Module 33-34 Flashcards
Agriculture
The planting and harvesting of domestic plants and the raising of domesticated animals for food.
Domesticated Plant
A plant that is deliberately planted, protected, cared for, and is used by humans and is genetically distinct from its wild ancestors.
Domesticated Animal
An animal that depends on people for food and shelter and is different from its wild ancestors in looks and behavior as a result of close contact with humans.
Farmers
Farmers who raise crops and livestock to sell in the market at a profit rather than raising them for their own consumption.
Nutrients
Components of topsoil (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) necessary for plants to survive, grow, and reproduce.
Topography
The arrangement of shapes on Earth’s surface.
Climate
The average pattern of weather over a 30-year period for a particular region.
Weather
The day to day atmospheric conditions that affect daily decisions.
Tropical Wet Climates
A climate located along the equator that experiences rain everyday of the year.
Tropical wet and dry climates
A climate located along the equator that has a dry season with little to no rain, usually, in the winter, is subject to monsoons.
Monsoon
Seasonal reversal of winds with a general onshore movement in the summer and a general offshore movement in the winter, onshore winds bring monsoon rains.
Monsoon Rains
Long periods of heavy rains ever day at the end of a short dry season.
Arid
A climate that receives less than 10 inches of rain annually.
Semiarid
A climate that receives about 10-20 inches of rain annually that can support farming, also known as a steppe climate.
Moderate Climate
A climate with an average year-round temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit; found north and south of the equator on the edges of tropical climates.
Humid Subtropical
A climate with long hot summers and short, mild winters with variable precipitation; found on the east coasts of countries.
Marine West Coast Climate
A climate found along western coasts of continents closer to the poles; characterized by moderate temperatures during long summers and cool winters.
The Mediterranean Climate
A climate with winter precipitation, unusually mild winters, and clear skies with abundant sunshine; found along the Mediterranean sea and a few coastal regions.
Continental Climate
A climate that has a large range of temperatures and moderate precipitation; found in the interior of continents, north of the moderate climate zone.
Humid Continental
A climate with a wide range of temperatures, moderate precipitation, and 4 distinct seasons; warm/hot summers, moderate/abundant rainfall (20-50 inches), cold winters (precipitation=snow)
Humid Cold
A climate with frigid temperatures nearly year-round found in norther reaches of the continental climate zone and often described as subarctic.
Intensive Agriculture Practices
Crop cultivation and livestock rearing system that use high levels of labor and capital relative to the size of the landholding.
Subsistence agriculture
Food production mainly for consumption by the farming family and local community, rather than principally for sale in the market.
Market Gardening
A small scale farming system in which a farmer plants one to a few acres that produce a diverse mixture of vegetables and fruits, mostly for sale in local and regional markets.
Truck Farm
A scaled-up version of market gardening, with more acrege, less crop diversity, and a stronger orientation toward more distinct markets.
Plantation Agriculture
Large landholding devoted to capital-intensive, specialized production of a single tropical or subtropical crop for the global marketplace.
Mixed Crop/livestock Agriculture
A diversified system of agriculture based on the cultivation of cereal grains and root crops (potatoes and yams) and the rearing of herd livestock.
Cereal Grains
Seeds that come from a variety of grasses cultivated around the world (wheat, braley, sorghum, millet, oats, corn)Mi
Millet
A fast growing cereal plant that is widely grown in warm regions with poor soil.
Root Crops
Vegetables that farm below ground and must be dug at maturity, such as cassava, potatoes, and yams.
Cash crops
A crop raised to be sold for profit rather than to feed the farm family and the livestock (cotton, flax, hemp, coffee, tobacco)
Peasants
Small-scale farmers who own their fields, rely chiefly on family labor, and produce both for their own subsistence and for sale in the market.
Paddy Rice Farming
A system of wet rice cultivation on small level fields bordered by impermeable dikes; the fields (paddies) are flooded with 4-6 inches of water for about 3/4 of the growing season
Grain Farming
A highly mechanized commercial farming system that specializes in the production of cereal grains; requires large fields and widespread use of machinery, synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, and genetically engineered seeds.
Livestock Farming
An intensive system of animal feeding utilizing fenced enclosures to fatten livestock, mostly cattle and hogs, for slaughter and processing for the market.
Feedlots
A fenced enclosure used for intensive livestock feeding that serves to limit livestock movement and associated weightloss.
Dairy Farming
A farming system that specializes in breeding, rearing, and utilization of livestock (primarily cows) to produce milk and its various by products (yogurt, butter, and cheese)
Extensive Agriculture
Crop cultivation and livestock rearing systems that require little hired labor or monetary to successfully raise crops and animals.
Shifting Cultivation
The cultivation of a plot of land until it becomes less productive, typically over a period of about 3-5 years; when productivity drops, the farmer shifts to a new plot of land that has been prepared by a slash-and-burn agriculture.
Slash-and-burn agriculture
Agriculture that involves cutting small plots in forests or woodlands, burning the cuttings to clear the ground and release nutrients, and planting in the ask of the cleared plot.
Inter-cropping
The farming practice of planting multiple crops together in the same clearing.
Nomadic Herding
A system of breeding and rearing heard livestock, such as cattle, sheep, or goats, by following the seasonal movement of rainfall to areas of open pastureland.
Tundra
The vast, flat, treeless arctic region of Europe, Asia, North America in which the subsoil is frozen.
Livestock Ranching
The practice of using extensive tracts of land to rear herds of livestock to sell as meat, hides, or wool.
Rural Area
Area located outside of towns and cities; all of the space, population, and housing not included in an urban area
Rural Settlement
Small group of people living outside of an urban area.
Agricultural Landscape
The visible imprint of agricultural practices.
Grain Elevators
Large storage facility for grain
Suitcase Farms
In U.S. commercial grain agriculture regions, a farm in which no one lives; planting and harvesting are done by hired migratory crews.
Silo
Round or square tower like structure that stores feed for livestock on the farm.
Rural settlement patterns
The ways in which people organize themselves on the land
Clustered Settlements
A tightly bunched farm settlement that has anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred inhabitants.
Farmstead
A center of farm operations which includes that farmhouse, barns, shed, livestock pens, and family garden.
Dispersed settlement
A settlement patterns in which families live relatively distant from each other.
Linear Settlement
A settlement patterns in which buildings are arranged in a line, often along a road or river; limited to areas where legal systems dictated that property lines must be rectangular.
Survey methods
The methods used by surveyors to lay out property lines.
Cadastral Survey
Systematic documentation of property ownership, shape, use, and boundaries.
Metes and Bounds
Survey system that uses natural features such as trees, boulders, and streams to delineate property boundaries.
Township and Range
Land survey system created by the U.S. land ordinance of 1785, which divides most of the country’s territory into a grid of square shaped townships with 6 mile sides.
Long Lot
A unit-block surveying system whose basic unit is a rectangle that is typically 10 times longer than it is wide. yo
