-
9000 BCE
Farming Revolution
After 9,000 BC a change came over the world. Before we lived by hunting animals and gathering plants. Then about 8,500 BC people started to grow wheat, barley, peas and lentils instead of getting them in the wild. By 7,000 BC they domesticated sheep, pigs and goats. By 6,000 BC they also domesticated cattle. -
5000 BCE
Chinese
The Chinese began farming about 5,000 BC. Around about 5,000 BC rice was cultivated in southern China and millet was grown in the north. -
5000 BCE
Reinforcements
By 5,000 BC dogs and pigs were domesticated. By 3,000 BC sheep and (in the south) cattle were domesticated. -
4000 BCE
Farming Revolution
Farming first started in the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from Israel north to southeast Turkey then curves southeast to the Persian Gulf. However agriculture was also invented independently in other parts of the world as well. Meanwhile farming spread from the Middle East to Europe. By about 4,000 BC people in central Europe were using oxen to pull plows and wagons. About the same time people in the Middle East began using donkeys as beasts of burden. -
4000 BCE
Farming In The Ancient World
Egypt was said to be the gift of the Nile. Each summer the Nile flooded and provided water to grow crops. For irrigation Egyptians used a device called shaduf. It was a 'see-saw' with a leather container at one end, which was filled with water and a counterweight at the other. When the Nile flooded it also deposited silt over the land near the banks, which made the land very fertile once the water had subsided. -
1000 BCE
Plow
Farming improved in the Middle Ages. One big improvement was the heavy plow. Sometime before 900 a new kind of plow was invented which plowed the heavy, clay soil of northern Europe much more efficiently. Another important development was the 3-field system. -
1000 BCE
Gallus
In Roman France, a harvesting machine called a gallus was invented. It was a box on wheels with horizontal blades at the front. The box was pushed by an ox. As it moved forward through the wheat the blades cut the heads of the crop and they fell into the box. -
Seed Drill and Horse Drawn
Until 1701 seed was sown by hand. In that year Jethro Tull invented a seed drill, which sowed seed in straight lines. He also invented a horse drawn hoe which hoed the land and destroyed weed between rows of crops. -
Robert 'Turnip' Townshend
The Dutch began to grow swedes or turnips on land instead of leaving it fallow. (The turnips restored the soil's fertility). When they were harvested the turnips could be stored to provide food for livestock over the winter. The new methods were popularized in England by a man named Robert 'Turnip' Townshend (1674-1741). -
Selective Breeding
Also in the 18th century farmers like Robert Bakewell began scientific stock breeding (selective breeding). Farm animals grew much larger and they gave more meat, wool, and milk. -
Reaping Machine
Meanwhile, Cyrus McCormick (1809-1884) invented the reaping machine. is a mechanical, semi-automated device that harvests crops. Mechanical reapers and their descendant machines have been an important part of mechanized agriculture and a main feature of agricultural productivity. -
Steel Plow
John Deere (1804-1886) invented the steel plow. It was used for farming to break up tough soil without soil getting stuck to it. Wood plows couldn't plow the rich soil of the Middle-West without breaking. John Deere thought about it and was convinced that only a plow with mould board, made of good steel that isn't rusted would solve this problem. -
20th Century Farming
In the USA a network of railways had been built and steamships were sailing across the Atlantic. The result was that American farmers could now move their grain to ports and it could be shipped to Britain. -
Artificial Insemination
Also in the 1940s farmers began using artificial insemination.is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. -
New Tech
In the earlier 20th century tractors gradually replaced horses. Milking machines were rare in the early 20th century but they became common from the 1940s to the 1960s.
