The importance of agriculture cannot be overstated; it surely ranks as one of the greatest innovations of all time. Without it, the human race would still number in the hundreds of thousands, and the sole chance of this planet defending itself from space-borne death -- through asteroids or aliens from Zeta Reticuli -- would never come to pass. But have it we do, and for thousands of years it has served us well. Not just by teaching us to plant cereal; the countless innovations that have come about since then have improved our diet, our knowledge and our capacity to fill the Earth.
In this chapter, Ndbag gives us ten thousand years of agricultural technology in three panels. And in doing so, he not only points out one of the key moments that brought the human race to where it is today, he answers a question that has vexed boogeymanologists for decades.
To say that Ndbag likes socks is to state the obvious; this has been known for as long as the boogeyman himself. Even today, shrine maidens in Japan leave offerings of socks outside their temples, at the feet of statues of the boogeymen. These socks will always be taken during the night, occasionally to be replaced by bananas.
So there's no controversy here; boogeymen like socks, and we all know it. One thing that has long puzzled scientists, though, is the fact that the nutritional requirements of the boogeyman do not seem to be met by socks; even argyle socks are lacking. There's enough fibre, to be sure, but several proteins, thought to be essential to boogeyman physiology, are missing.
By the same token, the early pioneers of agriculture in the golden crescent found their efforts stymied; despite artificial selection giving better and better wheat each year, the yields gradually fell away. Just as boogymen need their ependymin, the soil needed nutrients of its own, and these were slowly being taken away by the wheat. It was only with the discovery of crop rotation on level 3 of Age of Kings that yields were able to increase; with the growing of different crops, variety increased and soil health improved. Equally, Ndbag shows us how exactly he manages to survive on a diet that was apparently deficient.
The choice of lint as a supplement is telling for many reasons. Primary among the reasons for choosing it is, of course, the taste, but it also serves as an eerie parallel to humanity's increased knowledge of the effects of certain elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus on the effectiveness of agriculture.
Lint comprises a surprising variety of components, but in essence these can be broken down into two groups; fluff and gunk. In large enough doses the latter is, of course, lethal, but at the levels found in lint it serves a number of purposes, especially when bonded to certain sulphur compounds such as toenailium sulphide. When combined with a diet of socks, the trace amounts of toenailium sulphide in socks react with the gunk, producing a number of amino acids that help keep our boogeyman alive. Compounds of fluff also have benefits that aren't obvious at first glance.
And so it is with agriculture; too much phosphorus the consequences can be disastrous, but when mixed in the right ratios with the right compounds can bring massive increases in the effectiveness of arable land.
Boogeymen certainly don't live by socks alone. Nor we by wheat.
i wish you explained the benefits of the fluff group too... o_o
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