Chapter 353 Cooperation
There is a large canal passing through Daling, which crosses the hundred acres of land owned by Mr. Bai. This year, his family planted winter wheat in the fields on both sides of the canal, a total of about twenty acres.
The rest of the land was covered in weeds, and no one in this area planted winter wheat anymore, because all the good land was in the hands of Mr. Bai.
So this big canal was also built with a lot of money from Mr. Bai, and the villagers also contributed their labor. Because the big canal was dug all the way from the riverside, all the places along its path benefited from it.
Manbao is now very satisfied looking at this big canal.
With this big canal, everything becomes much more convenient.
It was impossible for three children to walk across the 120 acres of land and a mountain in such a short time, so they stood on the stone chosen by Zhou Silang and looked out.
Then Zhou Silang perfunctorily drew a big circle and pointed, saying, "Here, this area is all yours."
The three children exclaimed "Wow!" They had seen many fields. There were fields before leaving the village, and there were even more outside the village. Everywhere they looked, there were fields of crops.
But that was not their land, so it didn't make any sense when they saw it, but now all of it belongs to them.
The three children's eyes were sparkling.
Manbao waved his hand and said, "This piece is all planted with beans, this piece is all planted with wheat, and that piece is all planted with rice..."
Zhou Silang: ...
Bai Shanbao expressed his doubts, "Didn't we say we need to plan? The land that was planted with wheat last year should be planted with beans, and the land that was planted with beans last year can be changed to plant wheat."
"Uh, I forgot. It's okay. We still have time. We can plan it slowly when we get back."
Bai Erlang had no say in this kind of topic, as his main job was to run errands.
For example, he had to run to ask the farmhand which of their 100 acres of land was planted with wheat and which was planted with beans this year.
Then Bai Erlang, who had never recognized the family farmhand, could now call out the name of every person he saw when he walked in the fields.
Then he hadn't played with his friends for a long time. Even in very cold weather, he would occasionally follow Manbao and the others to Daling to see the field covered with weeds.
He really didn't understand what was there to see, but Bai Shan and Zhou Man were watching with great fascination, and Zhou Man would occasionally dig up some soil to take home.
What’s the point of taking it home?
Anyway, the soil is so thin. Will it become thicker if I take it home and fertilize it again?
Yes, the soil that Manbao brought back really has this effect. She took the several piles of soil she dug back to Dr. D for analysis.
Although the agricultural book was written in an easy-to-understand manner, Manbao still had many questions and had to ask Dr. D for advice.
Of course, Dr. D handed this kind of problem over to his graduate students, so recently the graduate students have been contacting Manbao using Dr. D's account.
Dr. D's research seemed to be going against the flow. The target material that Manbao exchanged with her was almost used up, including the Poria soil that was later used to exchange for wheat seeds.
If she asked Manbao for Poria cocos, Manbao would not be able to produce it, but there was still a lot of Poria cocos soil.
Manbao is particularly stingy when making transactions. Although the Poria soil cannot be sold for the time being, the last time he exchanged it with Dr. D, he only had a small handful.
You know, she collected a lot of soil in the space when Zhou Silang was digging Poria cocos, and some of it still contained a little mycelium.
Recently, Dr. D and her graduate students have been very dedicated in helping Manbao answer questions about agriculture. Knowing that she wanted to start a small farm, the graduate students also thoughtfully gave her some planning suggestions.
So Manbao gave them a small handful of soil.
The graduate student was so sharp-eyed that he found a trace of mycelium in the small handful of soil and was extremely happy.
Dr. D was also very happy. She had now gotten to know Mr. Zhou's temper better and knew he was soft-hearted, so she generously offered to help him in other ways.
For example, analyzing soil composition and giving fertilizer recommendations.
Dr. D has guessed from the existing data that the world Manbao and his friends live in is a very primitive world, where there is no nutrient solution for the soil and seeds, and there is probably not even the chemical fertilizers and pesticides that were popular in ancient times.
Dr. D guessed that they only had farmyard manure, which was the traditional flower fertilizer in the ancient sense.
Generally, this kind of farmyard manure is used to supplement the soil fertilizer in an all-round way, but even if it is all-round, there will be a focus. For example, if there is more of a certain kind of decomposed debris, then the nitrogen content will be higher...
Of course Manbao didn’t understand. Not only Manbao didn’t understand, even Old Zhoutou, who had been farming for many years, didn’t understand the difference.
He knew that if the soil was not fertile enough, he would apply more fertilizer. If there was not even fertilizer, he would plant beans and grow them for a few more years.
But this method is laborious and time-consuming. Now that there is a better way, Manbao will of course accept Dr. D's advice.
So every time she went to inspect the fields, she would dig up soil that she thought was different and give it to Dr. D's graduate students for testing.
After the test, he will not only give her the ingredient list, but also the corresponding composting ratio.
This is nothing in the eyes of biology graduate students. They don't even need to study it because it can be found in the information.
Manbao can find some composting materials, but not some. However, this is not difficult. As long as Manbao gives the other party some Poria soil, the graduate student will adjust the formula based on the materials given by Manbao.
The two sides helped each other and enjoyed the cooperation.
Manbao was too lazy to take the time to copy them, so he just asked Keke to print out the recipes and gave them to Bai Shanbao the next day. The two of them planned to start making compost.
And the land also needs to be turned over.
It is a cold winter now. Turning the soil can dig out insect eggs sleeping underground, which may freeze them to death.
Then the weeds will be turned under the soil, and maybe they can rot and improve the soil.
So Bai Shanbao turned the book to the page about farm tools and asked, "Should we make this thing?"
Manbao said, "We don't know how to make it. I showed it to my eldest brother, and he said it's similar to the plow we have at home, but there are some differences. For example, the plow at home is straight, and this one is curved."
"The carpenter can definitely do it. We can draw a picture and take it to the county town to show the carpenter. If he can do it, let my grandmother invite him back to do it." Anyway, it was his grandmother who paid for it.
Manbao said it was no problem, so he took out a large piece of paper, dipped a pen in ink and handed it to Bai Shanbao.
Bai Shanbao looked up at her.
Manbao stretched out his chin, motioning him to take it and start.
Bai Shanbao didn't answer and said, "I can't draw."
Manbao was dumbfounded. She blinked and asked, "Then will I?"
"You don't know whether you can or not."
Manbao bit the end of his pen and carefully looked at the plow in the book, then began to copy it. After a while, Bai Shanbao said disapprovingly, "It's wrong. It's not that crooked here. And look, this is separated from that. They are clearly connected."
Manbao put down his brush and said, "You draw."
"I don't want to." Humph, he is not stupid. He paints even though he knows that his painting is not good.
(End of this chapter)
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