Horticulture provides food resources that are subject to different natural circumstances than are some other prehistoric food sources.
Planting, fertilizing, weeding, watering and storing seeds and grain provide food resources than can be cached, or preserved, for a time of greater need; surpluses can be used in trade.
Horticultural crops can compensate for vagaries in the behavior of some wild game, especially migrating ones such as bison and antelope.
An increased dependence on carbohydrates may indirectly increase the birth rate of a population, which may or may not work to its advantage.
For the first people to practice horticulture, this implied a change in lifestyle to one that was more sedentary.
Back