Crop Circles... :)

[Burton Choinski]

The following rules are derived from my own calculations and guesswork
based on internet, gaming, and book resources.  Please feel free to
respond if you have better numbers or assumptions. :)

I plan to work on other population (and income) notes, dealing with
herds, hunting and fishing in later mailings, when I get around to the
research. :)

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POPULATION SUPPORT -- FARMING IN THE LANDS PERILOUS

At the technological level of the Perilous Lands, ranging from the stone
age in the wilds of the Firazi lands to the Late Iron age of the
Caldans, farming, fishing, hunting or herding is the primary occupation
of the majority of the population.  Besides supporting themselves,
however, they must also support the remainder of the population as well
(crafters, soldiers, administrators, nobility, etc).

These rules are an attempt to allow you to figure out how much land is
required to support your village or town.

ASSUMPTIONS:
 - The average man requires 3FP per day, every day.
 - The actual producers of food tend to be low-class people.  The upper
   classes, which do not produce, tend to require more resources per
   person.  As such, their consumption of foodstuffs is doubled to 6FP
   (representing more labor/field intensive luxury crops as well as
   more food overall)

NOTE: Examples will follow with each section.

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There are 4 degrees of farming:
 - Primative: using a simple two-field system, this is the type commonly
   found in barbarian cultures.
 - Refined: With a more settled lifestyle and using the three-field
system,
   most civilized lands have much better yields.
 - Advanced: Those cultures that have been civilized for a long time or
have
   with extensive experience with farming use this.
 - Intensive: The upper tier of Perilous Lands farming, involving
irrigation
   and advanced techniques.  Limited to Katai (rice production) and the
   Fomarian croplands.

Each type of farming will produce enough food to support the following:
    Primative: 1 person per 6 acres        (6 bu/acre)
    Refined:   1 person per 3 acres        (12 bu/acre)
    Advanced:  1 person per 2.5 acres      (15 bu/acre)
    Intensive: 1 person per 2 acres        (18 bu/acre)

Keep in mind that the actual support of the land will depend on soil
quality.  As a rough guild, use the following values for each type of
terrain:
    Cropland: x0.75
    Plains:   x1.0
    Hills:    x1.0
    Forest:   x1.0
    Jungle:   x1.25
    Swamp:    x1.25
    Mountain: x1.5
    Badlands: x1.75
    Desert:   x2.0

    w/River:        x0.9
    w/River Mouth:  x0.8
    w/Lake:         x0.95

These values all assume land that is tended and properly irrigated. To
find the cropland required to support the village population, multiply
the population by the cropland requirements for the type of farming and
any terrain modifiers.
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EXAMPLE: A Marentian mountain village exists with a population of 210
people.  Marentian agriculture is relatively advanced due to its fairly
enlightened attitude on learning and freedoms. With Advanced farming,
and since this village is in a mountain hex. this village requires 788
acres.

As a note, keep in mind that given farming techniques in the lands,
farmers are limited to 5-6 acres of land each.  Divide the above acreage
by the population, multiplying by 0.5 if Barbarian farming and by 0.66
if using other farming. If the number of acres required exceeds 5-6,
other sources of food are needed (herding, fishing, etc).
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EXAMPLE: In the above village, farmers maintain 2.47 acres each, well
within their limits.

After accounting for the village's own croplands, one must also account
for the additional cropland required to support any towns and cities.