Did you know . . . Ancient Romans invented a machine to harvest grain? Farmers in ancient China destroyed the pests that harmed crops by bringing in their natural predators? The ancient Mayans restored nutrients to the soil by planting corn and beans together? People learned to farm more than twelve thousand years ago. The first farmers used simple technology. They carried water to their crops by hand. They made farm tools from wood and animal bones. Over the centuries, ancient farmers devised better technology. Ancient Middle Easterners learned to breed sheep to produce different colors of wool. The ancient Chinese learned how to grow more rice using irrigation techniques. The ancient Greeks built machines for pumping water, grinding grain, and crushing grapes and olives.
