Agriculture is the first step toward civilization, because it requires a
significant advance in men’s conceptual development: it requires that they
grasp two cardinal concepts which the perceptual, concrete-bound mentality of
the hunters could not grasp fully: time and savings. Once you grasp these,
you have grasped the three essentials of human survival:
time-savings-production. You have grasped the fact that production is not a
matter confined to the immediate moment, but a continuous process, and that
production is fueled by previous production. The concept of “stock seed” unites
the three essentials and applies not merely to agriculture, but much, much more
widely: to all forms of productive work. Anything above the level of a
savage’s precarious, hand-to-mouth existence requires savings. Savings buy
time.