SlashKey's Farm Town On Facebook

I love the Internet and I'm mad about gardening. When a friend on Facebook recommended I tried Farm Town, I had to give it a go. It didn't take long before I got completely hooked.

Here's the lowdown:

Farm Town is a web application that enables you to design, grow and maintain your farm and even send gifts to your friends. The beautiful thing about it is that it emphasises growth through community. People helping each other and making profit. What's even better, it's free!

Here's a quick way to get started:

If you have time on your hands start by planting and harvesting grapes. As you gain experience you'll unlock more and more seeds, but as a beginner these are the most cost effective seeds available to you. About those grapes: The seeds cost you 20 coins per plot, it will cost you 20 coins to plough a plot. The crop will be ready for harvest in 4 hrs and you have 4 more hrs to harvest (so, 8hrs in total). Don't leave it any longer or your crop will wilt and you will lose your coins and effort. This crop will earn you 56 coins (i.e. you'll be earning 4 coins/hr.)

The mechanics are simple:

You use the hoe icon to plough plots, the store icon to buy seeds to plant and the scythe icon to harvest them. Once you harvest them (always use the harvest and store option) - Having done that, you then need to collect your harvested crops from the shed and make your way to the market to sell them. You can sell them while harvesting but selling them in the market will make you more profit. Note the emphasis on community there.

In case you are confused at this stage just click the shed icon. There you will find all your harvested crops, in your case, the grapes, and a link to sell in the market.

Tips to climb the Farm Town social ladder:

You can make money by selling your crops or by working for others. A way to get hired is to go to the market. You gain coins for harvesting and you gain experience (also some coins) for ploughing. Helping neighbours earns you coins and experience and hiring others to harvest and plough for you will also gain you more coins (25%), so there is always an incentive in being involved in the Farm Town virtual community.

While you don't need any neighbours (Facebook friends using the application) to be hired to plough or harvest you do need at least 8 neighbours to hire others.

Useful formula:

Here's how to calculate the amount of coins you gain per hour from farming a certain type of crop on one plot:

Harvest revenue -(cost of seeds + cost of ploughing of one plot) /number of hours it takes for crop to mature

And here are the crops in order of profitability:

1. Raspberry

2. Grapes

3. Pineapple

4. Pepper

5. Blueberry

6. Carrot

7. Onions

8. Cabbage

9. Peas

10. Sunflower

11. Rice

12. Corn

13. Pumpkin

14. Coffee

15. Potato

16. Wheat

17. Watermelon

18. Cotton

19. Strawberry

20. Tomato