Agricultural Hearths &
Regions
Agricultural Hearths
• Origins of both vegetative and seed
agriculture
• Mapped out by Carl Sauer
• Sauer believed humans had power over
their environment and weren’t simply the
product of their environment.
2 Distinct Kinds of Agriculture
• 1. Vegetative Planting
– Removing part of the
plant and putting it in
the ground to grow a
new plant.
– Ex: fruits and berries
• 2. Seed Agriculture
– Taking seeds from
existing plants and
planting them to
produce new plants.
– Most farmers use this
method today.
Where did agriculture develop?
• Three Areas of Vegetative Planting
– 1. Central America & northwestern South
America
– 2. Western Asia
– 3. Southeast Asia
Where are the three hearths?
Why are these the hearths?
• All three had….
– Tropical regions with climates that were good
for growing agricultural products
– Large populations to provide a workforce to
domesticate plants and animals native to the
region.
Central American &
northwestern South American
HEARTH
• Who did it: Aztecs, Maya and Incas
• Plants: Sweet potato, arrowroot, cotton
• Animals: Turkeys, Llamas, Alpacas
Western Asia HEARTH
• Plants: Yams and Palm Oil
• Animals: Cattle, Sheep, Goats
Southeast Asian Hearth
• Plants: Root crops such as taro, bananas,
palm trees
• Animals: Dogs, pigs, chickens
Seed Hearths
• 1. Central America & parts of Mexico
• 2. Northeast portions of Africa, including
Ethiopia
• 3. Northern China
• 4. Northeastern India
• Practices diffused to other areas and are
still practiced today.
Southern Mexico Seed Hearth
• Squash, beans, cotton
Northeastern Africa Seed Hearth
• Coffee
• Diffused to Western Africa and then to
South America with the slave trade.
• Northern South American countries have
prospered from the production of coffee.
Northern China Seed Hearth
• Millet
Northeastern India
• Rice
Importance of trade routes
• Helped to diffuse the agricultural products we
use today.
• Colonialism brought many products to the
Western Hemisphere
• Diffusion of agricultural products led to different
styles of farming around the world.
• Climate dictates what is grown there.
• Ex: Lemons and Oranges don’t grow well in New
England.
Agricultural Regions &
Types of Farming
Two Types of Farming
• Subsistence
• Farmers produce the
food that they need to
survive on a daily
basis.
• Food is mostly
consumed on the
farm by the farmer
and family.
• Commercial
• Farming of products
for sale off the farm
• Usually done in more
developed countries
• Usually requires use
of machinery
Types of Subsistence Farming
•
•
•
•
•
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Shifting Cultivation
Crop Rotation
Pastoral Nomadism
Extensive Subsistence Agriculture
Intensive Subsistence Agriculture
Intertillage
Shifting Cultivation
• Moving of farm fields after several years in
search of more productive soil after
depleting the nutrients from the original
field.
• Usually takes place in tropical areas where
soil erodes quickly due to moisture
Shifting Cultivation
• Farmer will just leave
the old field empty
and move to next field
• To clear the next field
he will often burn the
vegetation there
• This puts nitrogen into
the soil, plants love
nitrogen
• SLASH AND BURN
Agriculture
Slash-and-burn agriculture
• Process leaves scars • Picture: Slash and
on land, the dirt left
Burn from the air
behind after the farmer
is done is incapable of
growing food.
• It can take decades for
the soil to return to
normal
• Puts rainforests and
other native
ecosystems at risk.
Crop Rotation
• Crop Rotationplanting of different
types of crops each
year to replenish the
soil with nutrients
used by the previous
crop.
• Ex: Plant corn one
year, soybeans the
next, and corn again.
• Ex: Planting clover
helps to replenish the
nitrogen taken out of
the soil by previous
crops.
Pastoral Nomadism
• Pastoral Nomadismmoving animals on a
seasonal basis to
areas that have the
necessary resources
to meet the needs of
the herd.
• Usually practiced in
arid climates that
have little
precipitation.
• Ex: Sahara Desert in
Northern Africa where
nomads take their
herds along trade
routes.
Extensive Subsistence
Agriculture
• Pastoral Nomadism & Shifting Cultivation
fit in this category.
• Extensive Subsistence has been criticized
for causing soil erosion, water degradation
and other environmental problems.
Intensive Subsistence
Agriculture
• Intensive Subsistence is a type of
agriculture that requires A LOT of work.
• Ex: Wet Rice
– Grown in a rice Sawah, requires lots of work
by hand.
Commercial Farming
• Commercial Farming- farming of products
for sale OFF the farm
• Practiced in MDCs
• Requires the use of machinery
• Mass production of crops
• Crops are produced at a reduced price
and sold at an increased cost, depending
on demand.
Commercial Farming
• Kansas
• Dakotas
Mediterranean Agriculture
• Must be practiced in a climate that has a
dry summer and a cool, moist winter.
• Crops: Grapes, dates, olives.
Mediterranean Agricultural
Regions
Dairy Farming
• Mechanized milking of cows, cows are
hooked up to milking machines.
Dairy Farming: Milk
Cows per acre by
county
Dairy Farming
• Usually done
relatively close to a
major market.
• Ex: Wisconsin held
the title of “dairy
state”. It is close to
Chicago, Detroit,
Milwaukee, &
Minneapolis.
• Milk can quickly be
shipped to these
areas and can be
sold before it
spoils.
Why do we see this?
What kind of map? Relative Location of
Wisconsin? Aggregation? Where are the
farms?
Mixed Livestock with crop
production
• Cows, grown for their meat and other
products, are fed with crops (corn &
soybeans) that are grown on the farm.
• Cows are sold by the pound, so the fatter
the cow the more money the farmer gets.
Livestock Ranching
• Done on land that is on the fringe of
productive land
• Needs lots of space to allow animals to
roam fields without a farmer
Specialized Fruit Production
• Large orchards dedicated to a specific
fruit.
• Southwestern & southeastern United
States have a lot of this type of farming.
• Ex: Oranges, lemons, limes, peaches,
berries and apples.
Plantation Agriculture
• The plantation itself is in an LDC, while the
owner of the plantation is in an MDC.
• Ex: Bananas, sugarcane, coffee, and
cotton are common plantations.
Truck Farms
• A farm where farmers produce fruits for
the market and ship them in trucks.
• Ex: Jolly Green Giant in Minnesota get
their veggies from truck farmers
• Many truck farms use migrant labor to
keep costs low.
Suitcase Farms
• A farm in which no one resides
permanently.
• Worked by migrant workers who come to
work on the farm as a job and go home to
a residence off farm property.
• Has led to rise of Agribusiness.
Suitcase Farms & Agribusiness
• Agribusiness- mass
production of
agricultural products.
• Debate between
Agribusiness &
Family Farms
Grain Farming
• Mass Planting and Harvesting of grain
crops (wheat, barley, millet)
• Take up a huge amount of land
• Ex: Great Plains in the United States is
one of the largest regions in the world that
specializes in the production of grain.
Grain Production in US