Agricultural Beginnings

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Agricultural Beginnings

• 4000-3000 B.C. Agic. was going
• 3000 B.C. - Ox used for field cultivation,
  replacing the hoe
• By flowering of Egyptian culture, horticulture
  was an established discipline
• Systematic irrigation
• Formalized gardens, drug and medicinal plants
• Many fruits, etc.
• date, grape, olive, fig, banana, lemon,
  pomegranate, cucumber, artichoke, lentil, garlic,
  leek, onion, lettuce, mint, endive, chicory,
  radish, various melons

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Babylonia and Assyria

• Irrigation canals kept 10,000 sq. miles under
  cultivation fed 15,000,000 people (1500 B.C.)
• By 700 B.C. an Assyrian herbal listed over 900
  plants including 250 vegetable, drug, and oil
  crops.

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Rome

• Grafting and budding
• Cold storage of fruit
• Formal gardens quite important
• Fertility appraisals
• Legume rotation
• Prototype greenhouse

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Medieval - Western Cultures

• Much lost. The monastery kept the horticultural
  art alive
• Renaissance - revived interest in Italy in 13th -
  14th centuries.
• Spread to France, then England
• 1600's - Formal gardens at peak

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Experimental Science

• 1500's and on - an upsurge in yields.
• 1600-1700
• Especially continued in 20th century and
  particularly since WWII

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HISTORY OF CROPS
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5 Most Important Crop Groups

• 1. Cereals - Wheat, corn and rice
• Rice alone supplies the energy required by 50
  of the world's people.
• Associated with different major cultures
• 2. "Root" Crops - White or Irish potato (not a
  root), sweet potato, cassava (manioc or tapioca)
• 3. Sugar producers - sugar cane, sugar beet
• 4. Legumes - common bean, soybean
• 5. Tropical tree crops - coconut, banana

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Wheat

• The most widely cultivated plant in the world.
• Early varieties parched to make gruel or beer
• Natural hybridization, chromosome doubling --
  modern wheat
• Brought to Mexico in 1529
• U.S., Canada, and Argentina among worlds great
  producers

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Rice

• Limited distribution, but feeds more people
• Introduced to Carolinas in 1647
• Used for food, beers wines
• Produce starch rice powder
• Hulls used for fuel, building materials, and
  making chemicals for
• plastic manufacture
• Straw used

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Maize (Indian corn)

• A major animal food
• Was the most widely grown plant in America
• Center of Native American life
• Europe did not embrace it.
• U.S. is 1st in production, Argentina 2nd, China
  3rd
• Extremely wide uses

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Potato

• 2000 B.C. in America Europe in 1570
• Began to be common in Europe in 1700s
• 1800s - staple in Ireland (almost sole food of
  peasantry)
• Potato blight of 1845-6
• Irish potato to Bermuda in 1621, sold in Boston
  in 1707
• To NH in 1716 by Presbyterian colonists
• 1848 - nearly 100 named cultivars - MA Hort. Soc.

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Sweet potato

• Origination tropical Americas Pacific islands
• Adapted to warm climates
• Extensively grown in Africa Asia
• Provides 50 more calories than white potato, but
  less protein
• Major start in US came when grown as slave food

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Manioc

• Tropics of both hemispheres
• Africa from Brazil - 16th century
• World production 110 million tons
• Boiled or roasted or made into meal
• Tapioca pudding is from manioc
• Used for making adhesives, cosmetics, paper and
  for sizing textiles

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Growing processing
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Sugar cane

• Domestication in New Guinea or Indonesia
• Europe learned of it from Alexander the Great
• Columbus introduced it to the New World
• Supplies over 50 of the worlds sugar is used
  for making alcohol

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Sugar beet

• European plant used for greens
• Discovered sugar in root in 18th century
• 1801 - 1st processing plant - Prussia
• Napoleon encouraged growth in France
• Came to U.S. in late 1800s
• Sugar content has been increased from 2 to 20

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Legumes

• Highest of all plant food types in protein
• Amino acids complement those in cereals
• Highest consumption in India Latin America also
  high
• US produces 60 of worlds soybeans
• 2/5s of crop exported - thus most important crop
  in world trade
• Nitrogen fixing bacteria associated with roots
• Toxic members of the family

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Banana

• Perennial herb - stem is leaf stalks
• Originated in SE Asia
• Reference to it in India from 500 B.C.
• To Europe 2000 years ago (Alexander)
• Americas in 1516
• 1871 - railroad built - banana plantings made to
  provide freight
• Nutritive value close to white potato, but more
  carbs are in the form of sugar
• 37 million tons produced annually - only 15
  enters world trade

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Coconut

• Palm family Carnuba wax to rattan to dates and
  coconuts
• Tree known in India since 1000 B.C.
• Tree bears 50 to 100 coconuts/year
• Meat is dried making copra - oil extracted
  (60-70 by weight)
• Oil most important product - makes soaps,
  margarine (though less now)
• Residue coconut cake fed to livestock

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U.S. Fruit culture

• Nurseries in NY NE in 1640s
• Early 1800s - shift from food fruits to apple
  pear orchards for cider perry
• Cider major export to West Indies southern
  colonies
• Alcohol content of 16-20
• Consumption 201 to other alcoholic beverages
• 1790 to 1850 - itinerant peddlers worked as fruit
  tree grafters in early spring

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