Technology
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Preparing the Seed-Bed
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To agriculturalists, survival is dependent upon getting the seeds--such as the wheat grains shown above--to sprout and grow in the soil. Originally fields were cleared of weeds and prepared for planting by hand at great effort, using primitive hoes or digging sticks.
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The invention of the scratch plow in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago was a great labor-saving device for humans. It also marked a revolutionary stage in human development--the beginning of systematic substitution of other forms of energy, in this case animal power, for human muscles.