Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-32456931-20170704140754/@comment-32325302-20170713221048

Going with what Minecraftmage113 said, If MrHobit meant that we should be able to choose what we want them to farm when we hire them, I think that creates more problems that it solves. At the moment, I can hire a farmer, fast travel them to my farm (I set up a temporary waypoint for that), put 2 seeds in their hand (along with bonemeal if I choose), and turn them loose. If I then decide later I want them to farm something different, I simply change the crop and the seeds in hand for them. If the seed allocation is done during the hiring process, it seems like it would wipe out the allocation at the fields, which means you couldn't change them to farm something else: instead, you'd have to dismiss them and go hire a new farmhand.

The chests are there for the hired hand to get extra seeds and bonemeal, and to place harvested crops in, so that the owner doesn't have to go click on every single farmhand and open the farmhand's inventory, to collect harvested crops. Basically the chests simplify the owner's collecting of crops harvested by the workers.

Another problem with having to assign seeds to a worker at time of hiring: you have to go to a boss (in my case, a Hobbit Farmer on his farm) to hire the workers... which means you'd have to be sure to carry the seeds with you that you want them to farm, if you're assigning a crop to them at time of hiring. So, if you forget to take the seeds with you, you can't assign them to a crop. Or, if like me you tried to assign them a seed that they won't grow, and that's the only seed you brought with you... again, you'd have to go home and get seeds they will grow, go back to the boss... after having left in the middle of hiring (and I don't know if leaving in the middle of the process would screw up your hiring, etc.).

Now, if what you're actually after is being able to assign a *unit* of farmers to farm a single crop (so you only have to do it once instead of doing it with each farmer), then why not just alter the hiring GUI so that you can hire either individuals, or hire a Unit? In the case of the Unit, have one of them be the Lead Farmhand (and labeled as such)---so when you get your Unit to the farm, you go into the Leader's inventory and set seeds in hand... and it sets all the workers in the Unit to farm that one crop. You could then dump the rest of your seed in a farming chest, and the other workers would run to it and grab their seeds and get to work. :) So, say, 5 workers per unit: 1 Leader and 4 others? Or, perhaps you could set Unit size, from 2-10 workers... but there would always be 1 who is the Lead Farmhand.

Additional note: I've found, when hiring farmers, I get the best and quickest results if I totally prep the field ahead of time for them: not only putting in the water source, but also hoeing and putting in a first crop. Throw a few bone meal in the chest, and they jump on it. At this point I have 5 farmhands working a large wheat field... and I'm getting more Wheat than I know what to do with. :D I have a single farmhand working a separate smaller field of corn, and another in a field of potatoes... and again, they're farming a LOT of crop for me, since I prepped the fields fully before I brought them in. At this point all I have to do is drop by occasionally to gather from chests what they've harvested, and I make sure I'm in the chunk enough so that they stay loaded for a decent amount of time (when the chunk is unloaded they don't work and the crops don't grow).

Also, I fence in my fields both to keep them from chasing rabbits out of the field/claim, but also to help protect them from invading mobs (or players who think it's cute to kill other people's workers). I also set up the scarecrows ahead of time, because I hate having birds steal my crops/seeds.