# What is the difference between farms and plantations?



## Guest (May 11, 2008)

The question came up in another thread. What IS the difference? 

Both of them have much of the same methods and results. A crop is planted, nurtured, then harvested.

Cotton was once grown on a plantation, now it's farmed.

Bananas, rubber trees, coffee, and many other crops are raised on "plantations".

Most crops are grown on "farms".

How is it decided whether a piece of cultivated land is a farm or a plantation? Why is it that certain crops are grown on one, and certain crops are grown on the other?


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## bumpus (Jul 30, 2003)

.
Farms and Plantations:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation


bumpus
.


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

We usually called the sugar plantations "camps" since that's where all the workers who worked on the plantations lived but they would also be called "plantations", too. They were never referred to as sugar farms, they were always sugar plantations. I get the feeling that a plantation is more of a small village sort of farm where the workers live there and most of the management lives there, too. Each camp had it's own store, and would usually have baseball fields, gyms, maybe a small church or dispensary (hospital/clinic) as well. 

Farms are generally a one family sort of operation and don't involve worker housing or the other accessories to villages. Ranches can be like plantations in that the workers live on site but that was generally bachelor housing without the rest of the village life that was common on the plantations.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

I may be wrong but I always thought a plantation was a huge farm that was worked by slave labor. After the civil war they were worked by share croppers which was nearly a slave any way. They got a small % of what they grew while the plantation owner got fat. 

A farm was where a family run it by them selves and hired help as needed but paid a fair wage.
That's what I learned in school anyway. 
Dennis


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I always thought a plantation was ran with slave labor...

The Civil War ended that practice.

Afterwards, former plantation owners realized that they could pay the former slaves a tiny percentage of what it previously cost them (the owners of the slaves) to raise the cotton (strictly cash work, or sharecropping). 

The former plantation owners were happy (as their production cost were lowered). The former slaves were happy (because they were now free, although in worse shape financially). The northern abolitionists were happy (they'd freed the slaves, and could wash their hands of taking care of them).


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Plantation---definition provided by Merriam-Webster online dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plantation

1: a usually large group of plants and especially trees under cultivation
2: a settlement in a new country or region <Plymouth Plantation>
3 a: a place that is planted or under cultivation b: an agricultural estate usually worked by resident labor

Farm--definition provided by Merriam-Webster online dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farm

1obsolete : a sum or due fixed in amount and payable at fixed intervals
2: a letting out of revenues or taxes for a fixed sum to one authorized to collect and retain them
3: a district or division of a country leased out for the collection of government revenues
4: a tract of land devoted to agricultural purposes
5 a: a plot of land devoted to the raising of animals and especially domestic livestock b: a tract of water reserved for the artificial cultivation of some aquatic life form <a fish farm>
6: a minor-league team (as in baseball) associated with a major-league team as a subsidiary
7: an area containing a number of similar structures or objects (as radio antennas or storage tanks)

Farm/plantation--seems they are pretty much the same thing.

One must remember that Wikipedia is written by volunteers and whether the content is accurate or not is up for debate since pages can be edited by other volunteers. 

One might suppose that Wikipedia content could or would be influenced by the ages and beliefs of those volunteers offering definitions. An example would be if Al Gore offered a definition of global warming as--an impending doom of earth brought on by mankind. A scientist might provide a definition more like this--a normal cyclic change of climate. A skeptic might write--global warming is an unproven mythical scare tactic used in an attempt control mans living habits.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Whatever you the owner calls it, thats what it is. Kinda like what is a Homestead? Everyone but the gubment and Ins co's, will take your word for it. lol Eddie


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

Farm help says, " Dad, you want me to finish disking that field or milk the cows?"
Plantation help says, " Moteesa?" (translates to:" More tea, Sir?")
I don't care who you are, that's funny.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I guess I always thought it was a regional thing. A plantation _is_ a farm, if you live in a certain part of the country. It's just an old-fashioned term...



> Farms are generally a one family sort of operation and don't involve worker housing or the other accessories to villages. Ranches can be like plantations in that the workers live on site but that was generally bachelor housing without the rest of the village life that was common on the plantations.


