dominant
Areas with low precipitation
Crops: wheat, barley, legumes, etc.
Crop rotation
Common in Communist China

21. LDC: Plantation Farming
A large farm that specializes in one or two crops: cotton, sugarcane, coffee, rubber & tobacco
Usually in subtropics
Usually in areas of low population density – must import workers

22. MDC: Mixed Crop & Livestock
Most common form of commercial ag in US
Most crops are fed to animals rather than for human consumption – corn or soybeans common
Uses crop
rotation
Rub. Map 343

24. MDC: Dairy Farming Once only in MDC’s, now more common in S & E Asia –
India is the #1 producer
Must be close to market – milkshed
Improved transportation and refrigeration have increased milkshed radius
Rub. Map p. 344

26. MDC: Grain Farming Crops grown primarily for human consumption
Grains are: wheat, corn, oats, barley, rice, millet, etc.
Stores easily & transported a long distance
N. Am prairies – world’s “breadbasket”
Rub. Map 346

28. MDC: Livestock Ranching
Commercial grazing of livestock over an extensive area
Range wars caused by enclosures
Introduction of new cattle breeds
Non-US ranching: Spain, Portugal, Argentina,
southern Brazil
& Uruguay
Rub. Map 348

30. MDC: Mediterranean Ag.
S. Europe, N. Africa, w. Asia, California, central Chile, & sw. Australia
All of the above borders seas, most on west coast off continents
Mostly horticulture: fruits, vegetables, and flowers & commercial tree crops
Most of world’s olives & grapes produced in Med. areas

32. MDC: Commercial Gardening
Predominant in se US
Aka “truck farming” (truck was a Middle English word for bartering)
Highly efficient large-scale operations
New England has specialty farming – limited but increased demand among affluent, ex: asparugus, strawberries, etc.

33. 2nd Agricultural Rev. 1750-1900 – with the Industrial Rev.
Increased productivity
More food with less farmers
Esther Boserup - agric. output depends on the pop. - Anti-Malthusian
5 stages of intensification of farmland
1. forest fallow, 2. bush fallow 3. short fallow 4. annual cropping 5. multicropping

34. Green (3rd) Revolution
Invention and quick diffusion of agricultural techniques during 1960’s-80’s
Main techniques
Genetic Engineering
Higher-yield seeds – Norman Borlaug
Drought/disease resistance
Quicker growing season (double-cropping)
Expanded use of fertilizers
Need tractors, irrigation pumps & other machinery to take full advantage