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The Cultivation Genius of the Inca
The Incas were masters of plant domestication, especially potatoes. Their development of the potato was remarkable:
from 8 species of weeds having toxic tubers to more than 3000 distinct potato varieties. They pioneered a seven-year
potato crop rotation to prevent decimation by a nematode pest whose life cycle was six years and constructed an
ingenious agricultural research station in the high Andes that reproduced growing conditions of different ecological
regions of the empire. The base of the excavated depressions was consistently 15 degrees warmer than ground level
and each agricultural terrace corresponded to 3000 feet (900 m) in altitude. Using this complex, the Inca could
experiment with new crops and anticipate yields from anywhere in the empire, from the lowland rainforest to the
montane cloud forest to the high Andes.
Review questions:
Continued: People of the Rainforest
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