Alternative To Logging

[Off_Shore_Banker]

Don't know if anyone else has brought this up, but I've stumbled across a neat alternative to logging for clearing land. Banana, papaya and coffee farmers will clear all the trees in their farms coverage area quicker, and produce profitable exports at the same time. When you get ready to use the land for other purposes, just plow 'em up and build whatever you want!  

[Dreamweaver]

Good insight Mr Banker!

But if you plan to use the cleared land in less than 10 years time, it would probably be better to use short term crops. This way, you make more from the brief farming period. The farmers may not clear as much land as in the other case, but you can just plunk down more farms to get the job done.

[Revolucionario]

Good observation Bankman! Need to try this out. O BTW who's the new rum tester?

[Malovane]

Gah! don't dig those up! They can be extremely profitable! I had a single coffee farm break 500k pesos after 70 years. A papaya (yes Papaya... not even worth a whole lot) broke 200k pesos and still fed 3k people.

The trick is, once those trees are grown, all the farmers have to do is go and collect the beans/fruit off of each one. Instead of plowing, planting, waiting, collecting.. it is just wait and collect. Make sure the farm extends 5 squares in each direction, and they will plant a rather large number of trees. Put houses at the corners of the farm (country or normal) and have close entertainment/clinics/churches. Your farmers will collect around 20 units per year. More if you use the Farmer persona.

So, if you have 3 coffee farms pushing 20 units a year... thats more than 70k pesos a year! Get the airport, use the trade delegation until you get a 70% premium on coffee, then start a couple canneries and you are making 4k per load of canned coffee. That be 240k! Heh, that is if its done extremely efficiently, but... it is very profitable nonetheless.

So, they can be good for clearing land... but even better for making money! =)

[Off_Shore_Banker]

It's unlikely that I'd ever dig up a Coffee Plantation. I just love the smell of roasted Tropican in the morning! But, as an example of what I was talking about, in my last game I had a strip of ground that proved to be nearly perfect for both bananas and tobacco. Only problem, the forest that stood in my way! So I dropped in two banana plantations, along with a few others in the area and in about five years or so the area around the plantations were stripped bare of trees and producing a money making crop. When I had enough money to build a high school and cigar factory, I simply converted the two banana plantations to tobacco. BTW, one of the original plantations that I did not convert to tobacco wound up making a profit of P85,000 and providing over 3600 meals during the 45 or so years it was in operation! Heck of a good return on a thousand peso investment!

Anyway, the only time I would plow up or convert a money making operation like that would be for the opportunity to make bigger profits, as in cigars.

Revolucionario: The new taste tester is the former Presidente. We bring a new batch to his jail cell under the Palace every day! It seems to be the only way the poor man can function these days.

[Revolucionario]

LOL Bankman!

I have a question about trade delegation. Could you have two agreements from the two countries at the same time? also when you send out a delgation does the previous agreement that you had with the country become void?

[Off_Shore_Banker]

You should be able to get a trade delegation from both countries with no problem. You'll just have to wait two years in between. A good Presidente knows how to play both sides like a fiddle.

[Maus]

Re logging and clearing, calm_blue_sea did an excellent exhaustive analysis of trees-n-logging-n-such (title Trees: What Your Mother Never Told You 1 ).  The hyperlink I just tried to insert isn't working, so I'm gonna go do a crass thing and blatantly bump it to the top again; too much good work there to let it slip to the bottom  

[Malovane]

Trade delegations are the serious way to make money! Lotsa cool things can be got with em....

Both countries:
50-70% increase on lumber export price
50-70% increase on pineapple export price (canned or uncanned)
50-70% increase on coffee export price (canned or uncanned)
50-70% increase on cigar export price (machine rolled or hand)
50-70% increase on Rum export price (spiced or not)
Cash... 3000 to 15000

America only:
10% to 20% building subsidy
Free Restaraunt
Free Apartment Complex
Free Luxury House
A couple bankers and engineers

Russia Only:
Free Tenement
Free Prison
A couple doctors and propagandists

Doubtless I have missed something but thats a decent list. The price increases you can only obtain once.. doesn't matter which country. Building subsidies you can get till around 50%. Everything else you can continue to get. If you are a booze baron, you cannot get the Rum premium. The better relation you have with the country you are sending the delegation to, the more likely you are to get a higher percentage, more money, or something at least valuable.

I personally think it's worth it to build as soon as possible. Just plop a construction office next to the building site and in 5 to 10 you should have a working airport. Every 2 years you should be able to get something that improves your economy by leaps and bounds.

[General PinochetNut]

Russia gave me engineers and a  50-70% increase on beef jerky exports.  I like longterm things like that instead on cash up-front.

[Coconut Kid]

Re logging and clearing, calm_blue_sea did an excellent, exhaustive analysis of trees-n-logging-n-such (title Trees: What Your Mother Never Told You 1).  ...

Link:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=788.0

Summary for this thread: Logging leaves STUMPS which have to be removed at the same cost as whole trees.