2001•Oxford University Press eBooksRequires access
Barley and Oats
M. E. Turner, J. V. Beckett, B. Afton
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Abstract
This chapter does for barley and oats what the previous chapter did for wheat, and it more or less reinforces the new findings about the timing of the agricultural revolution. But it also allows a wider appreciation of farm output to emerge based on proper measurements rather than estimates and to bring into the argument an added approach based on productivity. Output is usually measured as grain crop per acre, but this misses out the all important input of seed, or what we call the seeding rate, from which a new measure of productivity based on output per unit of input, can be assessed. This shows that not only were grain yields improving over time, but they improved at the same time as inputs were reduced. This reinforces both the timing of the agricultural revolution and also its magnitude in meeting the extra food needs of the parallel industrial and demographic revolutions.