Agricultural Terms Quiz

The planting and harvesting of domesticated plants and the raising of domesticated animals for food.

A plant that is deliberately planted, protected, cared for, and used by humans and is genetically distinct from its wild ancestors.

An animal that depends on people for food and shelter and that differs from wild species in physical appearance and behavior as a result of controlled breeding and frequent contact with humans.

<p>Individuals who practice agriculture by growing crops, raising animals, or some combination of the two.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The study of Earth's physical characteristics and processes; how they work, how they affect humans, and how humans affect them.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Components of topsoil (such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) necessary for plants to survive, grow, and reproduce.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The arrangement of shapes on Earth's surface.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The average pattern of weather over a 30-year period of a particular region.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate located along the equator that experiences rain every day of the year.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate located along the equator that has a dry season with little to no rain, usually in the winter; is often subject to monsoons.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Season reversal of winds with a general onshore movement in summer and a general offshore movement in winter; onshore winds bring monsoon rains.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Long periods of heavy rains every day at the end of a short dry season.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain annually.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate that receives about 10 to 25 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain annually that can support farming.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with an average year-round temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius); found north and south of the equator on the edges of tropical climates.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with long, hot summers and short, mild winters with variable precipitation; found on east coasts of continents.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate found along western coasts of continents closer to the poles; characterized by moderate temperatures during long summers and cool winters.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with winter precipitation, unusually mild winters, and clear skies with abundant sunshine; found along the Mediterranean Sea and a few western coastal regions (California, Chile, Australia).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate that has a large range of temperatures and moderate precipitation; found in the interior of continents, north of the moderate climate zones.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with a wide range of temperatures, moderate precipitation, and four distinct seasons; experiences warm to hot summers, moderate to abundant rainfall (20-50 inches [50-150 centimeters] annually), and cold winters with precipitation falling as snow.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with frigid temperatures nearly year-round; found in northern reaches of the continental climate zone and often described as subarctic.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Crop cultivation and livestock rearing systems that use high levels of labor and capital relative to the size of the landholding.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Food production mainly for consumption by the farming family and local community, rather than principally for sale in the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Farming oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A small-scale farming system in which a farmer plants one to a few acres that produce a diverse mixture of vegetable and fruits, mostly for sale in local and regional markets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A scaled-up version of market gardening, with more acreage, less crop diversity, and a stronger orientation toward more distant markets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Large landholding devoted to a capital-intensive, specialized production of a single tropical or subtropical crop for the global marketplace.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A diversified system of agriculture based on the cultivation of cereal grains and root crops (such as potatoes and yams) and the rearing of herd livestock.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Seeds that come from a wide variety of grasses cultivated around the world, including wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, and maize (corn).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A fast-growing cereal plant that is widely grown in warm countries and regions with poor soils.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Vegetables that form below ground and must be dug at maturity, such as cassava, potatoes, and yams.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A crop raised to be sold for profit rather than to feed the farm family and the livestock; common cash crops are cotton, sugar, coffee, and tobacco.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>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.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A system of wet rice cultivation on small level fields bordered by impermeable dikes; the fields (paddies) are flooded with 4-6 inches (10-15 centimeters) of water for about three-quarters of the growing season.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A highly mechanized commercial farming system that specializes in the production of cereal grains; requires large farms and widespread use of machinery, synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, and genetically engineered seeds.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An intensive system of animal feeding utilizing fenced enclosures to fatten livestock, mostly cattle and hogs, for slaughter and processing for the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A fenced enclosure used for intensive livestock feeding that serves to limit livestock movement and associated weight loss.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A farming system that specializes in the breeding, rearing, and utilization of livestock (primarily cows) to produce milk and its various by-products, such as yogurt, butter, and cheese.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The cultivation of a plot of land until it becomes less productive, typically over a period of about three to five years; when productivity drops, the farmer shifts to a new plot of land that has been prepared by slash-and-burn agriculture, used plots can be left to lie fallow for up to 20 years before being prepared by slash-and-burn agriculture to be used again.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Agriculture that involves cutting small plots in forests or woodlands, burning the cuttings to clear the ground and release nutrients, and planting in the ash of the cleared plot.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The farming practice of planting multiple (different) crops together in the same clearing at the same time.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A system of breeding and rearing herd livestock, such as cattle, sheep, or goats, by following the seasonal movement of rainfall to areas of open pasturelands.