Agriculture

Agriculture allows one to use the "Till Field" action under the Build menu. A tilled field is required to plant any seeds.

Farming:

Farming is accomplished by the general task of tilling a field, preparing it with Humus, and then planting seeds. After a period of time, your crops grow and you can then harvest them. Currently, the following seeds available for sale in Boston are Cabbage, Cereals, and Cotton. Pumpkin seeds can be obtained through Gardening. Once seeds are planted, you can then fertilize the fields using various items.

Crop Growth and Rotation:

From Jorb:

"The crops use the following meters:

takes from -> gives to

Cabbage: 2,3 -> 0
Cereals: 3,0 -> 1
Cotton: 0,1 -> 2
Pumpkin: 1,2 -> 3

The idea here is obviously that you need to rotate your crops over your various fields, and fertilize them in an intelligent manner, in order to build up their meters and thus reach the higher output tiers. Cereal might deserve a special mention since it is now a combination crop for Oats, Rye, Barley and Wheat (in that order). Cereal no longer gives seed directly, but rather gives ears of the respective crops which can then be winnowed into seed (craft recipe) or ground into flour."

Fertilizers:

Several items can be used as fertilizers and different fertilizers have different effects on your fields.

• Hay: Increases the influence the crop has on the field
• Wood Chopping: Decreases the upkeep needed on fields
• Lime: Increases plenty
• Humus: Increases influence and plenty
• Coal: Increases growth speed.
• Clay: Improves influence and increases growth speed
• Dross: Improves speed, penalizes plenty

Influence: This increases the amount that crop adds to the positive growth meter. Plenty: Increases field output Upkeep: Reduces the number of seeds needed to replant the field. Speed: Improved crop growing time.

After a field is harvested, all fertilizers are reset and each field loses 10% upkeep.

Notes:

I'd like to improve this with screen shots and actual examples. This is going to be one area that may be a challenge.