how did the introduction of machinery in agriculture adversely affect the poor peasants of the USA in the late 1800?
Answers
Answer:Art, science, and industry of managing the growth of plants and animals for human use. In a broad sense agriculture includes cultivation of the soil, growing and harvesting crops, breeding and raising of livestock, dairying, and forestry.
Regional and national agriculture are covered in more detail in individual continent and country articles. See also separate articles on the states of Australia and the U.S. and the provinces of Canada.
Modern agriculture depends heavily on engineering and technology and on the biological and physical sciences. Irrigation , drainage , conservation, and sanitation each of which is important in successful farming-are some of the fields requiring the specialized knowledge of agricultural engineers.
Agricultural chemistry deals with other vital farm problems, such as uses of fertilizer, insecticide, and fungicide, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals.
Plant breeding and genetics contribute immeasurably to farm productivity. Genetics has also placed livestock breeding on a scientific basis. Hydroponics, a method of soiless gardening in which plants are grown in chemical nutrient solutions, may solve additional agricultural problems.
The packing, processing, and marketing of agricultural products are closely related activities also influenced by science. Methods of quick-freezing and dehydration have increased the markets for farm products.
Mechanization, the outstanding characteristic of late 19th and 20th-century agriculture, has eased much of the backbreaking toil of the farmer. More significantly, mechanization has enormously increased farm efficiency and productivity.
Airplanes and helicopters are employed in agriculture for such purposes as seeding, transporting perishable products, and fighting forest fires, and in spraying operations involved in insect and disease control. Radio and television disseminate vital weather reports and other information that is of concern to farmers.
WORLD AGRICULTURE
Over the 10,000 years since agriculture began to be developed, peoples everywhere have discovered the food value of wild plants and animals and domesticated and bred them. The most important are cereals such as wheat, rice, barley, corn, and rye; sugarcane and sugar beets; meat animals such as sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs or swine; poultry such as chickens, ducks, and turkeys; and such products as milk, cheese, eggs, nuts, and oils. Fruits, vegetables, and olives are also major foods for people; feed grains for animals include soybeans, field corn, and sorghum. Separate articles on individual plants and animals contain further information.
Agricultural income is also derived from nonfood crops such as rubber, fiber plants, tobacco, and oilseeds used in synthetic chemical compounds, as well as raising animals for pelt.
The conditions that determine what will be raised in an area include climate, water supply, and terrain.
Nearly 50 percent of the world's labor force is employed in agriculture. The distribution in the late 1980s ranged from 64 percent of the economically active population in Africa to less than 4 percent in the U.S. and Canada. In Asia the figure was 61 percent; in South America, 24 percent; in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, 15 percent, and in Western Europe, 7 percent.
Farm size varies widely from region to region. In the late 1980s, the average for Canadian farms was about 230 ha (about 570 acres) per farm; for U.S. farms, about 185 ha (about 460 acres). The average size of a single landholding in the Philippines, however, may be somewhat less than 3.6 ha (less than 9 acres), and in Indonesia, a little less than 1.2 ha (less than 3 acres).
Size also depends on the purpose of the farm. Commercial farming, or production for cash, is usually on large holdings. The latifundia of Latin America are large, privately owned estates worked by tenant labor. Single-crop plantations produce tea, rubber, and cocoa. Wheat farms are most efficient when they comprise some thousands of hectares and can be worked by teams of people and machines. Australian sheep stations and other livestock farms must be large to provide grazing for thousands of animals. The agricultural plots of Chinese communes and the cooperative farms held by Peruvian communities are other necessarily large agricultural units, as were the collective farms that were owned and operated by state employees in the former Soviet Union.