Study the agricultural terms before reading the text.
1. seed [si:d] – семя, зерно
2. domestication – одомашнивание, приручение
3. irrigation [IrI΄geI∫n] – орошение
4. crop rotation – севооборот
5. selective breeding – селекционное разведение
6. milking machine – доильный аппарат
7. pump – насос
8. feeding trough [tr6f] – кормушка
9. insect pest – насекомое-вредитель
10. wood ash – древесная зола
11. manure [mə΄njuə] – навоз
Read and translate the text into Russian.
From the History of Agriculture
For hundreds of thousands of years, prehistoric people lived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. Then about 8000 B.C. (before Christ – до нашей эры), people took the first steps toward agriculture. Some tribes discovered that plants could be grown from seeds. They also learned that certain animals could be tamed and then raised in captivity. These two discoveries marked the beginning of the domestication of plants and animals. Scholars believe that domestication began in the Middle East and then spread to surrounding areas.
The Romans had developed some farming methods, e.g. systems of crop rotation. The selective breeding of plants and livestock began in Europe during Roman times, too.
Since the 1800s, science and technology have helped make agriculture more and more productive in three main ways. They have provided farmers with labor-saving technologies, produced improved plant varieties and breeds of livestock and developed new agricultural chemicals.
Labor-saving technologies. Steam-powered tractors were developed in the mid-1800s, but they were expensive and difficult to operate. The first all-purpose gasoline-powered tractors appeared in the 1920s. They gradually replaced work animals and steam-powered machines on almost all farms. In Japan and several European countries most farms had electric power service by the mid-1930s. Today farmers use electric motors to run milking machines, irrigation pumps, and many other farm machines. Farmers also use electric power to operate electronic and automated equipment. This equipment includes devices that fill feeding troughs or collect and grade eggs automatically.
Many farmers use computers to aid in farm operations. Using the Internet, farmers may make use of data provided by agricultural colleges or other information centers.
Plant and livestock breeding. During the mid-1800s an Austrian botanist and monk named Gregor Mendel discovered the principles of heredity. Mendel thus laid the groundwork for genetics – the science that explains how characteristics are inherited. The development of genetics has made it possible to breed plants and animals scientifically.
Since the early 1900s, plant breeders have developed a great number of hybrid crops that produced unusually high yields. The new varieties were intended mainly to help various poor nations, such as India and Mexico, increase their food supply. This effort proved so successful that it has been called the Green Revolution.
Livestock breeders have introduced many improved lines since the early 1900s. Nutrition specialists have developed better livestock feeds, and 158 veterinarians have improved methods of health care. All these advances continue to make livestock more and more productive.
Agricultural chemicals. Almost since the beginning of agriculture, farmers have used various substances to enrich the soil and to kill insect pests. For example, they have used wood ash and manure as fertilizers since prehistoric times. Since the beginning of modern chemistry in the late 1700s, scientists have produced many kinds of synthetic chemicals for use in agriculture. These chemicals include fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides or weedkillers and chemicals to control plant and animal diseases. All these chemicals have helped increase farm production greatly. However, improper or excessive use of these chemicals can be dangerous and cause damage to the environment. In many countries state laws limit such practices and prohibit the use of chemicals that have been proved harmful.
