Re: (TFT) New file on Farming in TFT.

[Jeffrey Vandine <jlv61560@yahoo.com>]

Part of the problem, I think, is that just focusing on agriculture is too n
arrow a focus.  There are other forms of nutrition out there, ranging 
from berry patches in woodlands (or along the verge of the road, for that m
atter), to unregulated protein, such as small animals (rabbits and the like
) and fishing also available to supplement the diet.  Indeed, some for
m of protein, beyond mere agriculture would almost be a must, I'd think.
Which means that our calculations may be overly simplistic -- what we're co
nsidering completely unusable terrain, such as swamps and heavy forest coul
d in fact supply some food needs.  Simple hunting/gathering behavior d
uring the wait for harvest to roll around would be both necessary and usefu
l.  

And magic creates a whole huge unknown for me -- no author that I'm aware o
f has really explored the impact of magic on agriculture or animal husbandr
y.  Turning locusts, "fixing" the weather, curing diseases in animals 
-- all of those could vastly increase the potential amount of food out ther
e.  Plus, we could probably see an improvement in communications betwe
en areas, meaning things like rice, American corn (as opposed to what the B
rits call "corn" which we call "wheat," potatoes, and other food crops that
 took decades or centuries to propagate here on mundane Earth, might spread
 in mere years in a magical world.  Which would led to greater variety
 both in diet and in the kinds of things that can be grown on land that mig
ht otherwise be considered "bad" land by someone who only knows one or two 
types of crops.
in short, I'm thinking the basis for our calculations may be off by even an
 order of magnitude.
v/rJeff

      From: Peter von Kleinsmid <pvk@oz.net>
 To: tft@brainiac.com 
 Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2015 1:49 PM
 Subject: Re: (TFT) New file on Farming in TFT.
   
I'm glad you posted this, as I'm working on systems stuff including farming
.

Now I'm going nuts looking for my own farming stats.

In one case I had a baseline for average medieval 
yield at three acres to support one person, so
1.21 hectares per person, which is even less 
optimistic, but without my notes, that might not 
all be farm land, just more of an overall land 
use estimate, including waste, wilds, fallow, unused, losses, etc.

PvK

At 07:10 PM 8/26/2015, Jeffrey Vandine wrote:
>...  Just glancing through the internet, for example, the absolute mi
nimu
>m of land to feed a person for a year is about 7500 square feet -- that's 
a
>  plot 75x100 feet -- and that is roughly what the Japanese achieved 
in the
>medieval period through a combination of intensive agriculture, and extrem
e
>  good fortune in terms of soils and weather to support rice growing.
Â
>And that works out to about 0.07 hectares per individual (or an average po
p
>ulation density of 3700 per square mile).  If we assume that fo
r TFT m
>agical support was used, this might be possible for a wider area.�� How
>ever the FAO states that, on average, it takes about half a hectare to sup
p
>ort a single person (including a diversified modern diet of meat and veget
a
>bles, fruit and grains).  So I don't know what would be the acc
eptable
>  answer.
... 


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