Planting

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 445.

The warm-season cereals are grown in tropical lowlands year-round and in temperate climates during the frost-free season. Rice is commonly grown in flooded fields, though some strains are grown on dry land. Other warm climate cereals, such as sorghum, are adapted to arid conditions.

Cool-season cereals are well-adapted to temperate climates. Most varieties of a particular species are either winter or spring types. Winter varieties are sown in the autumn, germinate and grow vegetatively, then become dormant during winter. They resume growing in the springtime and mature in late spring or early summer. This cultivation system makes optimal use of water and frees the land for another crop early in the growing season.

Winter varieties do not flower until springtime because they require vernalization: exposure to low temperature for a genetically determined length of time. Where winters are too warm for vernalization or exceed the hardiness of the crop (which varies by species and variety), farmers grow spring varieties. Spring cereals are planted in early springtime and mature later that same summer, without vernalization. Spring cereals typically require more irrigation and yield less than winter cereals.

Once the cereal plants have grown their seeds, they have completed their life cycle. The plants die and become brown and dry. As soon as the parent plants and their seed kernels are reasonably dry, harvest can begin.

In developed countries, cereal crops are universally machine-harvested, typically using a combine harvester, which cuts, threshes, and winnows the grain during a single pass across the field. In developing countries, a variety of harvesting methods are in use, depending on the cost of labor, from combines to hand tools such as the scythe or cradle.

If a crop is harvested during wet weather, the grain may not dry adequately in the field to prevent spoilage during its storage. In this case, the grain is sent to a dehydrating facility, where artificial heat dries it.

A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently solddirectly to consumers and restaurants. It is distinguishable from other types of farming by the diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically, from under one acre (0.4hA) to a few acres, or sometimes in greenhouses. Such a farm on a larger scale is sometimes called a truck farm.

A market garden is a business based on providing a wide range and steady supply of fresh produce through the local growing season. Many different crops and varieties are grown, in contrast with large, industrialized farms, which tend to specialize in high volume production of single crops, a practice known as monoculture. A market garden employs more manual labor and gardening techniques, compared to large-scale mechanized farming. Because production is relatively low-volume, sales are often through local fresh produce outlets, such as on-farm stands, farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture subscriptions, restaurants and independent produce stores. Market gardening and orchard farming are closely related to horticulture. This is a section of agriculture in which fruits and vegetables are grown.

Larger market gardens often sell to local food outlets, including supermarkets, food cooperatives, through community-supported agriculture programs, at multiple regional farmers' markets, to fresh food wholesalers, and any other higher-volume channels that benefit from buying a range of vegetables from a single supplier, their freshness allowing for a premium over the revenue from the supermarkets, and frequently, other local suppliers as well. By mixed crop production, a larger market garden can thus maintain a sales alternative to the wholesale commodity-style channels often used by farms specializing in high volumes of a limited number of crops.

That market gardening tends to rely on cities for its markets, can have its drawbacks, however. For example, in England, south Sussex was famous for growing tomatoes for the London market, with delivery by train to get the produce to market. The arrival of railways in the 19th century at first stimulated growth of market gardens in certain areas by supplying quick access to the city, but this also eventually led to commuting residents moving to the area, turning many market garden areas into suburbs. Urban sprawl still eats farmland up in urban regions today. This problem was solved in Suffolk County, New York by buying the rights to develop farmland from the farmers.

Sugar is the generalised name for a class of chemically-related sweet-flavored substances, most of which are used as food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide (in the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose). Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.

Production

Sugar beet(Beta vulgaris) is an annual plant in the Family Amaranthaceae, the tuberous root of which contains a high proportion of sucrose. It is cultivated in temperate regions with adequate rainfall and requires a fertile soil. The crop is harvested mechanically in the autumn and the crown of leaves and excess soil removed. The roots do not deteriorate rapidly and may be left in a clamp in the field for some weeks before being transported to the processing plant. Here the crop is washed and sliced and the sugar extracted by diffusion. Milk of lime is added to the raw juice and carbonatated in a number of stages in order to purify it. Water is evaporated by boiling the syrup under a vacuum. The syrup is then cooled and seeded with sugar crystals. The white sugar which crystallizes out can be separated in a centrifuge and dried. It requires no further refining.