Who would win…. a savvy 19th century American farmer or an advanced PDC instructor from 2025?

This question is inspired by the entertaining subreddit r/whowouldwin.

I have been reading an interesting book called The Rise and Fall of American Growth and there is a section that discusses food productivity in the late 19th century. At this time roughly 75% of Americans lived outside of the city… mostly on farms. These farmers were very good at growing/raising food. Its estimated that Americans consumed almost 500 more calories per day than people in the UK in 1870. Also consider that in the late 19th century poverty was pretty much limited to urban areas. Very few people living off their land were considered poor or malnourished. Synthetic fertilizers were not invented until the early 20th century so these people were really good at creating abundance and surviving off a single plot of land without too many inputs.

Now for the ground rules… Each person gets 5 acres of bare, fertile land in the US midwest in 2025. Both get a $5,000 gift card to Home Depot and $5000 for Tractor Supply/Local animal breeding outfits. And both get $1000 to spend on seeds/plants from any existing US nursery/seed catalogue. After this they are on their own. They can grow anything they want, invasives, natives, etc…

Also, lets set aside modern permaculture goals like wildlife habitat restoration, community sharing, ecosystem remediation, etc… As the 19th century farmer would probably not understand why that would be necessary in the first place. The goal is simply to create the most abundant, resilient & fulfilling homestead for a family to live on. Who do you think would win?

IMHO, I think the farmer might ensure survival of the family because they know how to grow staples, store food over winter, build whats necessary to stay warm, etc…. And these people were tough as nails so working dawn to dusk is not going to be a problem. They also likely had great instincts around weather, timing of when to sow seeds, etc…

But, the PDC instructor has a shot at building a true paradise with a wider variety of food that might be more resilient to crop failures, disease, weather events, etc… The food would also likely be more diverse in the nutrient content, flavors, etc…