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[Christes]

80 is still kinda excessive though.  Growers do gain skill relatively fast.

My current 100+ fortress runs off of maybe 30 squares of farm...

[Skanky]

I ususally have 45 squares of farm (in 3x3 boxes) but most of the time they are fallow. I generally have two of them planted each season and then add extra crops as needed.

Anyway, I am planning to try processing crops again now that dwarves will put seeds in a single bag rather than filling all my bags with a single seed.

[hexrei]

80 is still kinda excessive though.  Growers do gain skill relatively fast.

My current 100+ fortress runs off of maybe 30 squares of farm...

I keep around 190 dwarves. It's not like I really need all 80 farms though, its just that I've already got 50 idlers most of the time and I don't see any need to free up the farmers.

[coldstone]

the reason why its a good idea to make lots of food and alcohol is because when the economy kicks in, your dwarves will actually be able to buy some good food/drink, which will give them good thoughts.. to make up for the few evictions and stuff that might be happening.

[Rollio]

having a surplus will drop the price then?

[ByDurinsBeard]

Speaking of farm sizes, my five by five farm is eminently capable of feeding my ~100 dwarves. The only reason I am building a second farm is to dedicate one for plump helmets entirely and another for odd jobs and more season-specific crops. With two farms around, I suppose having them both 4x4 or even 3x3 would be enough.

[Proteus]

I have 2*4 fields of size 9,
with 4 of them dedicated to booze and the other 4 for foodstuff, dye and threads.

In the beginning I normally have a 4 field crop rotation with only one field being used every season.
When the fortress grows I begin to use 2 fields each (i.e. 2 for foodstuff and the like and 2 for brewery) and this normally is enough to have an ample supply of drinks and thousands of prepared meals sitting in my pantries

[WCG]

A couple of comments about earlier postings:

First, I usually check my farm plots at the start of each season, just to see what's going on. But I don't have to set the plantings every season, not after the first year, since they'll keep the same settings they had the previous year.

With 80 farm plots, OK, it would be a pain to set them all four times the first year. But after that, everything would be automatic, unless you wanted to adjust something.

Second, in my new fortress, selling prepared meals to the caravans is the only thing keeping me buying goods (I swear, I'm doing worse this time than with my first fortress!). I just bought two anvils from the first human caravan, trading them tv-dinners. 

My point is that you can easily base a prosperous fortress economy on a large farming operation and skilled cooks. (And I don't run out of barrels, because I don't allow my prepared meals to be stored in barrels. That's a bit of a pain when it's time to sell them, but not too bad so far.)

Bill

PS. Don't worry, we all have those head-slapping moments in DF. In fact, I think I'm developing a permanent palm mark on my forehead!