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Ch10 Rubenstein Vocab

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Agriculture   Deliberate modification of Earth's surface through cultivation of plants and rearing of animals to obtain sustenance or economic gain  
Crop   Grain or fruit gathered from a field as a harvest during a particular season.  
Vegetative planting   Reproduction of plants by direct cloning from existing plants (cutting stems & dividing roots)  
Seed agriculture   Reproduction of plants through annual planting of seeds that result from sexual fertilization  
Subsistence agriculture   Production of food primarily for consumption by the farmer's family  
Commercial agriculture   Production of food primarily for sale off the farm  
Agribusiness   System of commercial farming found in the United States and other relatively developed countries  
Prime agricultural land   The most productive farmland  
Shifting cultivation   A form of subsistence agriculture in which people shift activity from one field to another; each field is used for crops for a relatively few years and left fallow for a relatively long period  
Slash-and-burn agriculture   When farmers clear land for planting by slashing vegetation and burning the debris  
Swidden   A patch of land cleared for planting through slashing and burning  
Pastoral Nomadism   A form of subsistence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated animals  
Transhumance   seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pasture areas  
Intensive subsistence agriculture   A form of subsistence agriculture in which farmers must expend a relatively large amount of effort to produce the maximum feasible yield from a parcel of land  
Wet rice   The practice of planting rice on dry land in a nursery and then moving the seedlings to a flooded field to promote growth  
Paddy   Malay word for wet rice, commonly used instead of Sawah  
Sawah   Flooded field for growing rice  
Chaff   Husks of grain seperated from the seed by threshing  
Thresh   To beat out grain from stalks by trampling it  
Winnow   Toremove chaff by allowing it to be blown away by the wind  
Hull   The outer covering of a seed  
Double cropping   The practicee of harvesting twice a year from the same field  
Crop rotation   Practice of rotating use of different fields from crop to crop each year, to avoid exhausting the soil  
Cereal grain   Grass yielding grain for food  
Milkshed   Area surrounding a city from which milk is supplied  
Grain   Seedof a cereal grain  
Winter wheat   Wheat planted in the fall and harvested in the early summer  
Spring wheat   Wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer  
Reaper   Machine that cuts grain standing in the field  
Combine   Machine that reaps, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field  
Ranching   Form of commercial agriculture in which livestock graze over an extensive area  
Horticulture   Growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers  
Truck farming   Commercial gardening and fruit farming, so named because truck was a Middle English word meaning bartering or the exchange of commodities  
Plantation   Large farm in tropical and subtropical climates that specializes in the production of one or two crops for sale, usually to a more developed country  
Sustainable agriculture   Farming methods that preserve long-term productivity of land and minimize pollution, typically by rotating soil-restoring crops with cash crops and reducing inputs of fertilizer and pesticides  
Ridge tillage   A system of planting crops on ridge tops, in order to reduce farm production costs and promote greater soil conservation  
Desertification   Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting  
Green revolution   Rapid diffusion of new agricultural technology, especially new high-yield seeds and fertilizers  


   


 

 

 

 

 

 
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