Agricultural history of the United States of America

Agriculture is a major industry in the United States and the country is net exporter of food. As for the last census¹ of agriculture in 2009, there were 2.2 million farms, covering area of 922 million acres, an average of 418 acres per farm.

European agriculture practices greatly affected the New England² landscape. Colonists brought livestock over from Europe which caused many changes to the land. Along with livestock changing the plant species in New England from the original native species to European species they also contributed to the deterioration of the forests and fields.

Soil exhaustion was a huge problem in New England agriculture. Plowing with oxen did allow the colonist to farm more land but it increased erosion and decreased soil fertility. In the U.S., farms spread from the colonies westward along with the settlers. In cooler regions, wheat was often the crop of choice when lands were newly settled. Also very common in the Midwest³was farming. After the "wheat frontier", more diversified farms including dairy cattle⁴ generally took its place. Warmer regions saw plantings of cotton and herds of beef cattle⁵. In the south, raising tobacco and cotton was common. In the northeast, slaves were used in agriculture until the early 19th century. In the Midwest, slavery was prohibited by 1787.

The introduction and broad adoption of scientific agriculture since the mid nineteenth century has made a large improvement in the USA's economic growth. Soybeans were not widely cultivated in the United States until the 1950s, when soybeans began to replace oats and wheat.

Significant areas of farmland were abandoned during the Great Depression and incorporated into nascent⁶ national forests.

Notes:

¹ census -перепись

² New England- Новая Англия (название исторически сложившегося р-на в северо-восточной части США)

³ Midwest- Центрально-западная часть США

⁴ dairy cattle- молочное животноводство

⁵beef cattle- мясное животноводство

⁶nascent- возникающий, появляющийся

Questions:

1. Is agriculture main industry in the United States of America?

2. How many farms were there in 2009 according to the last census of agriculture?

3. Did European agriculture practices greatly affect the New England landscape?

4 What was a huge problem in New England agriculture?

5. What was the crop of choice in cooler regions?

6. What kind of plantings did warmer regions see?

7. What has made a large improvement in the USA’s economic growth?

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Зооинженерный факультет

ВАРИАНТ №1

BEEKEEPING

Beekeeping, also called apiculture, means management of colonies of bees for the production of honey and other hive products for the pollination of crops. Bees are sure to be among the most studied and best known insects. The honeybee is considered to be a common name for any of several species of highly social bees known for their honey-hoarding behaviour and their use as a domesticated species. One should refer the honeybee to the order Hymenoptera and one of the Apis species. Honeybees are native to Asia and the Middle East and were introduced to North America by early European colonists. By the mid-1800s, honeybees had become widespread in the world. At present, one may find honeybees on every continent except Antarctica, since they can be easily reared and adapted to many climates.

It has been found that honeybees are social insects noted for providing their nests with large amounts of honey. One can describe colony of honeybees as a highly complex cluster of individuals functioning actually as a single organism. The colony usually consists of the queen, the worker bees and male bees, or drones. The former is normally the only one in each colony. Unlike the worker bee, the queen bee is fertilized female capable of laying a thousand or more eggs per day. Like any worker bee the queen bee has a sting but it is a venomous sting. The number of the worker bees known as sexually undeveloped females may from a few to 60,000 bees. It is quite likely that there may be few drones the colony, but sometimes there may live as many as 1,000 drones.

Colonies are kept in hives where honeybees build the nest. Groups of hives are called apiaries, and a beekeeper may also be called an apiarist or apiculturist.

There exist a few recognized species of honeybees, including the European honeybee, the Indian honeybee, the dwarf honeybee, the mountain giant honeybee etc. However, only the European, the Indian, and to some extent, the dwarf honey bees are the species that have been domesticated. The former is said to be the most widespread domesticated bee and the one species kept in North America. There have been found any races of the European honeybee, but the ones most popular in modern beekeeping are the Italian, Carniola, and Caucasian. Most honeybees used in hives today seem to be mixtures of these and sometimes other races. Thus, modern beekeeping mainly refers to the husbandry of the European honeybee, though one can also refer beekeeping to the management of other domesticated species.

A beekeeper is an ancient and widespread profession and beekeeping originally appeared in the Middle East. The early Egyptians kept bees and traded for honey and beeswax along the East African coast several thousand years ago. Until 1851, beekeepers harvested honey and beeswax by killing the colonies inhabiting the hives. In that year the American apiarist Lorenzo Lorraine Lang troth discovered the principle of “bee space" according to which bees leave spaces of about 0.6 cm between wax combs. In artificial hives, if this space is left between adjacent comb frames and between the end frames and the walls of the hive, each comb will remain unattached to neighbouring combs. Langstroth's discovery made it possible to remove individual frames from a beehive and to harvest honey and wax without destroying the colony. Due to this discovery, one can control bee diseases and maintain a larger number of colonies.

Honeybees are the primary source of honey and beeswax. The latter is described as fine wax with unusual qualities. Honeybees also produce propolis, a substance possessing antibacterial properties, and royal jelly and pollen for human consumption. Honeybee venom is extracted for the production of antivenom therapy and is being investigated as a treatment for several serious diseases of the muscles, connective tissue, and immune system, including multiple sclerosis and arthritis.
In addition, bees have proved to be of great practical value for crop farming as in the act of collecting nectar they pollinate the flowers of many valuable crops and wild plants they visit.

The pollination of plants is sure to be the most important contribution of bees to the economy and the environment. Many species of wild pollinators have disappeared from the land as their habitats were destroyed by humans. It is the honeybee that has taken over as pollinator of many of the wild plants that remain. In this regard, the ecological value of honeybees is tremendous.

Beekeepers worldwide are known to earn their living from selling the honey and beeswax their hives produce, but in some countries, beekeepers are paid for their pollination services. However, honeybee colonies used in commercial pollination and those kept in cities may suffer from pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and other agricultural chemicals widely used in modern crop farming. As a result, bees are frequently poisoned by accident and this is a major concern of modern beekeepers.

Apiaries require an abundant supply of nectar and pollen. One should keep apiaries in an area where nectar-producing plants such as clover or eucalyptus are in abundance. As a rule, the apiaries of major honey producers are established in areas where intensive agriculture occurs, because it is not practical to grow plants for honey production alone. For a commercially successful operation, the area should support 30 to 50 colonies in an apiary.

Some beekeepers have migratory apiaries and transport their bees to Stable forage. Apiaries may consist of from 1 to 200 hives, depending on the means of the beekeeper and the flower resources available. Commercial beekeepers who make their entire living from bees often keep hundreds or thousands of hives.

Most beekeepers use standard equipment, that is, boxes (called supers) holding ten separate comb frames. It is interesting that the modern hive and the one described by Langstroth in 1851 are alike in dimensions.

Beekeeping is a successfully developing branch of agriculture in many countries, for example China, the United States, Argentina, Turkey, Ukraine, Mexico, and Russia are believed to be the world leading honey-producing countries. The leading honey exporters are China, Argentina, Mexico, while the leading importers are Germany, the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

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