Them Dwarven folk.

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by zxcvbn

but I don't think they did any farming or herding if they could help it, and usually obtaiined most(not all, but most) of their food through trade.

If they could help it, yes- but I think they rather did farming and herding than were completely dependant on outsiders.

I always thought that it was the food suppliers who were disadvantaged. Dwarven products(tools, weapons, jewellry, road-building, stone-work etc.) tend to be rather expensive. In comparision food is quite cheap.

I agree, but only in case dwarves produced some food also on their own. It requires quite much food to keep the whole society content; and if they bought most of it, they would have had to buy it from many farmers and pay each enough. I know the dwarves were good tradesmen, but we must remember all of those who ate didn't contribute to the making of trading goods.

Heh. I'm really enjoying this discussion.

I enjoy every discussion that concerns dwarves.

[Groin Redbeard]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

If they could help it, yes- but I think they rather did farming and herding than were completely dependant on outsiders.

Good point. Is is possible that they could bring livestock into their mountain halls, and simply bring the supplies to feeding the animals inside?

I like zxcvbn's idea about the mushrooms.

I enjoy every discussion that concerns dwarves.

Ahhh... a man after my own heart!

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Groin Redbeard

Good point. Is is possible that they could bring livestock into their mountain halls, and simply bring the supplies to feeding the animals inside?

I think that's quite possible (and it brings in another question: ventilation systems). The most logical scenario is that the animals spent summers outside, guarded by a few herdsmen. Most of them were butchered in the autumn and salted or smoked, others spent the winter inside the mountain. Calves were born in the early spring.
It requires so much fodder that it wouldn't be profitable to keep them inside all year.

[zxcvbn]

The reason I don't think Dwarves were given to farming is because their halls were not well-aired, and were mostly cut off from sunlight. Plants need both fresh air and abundant sunlight to grow, and unless the Dwarves had UV lamps like those used in modern greenhouses it would not be possible to obtain a good crop underground. Plus I don't think the rocky, gravelly soil down there would be very fertile.

The only exception is mushrooms and other fungi, which grow well under such conditions inside dark caves.

[Aganzir]

Ah, but I didn't think either that they were growing plants inside a mountain. Rather that they had some fields on the slopes and in the vales.

[Groin Redbeard]

Plus even if they did have crop fields I'm sure we will never find out. Dwarves love to keep things a secret.

[alatar]

I too have been wondering where those Dwarves got all of their food. Think of the fair city of the Dwarrowdelf - in its hay day, more than a few busy dwarves lived there. Did they eat much of what Hollin produced? Then what of the elves? How many acres were given over in these lands to food production/procurement, and how many were required to keep a dwarf on its feet all day?

...

So why were prehistoric bugs so big (imagine a bug with a wing span of over two feet/70 cm!)? It's speculated that, with an atmospheric oxygen concentration up to 35 percent, bugs could be bigger back then. Did you know that bugs breathe through tiny holes and tubes and sacs that passively or actively get the air inside the bug? This ventilation mechanism limits the size of the bug - too big, and oxygen can't get to those cells deep inside the bug, those cells die and then...We, in case you haven't noticed, use our lungs and heart to circulate the oxygen around - and to rid ourselves of carbon dioxide, the same thing those bugs have to do.

What does this have to do with dwarves?

I've been wondering just how far away from an air source they can tunnel before they no longer can get air. Sure, Gandalf and company note air holes in Moria when they are camped outside the Chamber of Mazarbul, but what of the Mines? As with the Romans, surely the dwarves encountered the ventilation and heat issues that plague miners even today. Toxic gases can be released when mining, water has to be diverted to somewhere, and when they lit fires in the upper chambers, you end up with chimneys sucking out the air from below.

Deep they delved them.

So, that said, did the dwarves, seemingly with scant food resources and possibly low oxygen concentrations, have the ability to 'live on less?'