Chapter 121: Opening up the wasteland
The first month of the lunar year is the most leisurely time of the year for people in the countryside. Even Zhou Erlang, who had been busy weaving bamboo baskets, stopped what he was doing. Except for the Lantern Festival when he took his eldest and third sons to the county town to set up a stall to sell bamboo baskets, he was hardly busy.
Manbao took the opportunity to propose to his elder sister to reclaim some land.
Before Zhou Xi could refuse, Zhou Dalang quickly cleaned up the rice in his bowl and said, "Alright, after breakfast, we'll go together. I've seen the land that Manbao chose. It's not very big and there aren't even any trees. It's easy to start a business."
Qian looked at her eldest daughter who was about to refuse, nodded and said, "Well, I'll listen to Manbao on this matter."
Then he said to Zhou Xi, "That piece of land is yours. You will keep all the profits from it in the future."
Zhou Xi felt a little uneasy and lowered his head in response.
After dinner, the whole family went to the fields. Even Old Zhou followed with his hands behind his back to take a look. Qian called Zhou Xi and said, "Ever since she started studying, your sister has become even smarter. There are many things we don't understand. Since she asked you to plant ginger, then you should plant it carefully. It only takes a little effort anyway. The land is cultivated, and the last thing our family lacks is people."
Zhou Xi has been home for more than ten days and has noticed some differences. In her impression, Manbao is just a weak and frail youngest sister, but this time when she returns home to stay for a long time, she finds that her family still dotes on her as much as before, but there are many differences.
For example, when choosing grain seeds two days ago, Old Zhou called Manbao over and asked her to calculate how many kilograms of grain seeds she needed to sow in the fields at home.
For example, a few days ago during the Lantern Festival, the second child was going to the county town to sell bamboo baskets, and he specifically asked Manbao if he wanted to go.
Manbao complained that the weather was too cold and the homework assigned by the teacher was not yet complete, so she did not go. Instead, she asked the fourth, fifth and sixth children to go. After returning home, the second child gave all the money to Manbao to count. Manbao knew exactly how much was handed over to the company and how much he had left.
Zhou Xi watched, his expression calm, but he was shocked in his heart. At night he couldn't help but wonder, is it that all daughters resemble their fathers? If the father is smart, then the daughter will be so smart?
Now that her mother mentioned this, she couldn't help but sit beside her and asked, "Mom, Manbao is so smart, what are we going to do in the future?"
Qian paused as she sewed, then said, "It's a good thing that the child is smart. What can we do?"
Before Zhou Xi could continue, Qian said, "Why don't you go and take a look at the fields? After all, it's your land. You can't just let your brothers and sisters-in-law work on it."
Zhou Xi responded and got up to chase Zhou Dalang and the others.
Manbao, Datou, Daya and other children rushed to the front and plunged into the weeds crying.
Zhou Dalang couldn't help but scold them, be careful not to get stabbed back.
Manbao, no, it should be said that the land that Keke chose for Zhou Xi was right next to Zhou Silang's land, just separated by a stone.
Old Zhou took a look and found that the land was very small, only about two mu, but there were a lot of weeds growing on the land. Because it was just after winter, the weeds were withered and yellow, but some grass sprouts were emerging from the ground.
He dug a hoe and found that the soil was okay. There were no big trees or big rocks in this place. Although it was a bit small, two centimeters was enough.
Old Zhou handed the hoe to Dalang and nodded, saying, "Okay, let's take this one. Let's cut the grass first."
Then he went to Zhou Silang and said, "Look at you, and then look at your sister. What kind of land did you choose? It's covered with trees and rocks. It took two months to open up the land."
Zhou Silang said unconvincedly: "Mine is bigger!"
Old Zhou snorted, "What's the use of being big? If the soil is not fertile, how can you grow anything?"
At this point, Old Zhou got angry and said, "From now on, you are not allowed to take fertilizer from home. If you want fertilizer, go and ferment it yourself. Look at how much fertilizer you put on the fields recently. Don't you want it for farming in the spring?"
Zhou Silang felt guilty, so he lowered his head.
Manbao, who was happily picking up stones and throwing them out, heard this and ran away, because she asked her fourth brother to pick up the fat.
Xiao Qian obviously knew it was her idea. Seeing her running over, she stretched out her finger and tapped her forehead.
The faster the land is cleared with more people, and besides, Dalang Zhou, Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang are all good workers, much better than their three younger brothers. There is also Xiao Qianshi and others who are cutting grass and picking up stones.
They each took a corner and started hoeing, and they turned over the land in one day.
Of course, it is not enough to just turn it over. Tomorrow you have to knock the grass roots and other things out of the soil, break up the mud blocks, and turn it over again. It is best to sprinkle a layer of fertilizer on it and take care of it.
However, Old Zhou is very stingy now and does not allow anyone to touch the fertilizer at home. In his opinion, nothing is more important than sowing in spring. That is the family's food supply for a year and no negligence is allowed.
So Zhou Dalang planned to go to the mountain to dig a layer of mud to cover Zhou Xi.
But they obviously didn't choose a good spot. The soil they dug up was covered with a lot of unrotten leaves. Manbao looked at it with disgust and said, "How can we farm like this?"
Zhou Dalang smiled and asked Manbao, "So what do you think we should do?"
Manbao squatted on the ground and asked, "Can't we ferment it like we do compost at home?"
"This isn't fertilizer," Zhou Dalang said. The fertilizer at home was made by fermenting manure mixed with wheat straw, rice straw, and river mud.
It was Manbao who started digging the soil with leaves on it from the mountain. However, Zhou Dalang was a good farmer. He had seen that the layer of mud dug out was indeed a little fertile than the soil reclaimed from the wasteland.
That's why he was willing to do this.
Manbao did not have the same fixed idea as him. She thought that since Koko said that fallen leaves can fertilize trees, it means that fallen leaves also have fertility.
Didn’t Koko say that the black layer of soil under the tree is the fertility added to the soil by the fallen leaves after years of decomposition? The reason why the grass and trees in the mountains can grow so well without anyone fertilizing them is because the fallen leaves and flowers add fertility to them.
In that case, they might as well use them to make compost, because doesn't composting just speed up the decomposition process?
Of course, she doesn't know how to make compost, so this matter should be left to her elder brother and others.
Zhou Dalang asked her, "Is it written in the book? How do you make compost?"
"I don't know," Manbao said, "I haven't seen such a book yet. But don't worry, big brother. I'll take a look at it when I get back. For now, just ferment it according to the method at home. No need to add fertilizer or water. We can just water it with river water and sprinkle some leaves in it."
Zhou Dalang: ...
This is the first time I heard that when making compost, you don’t need fertilizer water, but instead sprinkle leaves.
He didn't quite trust Manbao, but she was too clingy, so he had no choice but to take his brothers and dig a big hole for them next to the field, and dump all the soil and leaves dug from the mountain into it.
I wrote these chapters quickly, so there are typos. If you find any, please tell me in the review and I will correct them.
(End of this chapter)
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