Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing and harvesting crops, and raising livestock for human use. The word agriculture comes from the Latin words agermeaning a field and culturameaning cultivation. Prehistoric peoples hunted, fished, or gathered their food, but by about 11,000 B.C., people began to domesticate and breed plants and animals.The early peoples noted which of the wild plants were edible or otherwise useful, saved the seeds, and replanted them in cleared land. Through time, cultivation of the most productive and hardiest plants yielded a stable strain. Young, wild animals were captured and those with the most useful traits, such as small horns or high milk yield were bred. The evolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers to cultivators allowed people to establish permanent villages because they had a close and reliable food supply. Fewer people were required to provide food and were...