Technology
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Preparing the Seed-Bed
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.
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.