We do not need 18 hoes.

18 hoes is too many. 10 hoes is too many. A more reasonable number of hoes would be 1, or perhaps 2. I might perhaps even contemplate the storage of as many as 5 hoes, just to be prepared for any hoeing emergencies that might occur. 18 hoes, however, goes well beyond the number of hoes that any reasonable man could desire to possess. 18 hoes represents a significant hoe surplus. There is an overabundance of hoes in our storeroom. Our tool chest is overrunning with hoes. Its ideal hoe capacity has not only been reached, it has been exceeded. We should plan for the removal of hoes from that chest, and not for the creation of more hoes. If any here should ever wonder "should I create more hoes?", let me tell you now that the answer is no. Hoes are not required, nor are they wanted. Do not craft more hoes. If one should be in the mood to craft hoes, then may I suggest that one craft something else, such as a pick or a sword or even a shovel. These items see regular use, and their creation would be much appreciated. Hoes, in contrast, would be unappreciated. Let every man who henceforth creates a hoe be not lauded, but rather shunned and despised for his work. For the giving of hoes is the giving of waste and burden. We have hoes enough, and wish not more.

Well said. I've been meaning to bring that up myself. Now that merely walking on crops or tilled soil does not trample it, it is easy to avoid needing to use a hoe at all once a farming plot has been properly initially prepared. Oh, once in a great while someone may goof up and jump onto such a block and trample it, but one or two hoes in the farming chest are more than adequate to deal with such eventualities. One or two more left in the warehouse as spares, or placeholders as a way of saying "we don't need to store vast quantities of hoes, but if for some unforeseen reason we might one day desire to, this chest is where we'd keep them", might also be considered reasonable. But some time ago, I noticed someone had made up over a dozen stone hoes. So I took half a dozen of them with me to the farms, where they might one day be used. Someone actually made replacements and refilled those slots in the chest.

Now, we have no shortage of cobble or even sticks, so as wastes of resources go, this is an incredibly mild one. But please, stop making hoes.

In related news, someone, perhaps LP, decided to use those hoes to till every exposed bit of dirt they could find and (simultaneously using up some tiny fraction of our enormous surplus of wheat seeds) and plant them with wheat, regardless of the fact that, without water nearby, most of those plots will wither and die uselessly. As silly as this is, it has reminded me of a useful project we could do.

We've recently revamped the Netherbase in general and the Netherwart farm in particular. Perhaps we could add to it a waterless wheat farm. Wheat can only grow in tilled soil, and if tilled soil does not have a nearby source of water, it will revert to untilled soil after a few moments. Water can't exist in the Nether, so normally, wheat farming is impractical, if not impossible, in the Nether. But tilled soil will stay tilled for those few moments, and during that time, seeds can be planted. If these seeds are fertilized with bone meal, they will grow instantly to full maturity and become harvestable.

Heck knows we've got a crapload of bones handy. I'm off to bed now, but tomorrow I hope to find the time to bring a bunch of seeds, bones, dirt, and surplus hoes to the Netherbase, and build a small waterless wheat farm there. It will consist of about half a dozen blocks of dirt near a chest. In the chest will be a couple of hoes, and several stacks each of seeds and bone meal. Till the soil, if it isn't already tilled....plant the seeds....apply bone meal...harvest the wheat and seeds. Repeat as needed until you've got plenty of bread.

I may bring along some fences and eggs and make a small chicken coop as well, so our nether explorers can have their own local source of meat as well.

Please no chickens... Please!

Now, lorpius, we have a ton of hoes, but how many of them are dirty hoes? We have many men to satisfy here, but we don't need that many

Someone pleaded with me over a week ago to be allowed to destroy the hoes. I still chuckle every time I see them.

spectrumwars wrote: But some time ago, I noticed someone had made up over a dozen stone hoes. So I took half a dozen of them with me to the farms, where they might one day be used. Someone actually made replacements and refilled those slots in the chest.

Maybe the culprit noticed that they were gone and thought that they had all been used and wanted to be nice and helpful and make new ones.




Also, can you really have chickens in the nether? That would be awesome!

sret wrote:
Also, can you really have chickens in the nether? That would be awesome!

Yep. We had a chicken coop next to the netherwart farm on my old server. We brought a stack of wheat in from the overworld (we were not quite so inundated with bones) to feed them, and now we had a semi-renewable source of food right in the nether. Plus feathers, and since gravel exists in the nether, and we also had a tree farm in the Nether...we had a renewable source of arrows, too.

I'd love to see a chicken farm in the nether. Would also be pretty cool if living there affected their appearance somehow, kinda like with trees.

Lol, found this post on Reddit as well

You found what on reddit? o.o

Yeah, I was laughing too much at myself after writing this up, put it on /r/minecraft.

....About dem hoes.....

One day I was derping around the city when I realized we were entirely out of picks. I thought I'd be nice and create a surplus of picks for us. I used about two stacks of sticks and two and a half stacks of cobble. I arranged them in pick formation and hit the auto-create button. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that once the half stack of cobble on the top ran out it would continue to create things.

Long story short, I ended up with about as many picks as I had hoes. Since it was all stone, I figured it was no big deal.

And the mystery has been solved. =)

Never attempt to mass create diamond picks like that, I would cry if I saw 18 diamond hoes in a chest.

Don't worry, I'd cry too.

I would go on a murderous rampage, killing all in sight