Lesson 5 Crops Read and translate the text: a crop

Ornamental Crops
Ornamental crops, such as dogwood and azalea, are harvested for landscape gardening. Ornamental crops are most often grown in nurseries, where they are purchased for residential or commercial settings.
Ornamental crop production has deep historical roots. The tulip crop of the Netherlands, for example, has become a symbol of that country.
Today, ornamental crop production is an important economic activity in many developing countries. Kenya, for example, is a major exporter of roses and carnations. Kenyan flower growers have situated their greenhouses near the shores of Lake Naivasha and Lake Victoria, where the soil is fertile and the water is abundant and fresh.
Kenya’s huge flower operations, however, are having a negative impact on lake ecosystems. Growers irrigate their flowers with lake water, dramatically lowering supplies of freshwater available for consumption and hygiene. Growers also apply heavy amounts of fertilizers and pesticides so their flowers can maintain their beauty throughout the export process. These chemicals often runoff into the lakes, endangering aquatic animal and plant life.

Industrial Crops
Industrial crops, such as rubber and tobacco, are harvested for their products’ use in factories or machines. Industrial crops include all crops used in the production of industrial goods, such as fiber and fuel products.
Rubber is produced naturally from a wide variety of plants, but predominantly from the Hevea tree indigenous to the Amazon region. Rubber is harvested for its latex. Latex is an extremely tough fluid found in the inner bark of the Hevea tree. Latex is obtained by tapping—cutting or shaving the bark with a sharp knife—and collecting the latex in cups. When mixed with chemicals, latex creates solid rubber blobs, called curds. Rubber curds are pressed between rollers to remove excess moisture and to form sheets. The sheets are packed and shipped for use in tires, machine belts, shoe soles, and other products.
Rubber has been used by civilizations for thousands of years. One of the earliest uses of rubber was to create balls for use in games in the Olmec Empire in what is today Mexico. Today, rubber is still used to manufacture durable toys, as well as boots, flooring, balloons, and medical supplies.
Hevea trees transplanted to southern Asia now produce most of the world’s rubber.


Vocabulary:
meadows and pastures –
hay crops –
beef and dairy cattle –
wood pulp –
to manufacture paper products –
hemp plant –
a fiber crop –
ropes –
Hemp –
Versatile –