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If a Westeros noble’s wealth depends on agriculture, how much does he know about agriculture? Can Mace Tyrell sow and harvest a wheat crop?

A noble doesn’t need to know how to sow and harvest a wheat crop and wouldn’t ever learn – indeed, it would be injurious to the dignity of a nobleman to suggest that they should undertake the work of a smallfolk.

However, depending on the nobleman, they might well learn from their maester a good deal about agriculture from a managerial standpoint – what kind of land is best suited for what crops or livestock, how best to rotate crops to maximize yield, the theory of livestock breeding, the uses and siting of various agricultural improvements, etc. – so that the various manors and lands of their fiefdoms are run well. On the other hand, it may be considered that this too is the province of lesser men – bailiffs, stewards, reeves, maesters, etc. – and that all a nobleman needs to know is the old Parthian curriculum. 

And that would largely come down to the ideology of the house. Randyll Tarly clearly leans to the latter view, whereas I would be willing to bet a substantial amount of dragons that, while no Redwyne earns their living by stomping grapes or cutting weeds, they pride themselves on being really, really obnoxious oenophiles. 

GRRM hinted that he will throw in a major curveball w/ a character the show killed off but is still alive in the books. I’ve always thought it was Stannis & that he’d lose to the Boltons at the Battle of Winterhell for underestimating Ramsay & will be tortured by Roose/Ramsay until his iron will finally breaks. There’s a line in the books where someone compares him to iron IIRC “strong but brittle” or something. Jon will rescue him in 2nd battle but he’ll be broken. Do you think this plausible?

No. 

seguemarran Asks:

How come that the boundaries of the old kingdoms and family lands in Westeros seem to be so unchangeable? Has there ever been something like a dynastic union in order to enlarge family dominions? If, for instance (not interested in this particular speculation), Sansa came to be the only heir to the North, the Riverlands and then married Robin Arryn, wouldn’t that make a huge kingdom then united by her children? Thank you!

I don’t think it’s accurate that the boundaries are unchangeable – the histories of the various kingdoms from WOIAF show the opposite, with the borders of the various kingdoms flowing hither and yon repeatedly throughout history. In addition to the gradual and often painful process of the unification of each of the Seven Kingdoms from the hundreds of petty kingdoms that once existed, we know of a good deal of back-and-forth. The Durrandon conquest of the Crownlands and the Riverlands, the Ironborn’s conquest of much of the west coast of Westeros and the Hoare King’s conquest of the Riverlands, Gyles III Gardener who conquered most of the Stormlands before falling prey to tall poppy syndrome, the North’s attempts to conquer the Sisters and the Fingers, etc. 

As to your question about dynastic union, there’s plenty of internal examples: the Stark’s dynastic marriages to the Barrow Kings, Garlan II Gardener marrying into the Hightowers and gaining Oldtown for the Reach, the dynastic union that allowed Meryn III to successfully incorporate the Arbor into the Reach, and so on. 

However, there is a Westerosi custom that says that one man shouldn’t control more than one great seat of power, both out of respect for the balance of power, and the feudal limitations of trying to administer geographically separate fiefdoms. That likely has limited the reach and extent of dynastic marriages. 

i’m not sure if this is in the books, or a certain wiki, but i can’t find it right now and i really want to know: does the prince/ss of dorne have a small council, or the equivalent of it? how much power exactly do they hold over their country, compared to the power of the king/queen of westeros? what is really the power structure in dorne?

As far as I know, Dorne doesn’t have a bureaucracy that’s formalized as a Small Council. In terms of how much power they hold over Dorne – are you referring to the period of their independence or after Daeron II’s treaty?