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He cleared another field, and increased his acreage, because now his machinery allowed him to work more land with the same amount of effort.
因為農業機械化使得他付出同樣的勞作，卻可以耕種更多的土地。
But in Japan or China, farmers didn't have the money to buy equipment. and, in any case, there certainly wasn't any extra land that could easily be converted into new fields.
但是在日本和中國，農民沒有余錢去購買設備，并且情況也不允許他們開發更多的土地。
So rice farmers improve their yields by becoming smarter, by becoming better managers of their own time, and by making better choices.
因此耕種水稻的農民只有依靠他們的智慧去提高他們的產量，如更加有效地管理時間，作出更好的抉擇。
As the anthropologist Francesca Bray puts it, rice agriculture is "skill oriented":
人類學家弗朗西斯庫·貝瑞曾經指出，稻田農業是種“技術作業”：
if you're willing to weed a bit more diligently, and become more adept at fertilizing, and spend a bit more time monitoring water levels,
如果你想獲得豐收，你就要更加辛勤地除草、謹慎地施肥、
and do a better job keeping the claypan absolutely level, and make use of every square inch of your mu, you'll harvest a bigger crop.
多花心思灌溉田地以保持水位、調整合適的土層高度，努力耕耘每一寸土地。
Throughout history, not surprisingly, the people who grow rice have always worked harder than almost any other kind of farmer.
回溯一下歷史，毫無疑問，耕種稻田的農民總是比耕種其他農作物的農民更辛苦。
That last statement may seem a little odd, because we have a sense that everyone in the premodern world worked really hard. But that simply isn't true.
或許這個結論看起來有點奇怪，因為我們大多數人都會認為每位生活在非現代化社會的人的工作都十分辛苦。顯而易見，這是個誤解。
All of us, for example, are descendents of some point from hunter-gatherers, and many hunter-gatherers, by all accounts, had a pretty leisurely life.
舉個例子，從某種角度來說，我們所有人都是捕獵者的后代，通常很多捕獵者都聚集在一起，過著十分悠閑的生活。
The Kung bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, in Botswana, who are one of the last many practitioners of that way of life,
一群生活在喀拉哈里沙漠灌木叢中的土著人，至今還保持著這種早期人類的生活方式。
subsist, in large part, on the mongongo nut, and incredibly plentiful and protein-rich source of food that lies thick on the ground.
他們依靠水果、漿果、植物根莖以及一種特殊的堅果和大量散落在地上的富含蛋白質的食物來維持生活。
They don't grow anything, and it's growing things-preparing, planting, weeding, harvesting, storing-that takes time.
他們從不耕種，但現在的耕種卻需要花費很多時間去準備、播種、除草、豐收、儲藏。
Nor do they raise any animals.Occasionally, the male !Kung hunt, but chiefly for sport.
他們也不圈養家禽，原始人里的男性偶爾進行打獵也只是為了運動。
All told, Kung men and women worked no more than twelve to nineteen hours a week, with the balance of the time spent dancing, entertaining, and visiting family and friends.
通常來說，土著人一個星期的工作量不會超過12到19個小時，其它的時間都用在跳舞、消遣及走親訪友上。
