05-27-2015, 03:01 AM | #31 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
Historically, quite a lot of European farming at least seems to have been mixed - some livestock, some arable, often (in a crop rotation system) with livestock grazed on the fallow fields. Procedures may vary in other regions with less in the way of livestock.
Herding would seem more sensible for livestock kept at range as opposed to in hand - so free grazing sheep or pannaging pigs. Also, some cultures might well use gardening more than farming - as I understand it, for example, the Amerindian cultures of the Atlantic coast tended to use crop growing techniques that were smaller scale and less intensive to the extent that they would look more like vegetable gardens than cropping fields. AFAIK there are other cultures world wide in much the same position - I think Jared Diamond (of Guns, Germs and Steel) referred to it as a transition stage between hunter/gatherer subsistence and "food production" in the form of true agriculture. Of course food production cultures still use gardening - again, in medieval European economy there seems to be clear roles for both the field (farming) and the garden (gardening), growing different things in different ways. |
05-27-2015, 08:50 AM | #32 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
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05-27-2015, 09:34 AM | #33 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
Ok, but what does the Basic Set say? GURPS authors have been going back and forth on this for a long time, probably because with the exception of Matthew Riggsby agriculture is not one of the areas of their expertise.
I have never had enough money to buy the Low-Tech Companions since I have not had a gaming group for years and GURPS does not have a very strong claim on my tiny entertainment budget.
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05-27-2015, 11:11 AM | #34 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
Not a whole lot:
Quote:
I'll edit the OP on the subject of LTC3. |
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05-27-2015, 11:30 AM | #35 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
Ok, thanks. All my game books are back in the old country, so I can't check myself. I just remember a few cases where how GURPS is usually played and what the rules literally say do not match (or where a supplement reinterprets something in BS), so it is always good to check the original wording.
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
05-28-2015, 03:09 AM | #36 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
What happened to the Agronomy skill? IDHMBWM - was it 3E?
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05-28-2015, 03:13 AM | #37 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
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05-28-2015, 06:12 AM | #38 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
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05-28-2015, 03:49 PM | #39 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
This is just my take on things but reading the low tech 3 section on herding it seems to be based on grazing animals in a situation that doesn't involve paddocks i.e no fences or other barriers like hedges etc. thought that might be worthy of a mention if people have the image of 18th century English fields and hedgerows in mind when picturing the set up mentioned.
personally I think the calculation involving numbers of animals per person herding lacks detail. And that a sheepdog has a higher animal handling skill. Modern stocking rates are a lot higher. 3.5 stock units to the acre is maintainable on poor soil and terrain even with larger modern animals. (heaviest sheep (meat breed rams) topping 320lbs) the average ewe being around 132 lbs. Also about 8 lbs of wool produced per adult animal per annum. 1 stock unit equals the amount of feed required to maintain one lactating ewe and lamb. Historically one big increase in animal production happened when the importance of breeding became known in the 17th and 18th centuries. On a side note maintaining animals in a pastural system is considered to be %60 feed %30 parasite management and %10 other
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09-01-2016, 10:45 PM | #40 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Farming and Gardening
Regular routine farming is a job roll.
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