DF(Advanced Farming)

[RandoM51]

Layout:
Layer #1
http://i45.tinypic.com/2ir91y0.gif

Layer #2 (directly beneath Layer #1)
http://i50.tinypic.com/6pnm7k.gif

This is to scale. The farm plots and workshops are 3x3, the seed stockpiles 1x2, etc. You can make the plant stockpiles as wide as you want, 6 to 12 is recommended. The wider you make them the less efficient the design, but the larger amount of plants you have on hand at any one time.

Set each plot to grow the crop listed every season it can.
Make sure that none of your refuse piles accept rotten plants.
Customize each seed stockpile for the plant on either side.
Tweak the barrel count in the plant stockpiles, starting out with a few barrels and adding more after you have enough barrels for drink.

When your plant stockpiles fill up, excess plants will rot in the field. Plants that rot in the field do not create miasma! If you don't allow plants in your refuse stockpiles then the rotten plants also generate no jobs. The beauty of this setup is that once you set it up you can safely ignore it for the rest of the game. You won't have to change the crops, you won't have to juggle labors. It also provides very efficient pathing for farming, cloth production, and dyeing.

You only want to use one farmer so he gets to legendary ASAP.

[Arphahat]

This is very well thought out. I will definitely give this layout a try. I always try to come up with something like this on the fly, and it never works quite right since I don't spend enough time planning it.

If you're up for suggestions, I'd be interested in how you handle kitchen, as well as the other manufacturing aspects.

[Panthera]

You only want to use one farmer so he gets to legendary ASAP.

Sound like a great idea, as long as you don't have any wells or moods in your fortress. ;)

[RandoM51]

I have wells and moods, what does that have to do with just one farmer? Moods don't last long enough for it to put you in a bind with food production.

[Panthera]

I'm talking about things that kill dwarves.

[RandoM51]

If you're up for suggestions, I'd be interested in how you handle kitchen, as well as the other manufacturing aspects.

I added the next layer down which includes kitchen and still and added the stairs and some notes.

Adjacent to the still are four stockpiles, each of which pulls from one of the brewable plant stockpiles up top.

The bag stockpile on layer #2 feeds the smaller bag stockpile on layer #1.

[RandoM51]

I'm talking about things that kill dwarves.
I typically don't lose dwarves but if you lose your planter just assign the job to another dwarf. He/she will be back up to legendary in a few seasons of planting.

You want legendary planters because anything they plant yields much larger harvests. Plant one seed and get six plants instead of plant one seed and get one plant.

...and since 1 legendary planter has no problem whatsoever growing enough food to feed 200+ dwarves there just isn't any good reason to have more than one planter at a time.

...and wells don't kill dwarves. The only way a dwarf falls into a well is if he is already insane or if somebody(another insane dwarf) pushes him. They can also be pushed while sparring but it is easy enough to not have any open floor tiles in your barracks. You want to do that anyways so they don't get interrupted by "dangerous terrain".

If for some reason you can't keep your dwarves out of the water, build a ramp leading out of the water on the highest layer of water. As long as they fall in anywhere nearby that ramp they'll be able to swim to it and get out before drowning.

[CES]

The first test of this construction did not end well, through no fault of the plans. Long ago, I carved out that area from a murky pool and drained it. What I didn't do was block off the rest of the pool before it rained again.

Before that though it seemed to work well.

[RandoM51]

Bringing along 20 leather at embark to create bags out of---leather much cheaper than cloth, much less pre-made bags---helps a bit at the beginning so that you have bags for your seeds from the initial seasons and so that you have bags for dye allowing you to dye all of your pigtail cloth before using it(to create bags to hold dye, seeds, and leaves).

I like all the plant fiber bags and ropes to be blue, plus it increases the overall value of the fortress. :p

[MagGnome]

This is an excellent layout. I'll keep this in mind the next time I succumb to the call of the dwarves.