The evolution of agriculture from the stone age through the medival period till the colonial times?

Answer 1

go with advances in irrigation.

Answer 2

Wow... you don't ask small questions, do you? Okay, Reader's Digest version...

Stone Age -- Most people were in small groups of hunter-gatherers, so there wasn't much agriculture going on, to speak of; mostly, people dug up roots and harvested leaves and fruit as they found them and brought them back to their camp for the group to share. At some point, someone got the bright idea to plant seeds and tend the land -- I'd hypothesize that somebody tried burying a cache of food for later use and came back to discover that a thick bunch of plants had sprouted. At any rate, the realization that you could grow your own food gave rise to the concept of civilization; since you didn't have to go wandering for miles looking for food, you could afford to feed more people, so small clans became small villages, and then towns.

Early civilizations -- Between the Sumerians in Babylon, the Egyptians along the Nile, the ancient Chinese, and later the Greeks and Romans, the cultivation of crops became much more scientific, with the development of various forms of irrigation to bring sufficient water to their fields and livestock. Through careful study and experimentation, certain crops were optimized (for their level of technology at the time) through special growing practices -- rice seemed to yield more grains when planted in flooded paddies instead of just in a field, for instance. Also during this period, the concept of crop rotation was discovered -- by planting different crops in a field at different times, the nutrients drawn out of the soil by one crop could be replenished by another, thus increasing yield. Natural fertilizers such as manure, small amounts of ash and ground up minerals were also discovered to improve yield and the health of the crop.

Agriculture really didn't change much until after the colonial period, when von Leibig discovered artificial fertilizer, and chemists started producing insecticides and herbicides, and mechanization allowed smaller groups of people to harvest progressively larger amounts of food.

Answer 3

during the stone age there werent many crops that were planted. most of the animals werent domesticated and people were more hunters and gatherers. In the Medieval period advances such as irrigation led people to plant crops to harvest instead of gathering. animals were domesticated and towns were set up in a more organized fashion allowing townfolk to help in growing crops and caring for livestock.