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The vast, flat, treeless arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the subsoil is permanently frozen.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Areas located outside of towns and cities; all the space, population, and housing not included in an urban area.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Small group of people living outside of an urban area.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The visible imprint of agricultural practices.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Large storage facility for grain.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>In U.S. commercial grain agriculture regions, a farm on which no one lives; planting and harvesting are done by hired migratory crews.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The ways in which people organize themselves on the land.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A tightly bunched farm settlement that has anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred inhabitants.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Center of farm operations, which includes the farmhouse, barn, shred, livestock pens, and family garden.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A settlement pattern in which families live relatively distant from one another.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A settlement pattern 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.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The methods used to lay out property lines.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A systematic documentation of property ownership, shape, use, and boundaries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Survey system that uses natural features such as trees, boulders, and streams to delineate property boundaries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Land survey system created by the U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785, which divides most of the country's territory into a grid of squares with 6-mile sides, which are then divided into smaller squares and rectangles.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A unit-block surveying system whose basic unit is a rectangle that is typically 10 times longer than it is wide.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The long-term process through which humans selectively breed, protect, and care for individuals taken from populations of wild plant and animal species to create genetically distinct species, known as domesticates.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Period during which the early domestication and diffusion of plants and animals and the cultivation of seed crops led to the development of agriculture.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The cultural region in the Americas that includes the diverse civilizations in the modern-day countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The variety and variability among species and ecosystems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A center where innovations or new practices develop and from which the innovations or new practices spread or diffuse.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Area in Southwest Asia that includes the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates; the earliest center of domestication of seed plants.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Area along the Indus River that flows from the highlands of Tibet and continues down along the border between present-day Pakistan and India; a site of the earliest domestication of plants and herd animals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The interaction and widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, disease, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Period that brought improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce that began in the late 1600s and continued through the 1930s.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A machine for planting seeds in a row.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A machine used to harvest grain crops mechanically; patented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Chemical compounds obtained from petroleum and natural gas for use in agriculture; include fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Industrially manufactured nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, made from petroleum by-products; contains higher concentrations of nutrients for plants than natural fertilizers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Material used to kill or repel animals or insects that can damage, destroy, or inhibit crop growth.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Consequence of overuse of fertilizer; occurs when excess nutrients seep down into groundwater or are carried into nearby waterways as runoff.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The U.S.-supported development of high-yield seed varieties that increase the productivity of cereal crops and accompanying agricultural technologies for transfer to less developed countries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The act of mixing different species or varieties of plants or animals to produce hybrids.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Planting another crop on the same plot of land as soon as the first crop has been harvested.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Occurs when ideas leapfrog from one important person, community, or city to another, bypassing other persons, communities, or rural areas.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A grain plant native to northeast Africa.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Native to or characteristic of a certain environment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Chemical residue that builds up with each application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The concentration of dissolved salts in the soil.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Assets that cost money, such as land, machinery, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, seeds, and livestock feed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Explains how the demand for and price of land decrease as its distance from the central business district increases.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A dense cluster of offices and shops located at the city's most accessible point, usually its center.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A large-scale farm oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The cultivation of a single commercial crop on extensive tracts of land.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An organization where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity such as services or production; services or production resources are provided to individual farm members.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A farming operation wholly owned by a family or family corporation that sells its products to some defined market, either directly or through a cooperative.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The planting and harvesting of domesticated plants and the raising of domesticated animals for food.