Farming

Some Information About Measurements.

• 1 unit of food is equal to 1 cubic ft.
• 1 bushel is aproximatley 1.25 cubic foot, or 1.25 units.
• 1 acre of land is 43,560 square feet, roughley 209 by 209 ft.
• 1 mile is 5280 ft long 1 square mile is 27,878,400 square foot.
• 1 square mile is 640 acres.

Some Information About Food Needs..

• Humans consume12 bushels of food per year, or 1 bushel per month. We will use 1.5 units per month.
• Children consume 6 bushels of food per year or .5 bushels per month. We will use .5 units per month.

Farmers don't do much of anything related to farming during the winter months. If you would like them to do something else during that time, be warned... Farmers work VERY hard the rest of the year and winter is often the only personal time they have. It's really the only family time they have, and is also use to set household affairs in order for things like necessary home repairs and provisioning. Taking it away from them can get them very riled up.

Crop yields are non existent during winter and spring months. Crops are busy growing in the spring and have not yet reached a point where they can be harvested. Frozen ground, lack of liquid water and temperature limitations on the farmer's ability to work outside prevent farming in winter.

Though their fields are not producing anything during the spring months, do not equate this to farmers having free time. This is a very busy time for them as they work frantically to get all done they need in the couple weeks they have to stay on schedule.

If crop farming is going to be important to your civilization as it is to most. Investment in storage of produce is a very good idea. Fortunately the natural cold of Winter helps this for 3 of the non-growth months. The warming of crops already 3 months old during the next 3 months of spring growth is another matter all together.

Please note that agricultural yields may appear low. When compared to modern yields they are pathetic. Keep in mind this is before the days of specialty chemical fertilizers, sprinklers and pesticides. In the era this system attempts to represent, not only do crops not grow as well, but what crops do come up are more susceptible to disease, animals and insects. The numbers listed below are the usable crops that grow and survive these things. Please also note that in this era there are many normal diseases and parasites that plague all crops. Losses from this are calculated in the normal expected numbers in the chart below. Abnormally large and nasty cycles of plant disease and pests do occasionally come around which are FAR more devastating.

In order for land to be farmed it must be cleared and cultivated. This includes removing trees, scrub, roots, and rocks as well as tilling over or burning original growth. This initial clearing is grueling work requiring many hours of toil. No single particular profession is particularly more capable of this task than any other. For game purposes, any able bodied man of any profession may contribute labor equally. Once an acre of land has been cleared in this way, it will be considered arable and may be used for planting crops. In any given square mile of territory, there are 640 acres. A tally of how many of them are arable and how many are not will be kept. The total of arable acres you control is one of the major limitations of how much farming you can do. When land is cleared, it produces some resources as material is removed from the land. Timber, firewood and flagstone are commonly obtained in this way. Also note that clearing woods and forests is very labor intensive because the ground is basically one big root system.

Plains- Plains have surprisingly little vegetation and thus are ideal for starting a farm. They dont need much clearing, but soil must still be broken and flagstone removed.

Grassland- land covered primarley with tall grasses, some shrubs and scattered small trees. This is by far one of the easist and fastest terrain types to clear for agricultural purposes.

Rough Hills - Rough land is land lacking any great amount of vegitation, but instead having very rocky soil. Much of this stone must be removed from the soil if crops are to grow effecientley here.

Woods- Terain of this kind has much vegatation, including many large trees and countless shrubs which are generaly quite close together. Clearing land like this for farming is very difficult. If the land is truley needed, slash and burn is generaly the best option. If you have more time and the right resources, lumbering this area to produce timber will slowley but surley convert it to grass lands.

Forest- A forest has as many trees as does wooded land, but it's of better use for timber, and isn't as over run with undergrowth. Clearing it for farming is still a very difficult undertaking due to all of the stumps present.

Only Primitive Tools Available- laborers lack basic tools of civilization such as a couple axes, shovels, knives and ropes to share among them. Instead they have to resort to improvised "tools" like sticks, bones and vines. In such a case, the amount of labor necessary to clear land is doubled ( tripled in the case of forests and woods).

Slash and Burn- Slash and burn is a method of making a "controlled fire" to more quickly transform woods and forests into arable farm land. Trees are "slashed" such that they dry out prior to burning. Boundary trees and shrubs are removed such as to make a fire block and limit a fire to intended areas. Once done, the intended area is set alight to burn out the trees and brush. After this, roots still need to be removed, soil turned over and rock removed. This method may only be applied to Forests and Woods. This method reduces labor required by 1/2. This method also eliminates any timber and firewood that otherwise would have been collected. A farmer of at least master rank should be in be in charge of the controlled burn if there is to be any reasonable chance to prevent a wild fire resulting by mistake. The higher ranked the farmer in charge, the less chance of a wild fire resulting. Lower ranked farmers drastically increases the chance of wildfire.

