The main farming methods of primitive agriculture

China's ancient agricultural farming methods, to the development of production tools as a sign, it is divided into slash-and-burn, 耜耕 ("stone hoe plowing) and iron plow oxen plowing three stages.

1. slash-and-burn farming

"Zhuangzi" said: "Shennong's world,...... and elk **** place, plowing and food, weaving and clothing, there is no harm to the heart, this to the virtue of the Long also. ......" in Chinese ancient history, "Shennong's", is the original planting occurred when the character. From the beginning of Chinese agriculture, it was centered on plantation. During the long period of collecting life, extensive experiments were conducted on the utilization value and cultivation methods of various wild plants, and cultivated plants suitable for human needs were gradually selected and bred. From "tasting a hundred herbs" to "sowing grains" and "planting corn" is a vivid reflection of this process; and the so-called "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered seventy poisons in one day" is a reflection of the process of "tasting a hundred herbs and encountering seventy poisons in one day". The so-called "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered seventy poisons in one day" reflects the difficulty and risk of this process. Shennong's "time of the day, divided the benefits of the land, make Lei Liyun, teach the people to farm." He became the founder of agriculture. In order to establish an agricultural economy, there must be a corresponding creation of tools, which is reflected in the legend that Shennong created catty axes and scythes, "to cultivate the grass". The legend of the so-called "Shennong's" is a reflection of Chinese agriculture in this era.

2. stone hoe plow

From the way of cultivation, the use of agricultural tools to analyze the level of development of China's ancient agricultural productivity can be divided into pre-tillage, ploughing and ploughing period of three stages of development. "Slash-and-burn" belongs to the pre-tillage period. With the use of a large number of bone plows and stone plows, people have been separated from the slash-and-burn farming methods, entered the "plowing" stage of agriculture.

3. Iron plow and oxen plowing

With the increase of population and human's demand for nature, the improvement of agricultural production tools, China entered the traditional agriculture stage, which is the "iron plow and oxen plowing" period. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, bronze agricultural tools appeared. At that time, they were rarely used in agriculture. However, thanks to the knowledge of fertilizing techniques, the fertile land could be continuously cultivated, and the poor land could be rotated after one or two years of fallow. With the use of iron farming tools in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the level of agricultural productivity took a qualitative leap forward. The emergence and initial promotion of oxen plowing in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, coupled with new advances in irrigation and fertilization technology, greatly improved the level of agricultural production in ancient China, and from then on, iron plows and oxen plowing became an important mode of cultivation in Chinese agriculture.