Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/286/en

Since the times of ancient Persia, two sub-currents have differentiated themselves out of the farming peoples: the garden-cultivators and the fruit-growers. The former bred and cultivated vegetable plants and grew medicinal herbs and flowers. The craft knowledge and skill lived on within the hereditary stream of tribe and family. So there were still, into the 1960s and 70s, in Tehran, the so-called Zarathustrians, who continued this tradition reaching far back into prehistoric times. The fruit-growers understood the breeding, cultivation and care of fruit trees. Columella (†c. 70 AD) reports on the art of fruit-tree pruning, which was still passed down in the generational stream in ancient Rome. These four streams of farming — including fruit- and garden-culture — existed alongside one another, or in loose relation within village settlements, without interpenetrating one another in mutual support to form an organismic whole. Thus, for example, among Hindus in India — partly to this day — the dung of animals is not used as manure in arable or garden farming, but as fuel.