Beasts of Burden- Throughout time, trained animals such as oxen, draft horses and elephants have helped man in all manner of building projects. Trained work animals ( and only trained work animals, not wild or riding animals) may help laborers clear farm land. They pull plows and offer strength in pulling unwanted objects out. You may only have as many as 1 work animal per laborer contributing to clearing farm land. Each beast of burden counts as an additional 1/2 laborer.

Farm Implements- Heavy farm implements such plows, wheelbarrows, lumbering tools and heavy rooting shovels can go along way in assisting with clearing of land. Only one implement may contribute per laborer working the project, and only certain implements are useful in some terrain. A table below will display usefulness of implements. Any yes, effects of implements and beasts of burden can be combined. A single farmer may have both an ox and a rooting shovel.

Once you have arable acreage, you're going to want to plant crops. For older fields, the numbers represent that the proper supplies have been saved to start a similar crop growing this year as last. Starting from scratch is a little more complicated. You will need something to start your crops from such as seeds. For some crops, there is no difference between the seed and the crop. In such cases as wheat, they are the exact same thing. Well call this a type A seed. A second type of crop produces seeds that are part of the produce we normally eat. Strawberries for examples are covered with dozens of tiny seeds. We will refer to these as type B seeds. Most times, farmers don't bother separating Type B seeds from the produce. They simply plant small bits of the fruit or vegetable that contain the seeds. As is the case with Type A seed, for type B we simply assume that the seed and the produce itself are the virtually the same thing. Then there are Type C seed crops. These crops have a growing cycle where the seeds and the other useful portions of the plant develop at different times. Type C crops can only be grown from seed, not from there associated harvested crop. With a type C crop you may harvest seed or crop, but not both. Once a type C crop is growing, it is assumed in the numbers below that enough plants are harvest for seed to keep the farm going from year to year. Remember that the "monthly yield" is surplus. These issues are important to keep in mind when obtaining seed and expanding agriculture. So, where do I get starting seed stock? The first and easiest way is to buy it with starting funds. You of course could buy it later from the merchant league if you have the money and they have the surplus to sell. There is always trade as an option. An of course you can grow your own from existing farms, assuming you already have some of what you want more of.

Running a farm is a lot of work. Everything from plowing soil over between rotations, planting new crops, spreading manure and smut, weeding, keeping insects and vermin away and harvesting. Though our system could easily be written to include details of all of these drudgeries, I will attempt to limit the scope for the sake of simplicity. We will assume that all of these details are included in the normal "Tending" a farmer does to his land. Better farmers are more efficient and as such can tend more acres personally. A table that follows will indicate how many FLUs (Farmer Labor Units) a farmer of a given rank can do. A FLU generally equates to all the labor necessary to do everything needing doing for a single acre. Some crops however are so labor intensive they require more FLUs per acre than normal. These will be indicated on the crop chart.

Farmer's Tools - For a farmer to do his job effectively, he needs a set of farmer's tools. Unlike most tool sets that wear out, Farm tools can last a generation with occasional repair. A set of farmer's tools includes a sickle, winnowing flail, scythe, pitchfork, rake and planter's hoe. A farmer working with an incomplete set is only capable of 1 less FLU than normal for each piece missing ( half normal FULs is the maximum penalty). A farmer without real farmer's tools and relying instead on improvised tools may only produce half the normal FLUs allowed by his rank.Uneven numbers round down.

Farmers can effectively tend additional acreage if they have the right additional equipment for the job. A farmer who has a beast of burden and a plow may engage in 1 extra FLU of farming. Additionally a functional wheelbarrow also allows for the effective tending of an additional FLU of crops. A wagon makes the wheelbarrow redundant and requires a beast of burden but contributes an additional 2 FLUs to the farmer's efforts ( plus the 1 extra for the beast of burden). None of the pieces of equipment can be doubled up with themselves for increased effect. Twenty oxen or one makes no difference to a farmer, he can only direct one at a time.

Land Laying Fallow

In medieval times it was discovered that extensive use of farm lands would burn out the soil and deplete it of the nutrients needed to grow good crops. Because of this they developed a pattern of dividing their lands into thirds. Each year they would grow crops on only 2 thirds of their land, allowing the other 1 third to "lay fallow". On this fallow land plant waist such as hay was left to decompose to revitalize the soil. Insects, worms and wild animals which would make homes, leave waste and die there also helped replenish the soil. Often this fallow land was used to keep domestic animals who's waist and missed food would also replenish the soil for the next planting season. A player arranging to leave land fallow in a similar manner is an excellent long term strategy. Though this is never necessary on the first season because no soil has yet been depleted, a wise leader might want to plan ahead for when having to do this will decrease the amount of cultivated land available to his people. What this costs is the time and effort of clearing more arable land than will produce crops. What this produces is a better likelihood of higher crop yields in the long run with limited risk of disastrous low crop yield burn out years.

