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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5888811" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Taking the size of the farm down means that one casting can impact more farms, bringing the cost per farm family down.  Dropping from 40 acres to 20 effectively drops the cost from 50 gp annually to 25.A lot of farm labor requirements are seasonal, so said farm would not have a huge assortment of farm hands.  Many farm communities worked cooperatively in high demand seasons such as harvest time.  The workers from all the farms would collect at one farm to help bring the crops in, then move to the next and do it again.Also, in a medieval setting the collection of animals you describe probably won't be all on the same farm.  One might have pigs, if the farm is particularly rich, since they're a single use animal.  Some would be dairy farms, with little field cultivation other than a "farmer's garden", and they'd concentrate on milk (which spoils *fast*), butter and cheese.  Beef would be a byproduct, and pretty much done only when the cow "went dry" and/or got too old to breed or produce milk.Sheep farms could use a lot of acreage, as could dairy, but required lower labor.  Sheep produce both wool and meat.Most farms would have chickens, since eggs are an ongoing source of protein, and a very few chickens can produce a lot of eggs.  Eggs also become a "cash crop" throughout the year for a lot of small farms.  And chickens will eat just about anything.But for those whose livestock would be limited to draft animals, they'd frequently graze in the "fallow" field, turning greenery into fertilizer to prepare the field for next season.  And while a given animal may have a limited working life, the odd thing about horses and cattle is that, unlike tractors, they produce their own replacements.  A farmer might have to pay a stud fee, but he doesn't have to buy a new animal very often.Now when Plant Growth is cast in the Enrichment function, it effectively replaces the "laying fallow" process.  If we presume your two crop rotation, it would line up with the 1/3rd increase mentioned in the spell.It also increases the number of grazing animals you can pasture per acre.Ultimately though, we're arguing about the viability of a notoriously non-viable economy, the one in the D&D world.  In our game world, rich and prosperous farmers can afford the Blessings.  Family/subsistence farms generally can't.  That is, the ones that produce food for sale can bring in more cash or barter by magically enhancing production.  The ones that aren't geared to do anything more than maintain the residents don't generate an income, so adding a third to nothing still yields nothing.Now in hard times like these, the cities that depend on local food production might decide to shell out for the spells, and the local Druids might work up a special deal in exchange for continuous employment.  They're balancing the equation from the other side:  We can pay high prices for not-enough food, or we can pay a Druid to increase the food supply and avoid the higher prices.  It will depend on how high food prices get.</blockquote>

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