A large portion of your farm profits will come from the crops you plant. There are two fields you can use to plant in. They are both located south of the farm house. If you want, you can also plant crops in the animal pastures. Don't forget that your crops will die at the end of each season!

Since you have a limited amount of space you need to be aware of factors like time, watering, walking space, and the horse with it's saddlebags. Hoeing the ground in random places and then scattering seeds where ever wont get you the max amount of produce. Seeds "scatter" into a 3x3 block of hoed ground (9 squares each), so you want to be able to plant the most seeds and still have time for watering and harvesting. There are about four different ways you can plant your crops effectively.

One way player's plant is by rows. Just hoe the ground in rows leaving an unhoed section in the middle for walking down. Rows are the most efficient for watering time, since all you have to do is run down the middle with the sprinkler and stop to water both sides. As for harvesting, you are missing 3 blocks of plants that become your walking path, so total you only have 6 plants you can harvest. Rows are also handy if you're using the horse, since while your harvesting the horse can only run up and down the middle of the rows.

The next type is a U-shaped formation. You do get one extra plant you can harvest if you are not using rows, but it's a little slower to water. If you have the basic hoe, this one is easy to create. If you have the Super Hoe though, you have to use a rock or a piece of lumber to smash the hoed ground back down to make your walking path. Watering isnt too difficult either. You just have to walk into the middle of the square, use the sprinkler to water all 7 blocks, and then run to the next one. If you place the openings of the U-shapes facing each other, you just have to run across from one to the next to water. If you're using the horse, you can set it inside the U and it stays there a little, but the horse will still run out the opening.

This one is a modified version of the U-shape formation. You are able to harvest 8 of the 9 squares, with the last square left over as a walkway. Watering this formation takes a little more time then the other two because you have to water it twice. The sprinkler will only water the squares next to where you us it, so you will have to step on the empty square, water, run around to the back, and water again. As for trying to use the formation to keep the horse in place, it's not very effective. You can put the horse into the empty block, but it will tend to run back out.

The last one may look the nicest, but it is the least effective of them all. For starters, you can never water the middle square unless it's raining or snowing outside. Another reason is you have to water each one *4* times to get the plants on each side wet. As for harvesting, it's not too bad but you will have to do a lot of running around to each side to pick all the plants. If the middle one does eventually bloom, you cant get to it unless you use the sickle (not the Super Sickle) to cut out one of your plants to reach it. Then your formation will just be the modified U-shape anyway.