Early people lived by hunting animals and gathering grains. After a tribe(部落） had lived in an area for some time, its food supply would begin to reduce. Then the tribe had to move to new hunting grounds where there was more food.
This way of life caused special problems for the tribes. They were forced to depend on luck, as well as on their hunting skills. If they could find no game, the whole tribe was in danger of starving. And when the hunters had good luck one day, they were not sure to find game the next time. The tribes moves often because much land was needed to support their people.
Finally, people learned that they could grow their food. At first, the women of tribes raised patches of wild grain. Later, people discovered that they could plant their own seeds. Farming slowly became a way of life.
As people turned away from hunting to farming, their life changed. When the food supply became more constant, they no longer moved from place to place. The success of their crops depended partly on the weather, but there were also things they could do to help crops grow.
In the past, a tribe had to travel many miles for food. Now , only a small amount of land was necessary to feed the whole tribe. The tribe could grow in size because farming provided a way to feed people.
