Agriculture: then and now - Soil preservation (Video)
Do the words “mouldboard plough” mean anything to you? Farming practices have changed significantly in the last 150 years. See how much we’ve grown.
Video transcript
[Upbeat music.]
[White background]
Text on screen: agriculture: then and now
Text on screen: soil preservation
[Fade to a black and white picture of a young boy using a mouldboard plough being pulled by two horses.]
Text on screen: then
Female narrator:
Then: Farmers used a mouldboard plough to turn the soil over, making it loose…
Text on screen: loose
…and airy…
Text on screen: airy
…for good root growth. It was a popular farming practice, but made soil less fertile over time.
Text on screen: less fertile over time
Top soil could be washed away by rain or blown away…
Text on screen: soil blown away
…by the wind, creating the perfect conditions for disasters such as the prairie dust bowl of the 1930s.
[A cloud of dust blows across the screen, picture fades to a modern black and white one of a man tending his field.]
Text on screen: now
[Picture gradually turns to colour.]
Now: Thanks to research in farming practices, much fewer farmers till the soil, leaving stalks…
Text on screen: stalks
…and roots…
Text on screen: roots
…from last year’s crop on the soil surface. This keeps water,
Text on screen: water
…organic matter, and nutrients…
Text on screen: nutrients
...in the soil and reduces erosion.
Text on screen: reduces erosion
It’s better for crops and the environment.
[Fade to white.]
We’ve come a long way.
Text on screen: We’ve come a long way.
[Upbeat music fades out.]
[Canada wordmark]
Text on screen: (c) Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food (2017)
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