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A plant that is deliberately planted, protected, cared for, and used by humans and is genetically distinct from its wild ancestors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An animal that depends on people for food and shelter and that differs from wild species in physical appearance and behavior as a result of controlled breeding and frequent contact with humans.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Farmers are individuals who practice agriculture by growing crops, raising animals, or some combination of the two.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The study of Earth's physical characteristics and processes; how they work, how they affect humans, and how humans affect them.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Components of topsoil (such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) necessary for plants to survive, grow, and reproduce.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The arrangement of shapes on Earth's surface.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The average pattern of weather over a 30-year period of a particular region.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The day-to-day atmospheric conditions that affect daily decisions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate located along the equator that experiences rain every day of the year.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate located along the equator that has a dry season with little to no rain, usually in the winter; is often subject to monsoons.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Season reversal of winds with a general onshore movement in summer and a general offshore movement in winter; onshore winds bring monsoon rains.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Long periods of heavy rains every day at the end of a short dry season.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain annually.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate that receives about 10 to 25 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain annually that can support farming.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with an average year-round temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius); found north and south of the equator on the edges of tropical climates.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with long, hot summers and short, mild winters with variable precipitation; found on east coasts of continents.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate found along western coasts of continents closer to the poles; characterized by moderate temperatures during long summers and cool winters.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with winter precipitation, unusually mild winters, and clear skies with abundant sunshine; found along the Mediterranean Sea and a few western coastal regions (California, Chile, Australia).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate that has a large range of temperatures and moderate precipitation; found in the interior of continents, north of the moderate climate zones.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with a wide range of temperatures, moderate precipitation, and four distinct seasons; experiences warm to hot summers, moderate to abundant rainfall (20-50 inches [50-150 centimeters] annually), and cold winters with precipitation falling as snow.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A climate with frigid temperatures nearly year-round; found in northern reaches of the continental climate zone and often described as subarctic.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Crop cultivation and livestock rearing systems that use high levels of labor and capital relative to the size of the landholding.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Food production mainly for consumption by the farming family and local community, rather than principally for sale in the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Farming oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A small-scale farming system in which a farmer plants one to a few acres that produce a diverse mixture of vegetable and fruits, mostly for sale in local and regional markets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A scaled-up version of market gardening, with more acreage, less crop diversity, and a stronger orientation toward more distant markets.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Large landholding devoted to a capital-intensive, specialized production of a single tropical or subtropical crop for the global marketplace</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A diversified system of agriculture based on the cultivation of cereal grains and root crops (such as potatoes and yams) and the rearing of herd livestock</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Seeds that come from a wide variety of grasses cultivated around the world, including wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, oats, and maize (corn).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A fast-growing cereal plant that is widely grown in warm countries and regions with poor soils.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Vegetables that form below ground and must be dug at maturity, such as cassava, potatoes, and yams.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A crop raised to be sold for profit rather than to feed the farm family and the livestock; common cash crops are cotton, sugar, coffee, and tobacco</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>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</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A system of wet rice cultivation on small level fields bordered by impermeable dikes; the fields (paddies) are flooded with 4-6 inches (10-15 centimeters) of water for about three-quarters of the growing season.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A highly mechanized commercial farming system that specializes in the production of cereal grains; requires large farms and widespread use of machinery, synthetic fertilizer, pesticides, and genetically engineered seeds.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An intensive system of animal feeding utilizing fenced enclosures to fatten livestock, mostly cattle and hogs, for slaughter and processing for the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A fenced enclosure used for intensive livestock feeding that serves to limit livestock movement and associated weight loss.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A farming system that specializes in the breeding, rearing, and utilization of livestock (primarily cows) to produce milk and its various by-products, such as yogurt, butter, and cheese.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The cultivation of a plot of land until it becomes less productive, typically over a period of about three to five years; when productivity drops, the farmer shifts to a new plot of land that has been prepared by slash-and-burn agriculture, used plots can be left to lie fallow for up to 20 years before being prepared by slash-and-burn agriculture to be used again.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Agriculture that involves cutting small plots in forests or woodlands, burning the cuttings to clear the ground and release nutrients, and planting in the ash of the cleared plot.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The farming practice of planting multiple (different) crops together in the same clearing at the same time.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A system of breeding and rearing herd livestock, such as cattle, sheep, or goats, by following the seasonal movement of rainfall to areas of open pasturelands.