When tillage begins, other arts follow

In the Atlantic’s list of “50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel,” six have to do with agriculture: Nitrogen fixation (a surprising #11), the Green Revolution (Norman Borlaug is one of the few people name-checked, at #22), the moldboard plow (#30), the cotton gin (#33), scientific plant breeding (#38), and the combine (#50). The whole list is interesting and comes up with things that are so common you forget someone had to invent them, like alphabetization and the nail.