Ever since Zynga released the tractors for Farmville, in an effort to speed up plowing, people haven’t stopped complaining. Multiple tractors SHARING a single fuel tank? Who would ever think up such an idea? But then came the harvesters, which also shares the same single fuel tank with any tractors you may have.

Now, if you have a small farm, a farm that my have less than 75 plots or up to roughly 100 or so, then the sharing fuel tank issue won’t really be a problem. You’ll be able to harvest AND plow ALL your plots (if you have 75 or less), or you’ll get a good majority done (if you have 100 plots, give or take).

But for those that have LARGE farms, and I’m talking 18×18 or 20×20, with the majority of land FILLED with plots for crops, then you might be considered a ‘power leveler’ by some. If this is you, and if you HAVEN’T heard of the ‘Trapping Method’ before, well then this is the right topic for you.

The Trapping Method is quite simple, really. The steps to it are as follows:

1) Once you load FarmVille up, do NOT move your farmer ANYWHERE. What you want to do is to keep him/her in place, for this is his/her ‘starting position’.

2) Go into the market and buy fences or hay bales or hedges, anything that could be used to trap your farmer.

3) Once you’ve decided what to use to trap your farmer, start trapping him/her! Just place the decoration(s) all around your farmer until he/she is trapped in. For example, I bought four whitewash fences and placed one on each side of my farmer, having each piece connect to the next.

See? Simple. What this achieves is a cutback on walking time. Instead of having to wait for your farmer to walk around to hand plow/harvest crops, your farmer will stay in place since he/she is trapped, but will STILL be able to plow/seed/harvest your land!

I use a 20×20 farm, with 338 plots for crops. Before the trapping method, it took me OVER AN HOUR to harvest, plow, and seed my entire farm. And that was USING vehicles to my advantage! Once I adopted the trapping method, my time cut back to roughly 20 minutes (it will vary for you, depending on how fast you click) to actually click every plot to harvest, plow, and seed, then give or take a few for the game to catch up and finish the job itself.

Now, if you are using a larger farm with a majority of land covered in plots, the trapping method, personally, will do you a lot more good than the vehicles will do. The vehicles, while a nice addition, has the major issue of sharing a single fuel tank for multiple vehicles, meaning the entire point of speeding up farming by using the vehicles has become moot for those that have large farms covered in a majority of plots. Again, for people who have small farms or large farms with plots not taking up a majority of space, the vehicles will be of great use to you.

Not to say the vehicles should go to TOTAL waste, though. The trapping method COMBINED with the vehicles, for whatever little you can use them, can be just as good. Doing this, though, you will most likely only shed a minute, two minutes max, off the time it takes using the trapping method. I personally don’t feel the extra minute or two is that big of a deal, and prefer not to use the vehicles.