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The vast, flat, treeless arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the subsoil is permanently frozen.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Areas located outside of towns and cities; all the space, population, and housing not included in an urban area.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Small group of people living outside of an urban area</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The visible imprint of agricultural practices.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Large storage facility for grain.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>In U.S. commercial grain agriculture regions, a farm on which no one lives; planting and harvesting are done by hired migratory crews.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The ways in which people organize themselves on the land.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A tightly bunched farm settlement that has anywhere from a few dozen to several hundred inhabitants.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Center of farm operations, which includes the farmhouse, barn, shred, livestock pens, and family garden.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A settlement pattern in which families live relatively distant from one another.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A settlement pattern 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.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The methods used to lay out property lines.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A systematic documentation of property ownership, shape, use, and boundaries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Survey system that uses natural features such as trees, boulders, and streams to delineate property boundaries</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Land survey system created by the U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785, which divides most of the country's territory into a grid of squares with 6-mile sides, which are then divided into smaller squares and rectangles</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A unit-block surveying system whose basic unit is a rectangle that is typically 10 times longer than it is wide.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The long-term process through which humans selectively breed, protect, and care for individuals taken from populations of wild plant and animal species to create genetically distinct species, known as domesticates.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Period during which the early domestication and diffusion of plants and animals and the cultivation of seed crops led to the development of agriculture.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Large wild grass native to Mexico that produced the small ears of maize (corn) that were a favored food among early groups in Mesoamerica.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The cultural region in the Americas that includes the diverse civilizations in the modern-day countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The variety and variability among species and ecosystems.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A center where innovations or new practices develop and from which the innovations or new practices spread or diffuse.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Area in Southwest Asia that includes the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates; the earliest center of domestication of seed plants.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Area along the Indus River that flows from the highlands of Tibet and continues down along the border between present-day Pakistan and India; a site of the earliest domestication of plants and herd animals.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The interaction and widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, disease, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Period that brought improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce that began in the late 1600s and continued through the 1930s.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A machine for planting seeds in a row.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A machine used to harvest grain crops mechanically; patented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Chemical compounds obtained from petroleum and natural gas for use in agriculture; include fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Industrially manufactured nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, made from petroleum by-products; contains higher concentrations of nutrients for plants than natural fertilizers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Material used to kill or repel animals or insects that can damage, destroy, or inhibit crop growth.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Consequence of overuse of fertilizer; occurs when excess nutrients seep down into groundwater or are carried into nearby waterways as runoff.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The U.S.-supported development of high-yield seed varieties that increase the productivity of cereal crops and accompanying agricultural technologies for transfer to less developed countries.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The act of mixing different species or varieties of plants or animals to produce hybrids</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Planting another crop on the same plot of land as soon as the first crop has been harvested.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Occurs when ideas leapfrog from one important person, community, or city to another, bypassing other persons, communities, or rural areas.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A grain plant native to northeast Africa.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Native to or characteristic of a certain environment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Chemical residue that builds up with each application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The concentration of dissolved salts in the soil.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Assets that cost money, such as land, machinery, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, seeds, and livestock feed.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Explains how the demand for and price of land decrease as its distance from the central business district increases.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A dense cluster of offices and shops located at the city's most accessible point, usually its center.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A large-scale farm oriented exclusively toward the production of agricultural commodities for sale in the market.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The cultivation of a single commercial crop on extensive tracts of land.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An organization where farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity such as services or production; services or production resources are provided to individual farm members.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A farming operation wholly owned by a family or family corporation that sells its products to some defined market, either directly or through a cooperative.</p> Signup and view all the answers