Farm and ranch, in my part of the world have nothing to do with housing and everything to do with what is produced. 
Ranches produce livestock. A ranch might raise the occasional wheat crop and usually puts up hay for their livestock. But that's about as much tractor time as you'll see. 
Farms, on the other hand, are crop-heavy and often diversified into livestock as well. 
Farmers will occasionally refer to themselves as ranchers. Ranchers will _never_ refer to themselves as farmers. 

But again, I'm going to guess this type of terminology distinction is a regional thing, just like "plantations."


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## Guest (May 12, 2008)

Today whether an agricultural operation is a farm or a plantation has more to do with traditional local usage than anything else.

The real difference between the two is in the definitions that Windy posted. Resident labor, as in non-family resident labor. If most or all of the non-family labor that works the land also lives on that land then it is a plantation. Something of a self-contained community. If most of the labor that works the land is family, maybe with just a couple of hired hands, then it would be a farm.

Of course there are all sorts of gray area where one could be more properly called the other, but that's the basic crux of the matter.

But as I said earlier today it has more to do with traditional local usage than anything else. Farm or plantation, in the twenty first century they are about the same thing.

.....Alan.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I thought a plantation was a large farm where the "farmer' doesn't get his hands dirty.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

About like the difference in a porch and a veranda, on one you drink ice tea on the other you sip juleps.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Don't know.I owed a Farm that was a farm for years.Sold it the New Owner named it a Ranch.

big rockpile


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## Alice Kramden (Mar 26, 2008)

My first thought was that a Plantation specializes in one crop, i.e., rice, tobacco, cotton, indigo, rubber, etc. 

A Farm has more than one main crop, more or less. 

In Hawaii there are pineapple plantations, in Central America they have coffee plantations, in Cuba there are sugar plantations. 

A cattle farm may also grow the feed for the cattle, and sell any extra, along with perhaps having a truck patch to sell. 

Anyhow, that's just my meandering on the subject. Doesn't mean a thing.


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

No more pineapple crops in Hawaii except a bit grown for tourists. The farm land is too expensive now so it has become housing subdivisions. Most of the pineapple was grown on Oahu which now imports about 95% of the food it eats since it planted houses instead of food. 

The big Hawaii plantations were sugar plantations and those went down in 1995. The big ranch on Molokai closed last month and that island lost about 30% of it's employment. We still have Parker Ranch on the Island of Hawaii raising grass fed cattle. As of two months ago there's only two dairy farms (never a dairy "ranch", ya notice that?) left in the entire state, too. The last egg farm closed early this year too (another "farm" even though it's raising animals) because of the price to import feed. Hawaii doesn't grow feed corn or grain.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

Yeah, it doesn't seem to matter where you are, chickens and dairy cows are always "farmed."


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## sidepasser (May 10, 2002)

Georgia still has several plantations, some devoted solely to raising quail for field trials - lol..

Most plantations here are not in the hundreds of acres..they are in the thousands of acres. if you google Georgia plantations, you will note there are several still operating here and some will allow tourists to visit.


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## Alice Kramden (Mar 26, 2008)

Well, just Darn! I didn't know that. Shame, really. I've started noticing pineapple now comes from Central America (fresh) or The Philippines or Thailand (canned).

I remember the commercials from back in the late '50's/early 60's: Hawaiian Punch...guess I drank enough of it to float a battleship.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Chunk some catfish in a pond, presto, turned that pond into a catfish farm. Had some last night fried golden brown.:clap: Eddie


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## Joey Wahoo (Jul 9, 2003)

No difference really. But "plantation" has acquired a lot of negative connotations, as this thread reveals.

Our farm used to be called a "plantation". We dropped the word "plantation" and replaced it with "farm." Its still the exact same place.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

The old plantations were pretty much self sustaining. Along with the main cash crop, they raised pretty much all of the grain, fruit, vegetables and livestock needed. They had blacksmiths, wheelwrights, coopers, the whole thing. There was a large labor force, and all had to be fed and clothed. Many plantations were 5 - 10 thousand acres.

A farm by contrast, still was pretty much self sustaining, however, there were usually much less people involved to provide for. Even a large farm would be 500 acres or less.

I think this would be the main distinction.


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