Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
agriculture), refl ecting the central role of the controlled use
of fi re in places where this technique is used. Trees are cut
down and all existing vegetation is burned off. In slash-and-
burn, farmers use tools (machetes and knives) to slash down
trees and tall vegetation, and then burn the vegetation on
the ground. A layer of ash from the fi re settles on the ground
and contributes to the soil's fertility.
As we discuss in the next section, agriculture has fun-
damentally changed since shifting cultivation was the
global norm, but hundreds of millions of farmers continue
to practice some form of subsistence agriculture.
thousands of people working in factories instead of in
agricultural fi elds. Like the Industrial Revolution, the
Second Agricultural Revolution was composed of a series
of innovations, improvements, and techniques, in this
case initially in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark,
and other neighboring countries.
By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European
farming underwent signifi cant changes. New crops came into
Europe from trade with the Americas, including corn and
potatoes. Many of the new crops were well suited for the cli-
mate and soils of western Europe, bringing new lands (previ-
ously defi ned as marginal) into cultivation.
The governments of Europe helped create the condi-
tions necessary for the Second Agricultural Revolution by
passing laws such as Great Britain's Enclosure Act, which
encouraged consolidation of fi elds into large, single-owner
holdings. Farmers increased the size of their farms, pieced
together more contiguous parcels of land, fenced in their
land, and instituted fi eld rotation. Methods of soil prepara-
tion, fertilization, crop care, and harvesting improved.
New technologies improved production as well. The
seed drill enabled farmers to avoid wasting seeds and to
plant in rows, making it simpler to distinguish weeds from
crops. By the 1830s, farmers were using new fertilizers on
crops and feeding artifi cial feeds to livestock. Increased
agricultural output made it possible to feed much larger
urban populations, enabling the growth of a secondary
(industrial) economy. In 1831, Cyrus McCormick, a
farmer in Lexington, Virginia, perfected his father's design
for a mechanical reaper (Fig. 11.6). At the time, farmers
Settling down in one place, a rising population, and the
switch to agriculture are interrelated occurrences in human
history. Hypothesize which of these three happened fi rst,
second, and third and explain why.
HOW DID AGRICULTURE CHANGE
WITH INDUSTRIALIZATION?
For the Industrial Revolution (see Chapter 12) to
take root, a
Second Agricultural Revolution
had to take
place—one that would move agriculture beyond subsis-
tence to generate the kinds of surpluses needed to feed
Figure 11.6
Midwest, United States.
Pioneers in 1870
used the mechanical reaper designed by Cyrus
McCormick to cut and bundle grain on the prairie.
Pulled by horses, the mechanical reaper sped up har-
vesting and diffused around the world.
© Hulton-
Deutsch Collection/CORBIS.
