11-26-2020, 01:10 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Crop selection
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* all three were basically planted together, though not at the same time; the maize was planted first, then the beans which grew up the stalks of the maize, then the squash which grew outward from the stalks
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11-26-2020, 01:35 PM | #12 | ||||||
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: Crop selection
Yes, thank you, I have looked at that.
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This much at least I have got sorted out, it's relatively simple to assign what crops etc are available to each culture. Quote:
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*I'll get back to this below. Quote:
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This subject I have a handle on, though I cover it in an admitted simplified fashion. My thought process at the moment is to 1) determine the relevant details of the area in question then determine the relevant details of the population that live there. 2) determine the primary staple and what support it requires (grains would need oxen in most cases, oxen needs pasture etc. Rotation crops as well) 3) determine how best to allocate the remaining labour (and area) Points 2 and 3 are the ones I'm working through currently. (I'm using "grain" here as a generic term) There are numerous questions coming up, for example. If 100 people need feeding, how much grain will they want to grow, 130% of their average requirement?* Will they grow a second different grain crop to avoid a monoculture**? If so, how much? Will the village grow a fiber crop or use wild sources/trade etc. * to account for variation in yields. ** an insurance crop. It's a sprawling topic. And Thanks for all the comments thus far.
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Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn Last edited by (E); 11-26-2020 at 02:08 PM. Reason: Added foot note |
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11-26-2020, 03:47 PM | #13 | |
Join Date: Nov 2020
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Re: Crop selection
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Item 2 - Oxen only required if plowing. All of the Americas farmed without any beasts of burden and not even using the wheel. Also areas such as Japan or Greece were mainly reliant upon the sea. Just some ideas. Rotation was usually not used as much as letting ground go fallow. Have fun man! Wish I was there to discuss and plan. I love this crap. |
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11-26-2020, 04:00 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Crop selection
In general, farmers need an average of 3,000 calories per day (ranging from 1,500 calories per day during the quiet times to 7,500 per day during planting/harvesting). A bushel of wheat produces around 70 loaves of white bread and 3,000 calories is around four loaves of bread, so the average farmer needs around twenty bushels of wheat. Alternatively, the calories may come from millet, rice, rye, etc.
Now, a significant fraction of the calories consumed by a farmer will come from ale or beer, as much as third of their calories, since water is usually unsafe to drink, and that will come from barley, so the average farmer needs one-third of their calories from barley. In general, this will mean that one-third of the acreage of the average farm will be barley. |
11-26-2020, 08:56 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: Crop selection
Risk management is another part of it. You want different crops so that if one fails you still have the other. Getting a high yield of wheat in the good years is nice, but you also want barley for the bad years. And you want to plant both up on the hillside and down near the river in case of floods or droughts. That sort of thing.
(Yes if you have an advanced money economy and good transportation systems you just borrow money and buy food in the bad years and pay it off in the good years, but you are unlikely to have that in the situation the OP asked about.) A blog I've been reading lately discusses this sort of thing: Collections: Bread, How Did They Make It? Part I: Farmers!
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11-27-2020, 06:47 AM | #16 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: Crop selection
One thing that helped Rome become a power was the landscape in Italy meant they could plant grain in the valley bottom, and grapes and olive trees on the slopes. These have different times that they require major work on the farmers part so they had more efficient agriculture than many places. Farmers have a common problem of too much work needed planting and harvest season and less the rest of the time.
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11-27-2020, 07:15 AM | #17 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: Crop selection
There are a lot of variables in farming: soil ph too high or too low, days where temperatures above a given level, sufficient water but not too much, etc. toss in pestilence and disease, and things get to be interesting. The potato Famine of Ireland is a perfect example of what happens where you rely upon one crop staple. Rye grows better in some soils than wheat due to either of, or both - soil acidity or temperatures. Some crops where used for ale. If you want ale production yields per given amount of grain, I’ll dig it up for you. If you want average yields of wool per sheep, I can dig it up. Alternatively, I can post a link to Amazon.com where you can buy a GOOD reference book for all of this by Professor Dyer that is worth picking up. Between Professor Dyer’s books and books by Gies and Gies, there should be sufficient stuff that will be worth reading.
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11-27-2020, 06:27 PM | #18 | |||||
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: Crop selection
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If you're ever over on the gurps discord give me a yell (I'm (E) over there too) I'm always keen to chat on the subject. Quote:
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Related to your comment on management there is also availability, turnips for example produce a great yield, but a once a year crop is likely to be compost after a given number of months. Quote:
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Waiting for inspiration to strike...... And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn |
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11-27-2020, 08:40 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Re: Crop selection
Don't know if it's realistic but Harn Manor is a RPG book I've always used for fantasy setting crops.
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11-27-2020, 10:02 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Crop selection
Hence a wide variety of preservation technologies (without freezers, I believe pickling is the most appropriate for turnips).
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farming, low tech, world building |
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