Everyone must eat. Settled peoples get the majority of their sustenance from crops they grow.
Twelve bushels of grain and pulse (supplemented by animal products and foraged or garden vegetables) sustains a working or pregnant adult for a year. Ten bushels sustains a child or idler.
On up to two fewer bushels per year, or without supplemental foods, one must make a DC 15 roll or lose a random month of work to illness. For every six points the roll fails by, another month is lost.
The Growing Year
The Eastern calendar begins with the first new moon after the vernal equinox and has ten numbered months, followed by two or three numberless months of winter.
In 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the 19-year cycle, there is a twelfth new moon between the eleventh moon and the vernal equinox:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
| — | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | — | 3 | 1 | — | 3 |
| 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th | 16th | 17th | 18th | 19th |
| 2 | — | 2 | — | 3 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 |
Each region has a zone rating from 1 (the coldest) to 12 (the warmest). Every year, roll two times this number of d6 for the number of frost-free quarter-moons.
The last frost of the spring comes a number of quarter-moons after the vernal equinox equal to 6 – one-sixth the length of the warm season. If the warm season is more than 36 quarters long, it starts before the equinox.
In zones 10 and higher, roll for the next year’s frost-free period as well. If this year’s first frost is before next year’s last frost, there is no frost during the winter.
The Soil
A flood destroys any crops growing in the field but enriches the soil afterwards. Plowing under (not harvesting) one crop of legumes also enriches ordinary or good soils; plowing two crops under enriches marginal ones.
Marginal and ordinary soils remain enriched for one crop of grains. Good soils remain enriched for two. A harvested crop of legumes neither enriches nor exhausts the field.
Within a day’s travel of a city, town or occupied fort, good soils are cultivated. Within a day of a city or town, ordinary soils are cultivated. Within a day of a city, even marginal soils are cultivated.
Although others are possible, the traditional rotation is:
- Plant legumes for forage, then plow them under.
- Plant legumes for harvest.
- Plant grains for harvest.
On good soils, more flexibility is possible. On marginal ones, the plowed-under crop must be repeated.
Plowing and Planting
The fields described here are about 10 acres each. It takes an adult four quarter-moons to hoe a field of the best soil by hand, five quarters for ordinary soil and six for marginal soil; more workers can work faster. One adult with an ox, horse or two donkeys can plough good or ordinary soils in one quarter and marginal soils in three. Ploughing takes twice as long before the last frost or after the first frost of the winter.
Planting broadcast takes 20 bushels, one person and one quarter-moon. Planting in spaced rows takes 15 bushels but takes three people two quarters. Children can plant.
A seed drill, if available (they are not known everywhere), allows one adult and a horse, ox or two donkeys to plough and plant a field in spaced rows in two quarters total.
For the grain crop, set aside three d6s per field planted. For legumes, set aside three d4s. An enriched field increases the die size of crops planted in it by one step.
Growing and Weeding
Grains are established (can overwinter) after four warm quarters and grown after 24. Legumes are grown after 18 quarters.
For the 6th–9th quarter-moons after the beginning of the frost-free season and before its end the weather is warm; count them half again towards the growth of crops. The weather between these periods is hot and counts double towards growth.
For the first half of their growth, crops need to be weeded. A broadcast field needs three people to weed and a spaced field needs two. Children can weed. Remove a die from each crop for every field that gets less than half this amount of weeding.
In the first and last three quarters of the growing season, there is a 1-in-10 chance of a cold snap. If this comes during the weeding period of any crop in the ground, reduce its die sizes by one step.
Harvest
Each field takes three adults (or two adults and two children) two quarters to harvest. Remove one die from a crop for each field whose harvest is delayed or that has been damaged.
Once harvested, roll the dice for a crop and multiply by 10 to determine its size, in bushels.
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