[Sca-cooks] How much land to feed a person

[UlfR]

Sharon Gordon <gordonse at one.net> [2005.04.28] wrote:
> Has anyone come across any information that would indicate how much land it
> took to feed one person in a particular location, or some indirect
> information I could use to figure it out?  The sort of thing I could use
> would include:
> 
> 1) Records of what was grown on an estate or farm and some indication of how
> many people lived and worked there.

Look at agricultural history/archeaology research. I've seen some
summarized for Swedish conditions[1,2], and I recall that for early
middle ages/late iron age (1000-1200 or so) we are talking about 20
acres for a familly style farm. I can't recall if that includes forests
used for grazing or not (probably the latter).

> 2) A plan or some instructions about what each individual or tenant farmer
> should grow to provide enough for food for themselves/family and enough for
> their payment to the landlord/church/taxes.  And some idea about the average
> family or household size in the area.

IIRC Myrdals books [1,2] includes that kind of information.  They are in
Swedish, which may or may not be an impediment to you.

> 5) Archeological evidence on farm size, crops, and probable number of people
> living there at any one time.

Do a scholar.google.com search, I would suspect that there is a
substancial amount of information available.

/Par

[1] Janken Myrdal
  Svenska Jordbrukets Historia. 
        Bd 1: Jordbrukets Första Femtusen År: 4000 f.Kr - 1000 e.Kr.
  Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur (1998)

[2]  Janken Myrdal
  Svenska Jordbrukets Historia. 
        Bd 2: Jordbruket under feodalismen: 1000- 1700
  Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur (1999)

-- 
UlfR Ketilson                               ulfr at hunter-gatherer.org
The slowns as musion see therty he red he turrivainis.