Primary Edit Lester Reye

When the council in public meeting began talking about getting the farming underway the discussion was lively. Including myself their were five of us colonists who actually owned or operated farms back on Earth. I had raised cattle and hogs before getting into politics and my farm still did the same but with a manager rather than me in person. Frank Turner grew grain, Chen Yamasak had run a vineyard and raised fruit trees as a sideline. Bartholomew (Thal) Isaacson said over his years he had raised a little bit of everything and the Ortega’s (Manuel and Felicia) had raised vegetables and garden crops. All of us had some experience of course in the others major areas of expertise. Hamilton’s selection process had served us well in this area.

The Historian was the acknowledged master by now on poultry and was considering adding turkeys to his mix. Isaacson suggested he add rabbits also, as soon as we could get some through the tubes. With a 30 day gestation period and a breeding cycle of about the same they would give us a secondary source of meat faster than almost anything else. They should also be able to eat the native grasses and in cages be easy for the bots to manage.

The Council agreed that those six, counting the Ortegas as just one member, would make up the farm board and be responsible for drafting and submitting for vote farming related issues that affected the entire colony. Even that farm board would need to be voted upon by the township as a whole. But as none of those who witnessed the meeting where this was approved objected it looked like a given.

We had already cleared and begun to prepare farmland to the north and west sides of the township so it was agreed to use this land, and clear enough more, to get a first 150 grid communal farm in while us farmers worked on private plots. Until we were sure of their safety all the decanted livestock would be kept here and I would be their primary overseer at a rate of 1.1 SLHs. The other farmers would receive the same and workers on the communal farm would be authorized at the 1.0 standard rate. That same principal was applied to Bartlett and Fortson’s lumbering and the Andy Stuart’s power project.

Frank Turner was selected as leader of the farm board and his first proposal fit right into my wish to find work for Burt Buchanan and others who had not as of yet been contributing much to the colony. Frank said that since we would need more land than we had set aside for the communal farm to be put into agriculture, that the township should authorize payment at the 1.0 rate for colonists in the general labor pool to satisfy their 30 hour tax, by clearing and preparing the land around the farmers Freehold sites.

Jack the Blade immediately objected to that and in no uncertain terms. The compromise we finally worked out was to permit the labor use as township equity but that the farmers benefiting must pay back to the colony the number of labor hours used before they would be able to purchase that cleared land. It was also agreed that they would be given a preference when it came time to purchase said land if they agreed to continue using it as farmland and contributed crops to the general supply at a rate equal to what the demonstration farm was producing until this land was paid for plus an additional 4 A-years or until the demonstration farm was sold by the township to the highest bidder. In the meantime the township would farm such land and own all proceeds exactly as it did with the demonstration farm. We put in a clause letting us revisit this provision in 2 A-years and modify it to make purchase easier for the farmers if that seemed proper.

That proposal just squeaked out of council when a qualifier was added limiting such lands to no more than 50 extra grids per farm and that at least 80% of those grids be kept in production till the entire grant was paid for. All timber cleared from any such land would be township stock and used in township construction or sold at the direction of the appropriate body and again after a vote by the citizenry.

The last farm related proposal authorized all colonists a right to procure seeds for their personal use if there was any surplus after the needs of the township farms were satisfied. The price of those seeds would be set or put up for bid when the initial communal needs were determined.