Irrigation

Various forms of irrigation date back to 4000 BC in Egypt. The most primitive is the use of pottery to carry water to wet the farm land manually. The most efficient method of irrigating farm land is by digging trenches and ditches for water to flow throughout the farm land from a local fresh water source. This is of course limited by topography. In this game, we will assume that only 1/4 of the acres in a square mile area (thus 160 out of 640) may be irrigated in this way due to issues of topography. Irrigating land in this method requires 50 man days of labor per acre. This labor can be performed by any able bodied person. The benefits of irrigation are many. First, some crops which require a particularly abundant supply of nutrients can only be grown in irrigated land. Secondly you can expect to see crops that don't require irrigation to be a bit ( between 5% and 20%) more productive in terms of yield. Most importantly, crops on irrigated land are far less impacted by poor weather conditions and lack of rain. The extra effort can save a civilization's food supply from being wiped out by a bad season. Please note that irrigation is not something a farmer is doing as part of his normal tending of land. The 50 man days per acre is in addition to the already demanding tending of land and is not included. If you want farmers to irrigate, they will be able to tend fewer acres of land. ( A farmer working half the acres normally allowed can contribute 15 man days a month to irrigating his land, and not the land currently growing crops, etc.)

Lattice Work

Many crops require that they be supported in order to grow fully. In nature they need trees or other shrubs to creep up as they grow. On farm land, they need something more artificial. To meet these most basic needs, a farmer can shove temporary sticks in the ground to drape the vines across for each plant. This is very labor intensive and is represented by the very high "FLUs per acre" of these crops. A permanent improvement of a Lattice work may be built on any acre of arable farm land. This permanent improvement will reduce the "FLU's per acre" needed by 2 if the crop type is listed as needing Lattice work. Building this Lattice work on a single acre of land requires 350 units of lumber and 1 unit of nails or 3000 units of twine as well as 175 man days of labor which can be performed only by rank poor or better person skilled in cutting and binding wood ( trapper, sea trapper, thatcher, rope winder, bee keeper, siege machinist, lumber miller, carpenter, furniture maker etc.)

Fertilizer

Some crops will require that fertilizers be used to grow properly. Other crops may yield more if fertilized ( expect a 5% - 10% increase in yield). Fertilizing must be done in early spring or when the crop is planted. The most common sorts of fertilizer are farm animal manure, hay or a mixture of the two. Throughout history dozens of other things have been tried as fertilizer with more or less success. Feel free to experiment with alternative "fertilizers". Crops that absolutely require fertilizer will give a needed quantity in their data list. This represents how much per acre per year.

* These include the 2 additional FLUs needed if a permanent lattice work improvement is not present.

(A), (B) and (C) for "Seed to start per acre" represents what type of seed stock as described in the "Starting from Seed" section.

I am not a farmer nor an agriculture student. I have no agricultural experience. All data above is based upon educated guestimates and a result of web and encyclopedia data. Not only this, but data I found dates back perhaps 100 years, by no means to ancient times. If you have better data, let me know.

Crop Type- This column simply indicates what type of crop data is being given for.

Unit weight of produce- This column gives data about how much a unit ( 1 cubic foot) of the after growth product weighs. This would be how much pumpkins weigh, as opposed to how much a square foot of pumpkin seed would weigh. Weights have been rounded and estimated for game use.

Unit weight of seed- This column gives data about the weight of a unit of the seed needed to start crops. Weights have been rounded and estimated for game use.

FLUs per acre- This column gives data about how much of a farmers efforts must be devoted to working an acre of a particular type of plant. This is due to the very labor intensive nature of some plants. In this way farmers with more labor intensive crops will be limited to working fewer acres of it.

Seed to start per acre- This statistic simply tells you how many units of seed or vegetable are needed to plant in order to get an acre of arable land growing that crop. This is a one time only cost per acre. Once an acre is growing a crop, the seed to keep it going the next year is already deducted from the yields.

Special needs- Lets you know if growing a particular type of crop requires anything beyond normal.

Monthly yield *- This tell you how much surplus ( beyond that which needs to be replanted for the next crop) a single acre of a crop will yield for use. Technically; fields generally yield crops once or twice per year. In this system I have broken it down such that a portion of the produce comes in each month. There is a catch however. Monthly yield comes in ONLY DURRING SUMMER AND FALL MONTHS. Crops are still starting up in the spring, and nothing is farmed in winter. It may seem you are bringing in a lot of harvest each month; keep in mind there will be 1/2 of the year when nothing comes in at all. Stock up.

Growth time- Once you plant seed, there will be several months during which nothing is going to be available for harvest. That's what this statistic represent. Yes fields yield crops in Summer and fall. Even if you plant in summer time, don't expect to get anything for the first number of months as indicated here. This can make things very difficult for start up civilizations. If you have crops with a 5 month grow time, even if you plant then in early spring their first year, you will miss the yield for 2 normal harvest months of that summer.

Uses- Simply lets you know a bit about what various corps are used for.