Xu Di also told Xu Rao and Zhang Zhaoci that he felt it was quite good here. He could just focus on doing the experiments and that Lu Mama would take care of the logistics. Unlike back in school, when he was busy in the lab, he would sometimes just eat instant noodles, and on good days he could have a sausage.
Zhang Zhaoci's winter wheat is growing well, thanks to her willingness to buy fertilizer and hire someone to apply it. By the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhang Zhaoci is preparing to hire someone to harvest the wheat.
The golden wheat field was a sight to behold. Zhang Zhaoci, along with Xu Di and Xu Zhi, and followed by Granny Lu, Qingmiao, and Qingsui, stood at the edge of the field, gazing at the not-too-big-to-small wheat field.
The two acres were planted with winter wheat. Nearby, another two acres were planted with corn on one half and sweet potatoes and potatoes on the other half. They were growing very well. Xu Di had really put a lot of effort into growing these crops well. When it was time to apply fertilizer, he went everywhere to find fertilizer. There were no chemical fertilizers available, only farmyard manure. But farmyard manure couldn't be applied directly to the field. It needed to be composted, dried, and then broken into small granules with a hoe before it could be used in the field.
Last winter, Xu Di began collecting fertilizer. Not to mention, the garrison alone had a lot of fertilizer. In order to collect the fertilizer, Xu Di asked Xu Rao to talk to the heir of the Marquis of Jingbei. After that, several public toilets were built in the military camp. Then, people were asked to move the excrement from the toilets to a special place nearby to store fertilizer. The excrement was piled up and composted. The composted fertilizer was turned out in the spring, dried, sorted, and transported to the fields.
Xu Di hired people to do all of this, but even though he hired people to do it, Xu Di still had to watch over it. On the first day, Xu Di didn't eat when he got home, and on the second day he ate very little. He gradually started eating after a few days when he got used to it. Later, Xu Di told Zhang Zhaoci that the smell in the fertilizer plantation was indescribable. Who would have thought that he would have to do such a thing one day?
Because of this, Xu Di decided that he should start researching fertilizer. The army not only has fertilizer in the public toilets, but also at the horse farm. After collecting all this fertilizer, he could do some simple processing to make it more usable. Who knows, he might actually be able to do this well and promote it, so that the local people could benefit.
Once he had an idea, he immediately put it into practice. In the spring, Xu Di found a sheltered spot, dug a pit, and began to make farmyard manure by mixing some manure, rotten leaves, and fine soil, following the method he had heard about before.
I heard about this farmyard manure from a senior student in the agricultural college. He said that if you keep using fertilizer, the soil is prone to compaction. Using some farmyard manure appropriately is beneficial for the long-term use of the soil. So, the senior students asked someone to make farmyard manure.
Xu Di had seen those farmyard manures before; they were all small granules with little smell. The crops in the experimental fields grew quite well when used. Because he was quite interested, Xu Di asked a few more questions. Now, Xu Di regrets not learning more from that senior brother back then. He treated many things as jokes, but who knew that they would be exactly what he needed now?
Thinking too much can easily lead to irritability, so Xu Di could only grit his teeth and rely on his memory to carefully recall the steps that his senior brother had once told him.
The wheat has grown, and although the yield is not very large, it still proves that it can grow here.
Zhang Zhaoci's winter wheat harvest was bountiful. Looking at the sacks of wheat, Zhang Zhaoci was overjoyed. Even the heir of the Marquis of Jingbei was happy. There were many military households in this area, most of whom farmed nearby. If winter wheat could yield so much more grain, it meant that they would have enough to eat in the future. Moreover, it would be easier for the army to collect grain. With so many soldiers, the daily grain consumption was enormous. Relying solely on the grain allocated by the imperial court was, if not a drop in the ocean, barely enough.
The happiest person here was Xu Rao. When the winter wheat was growing well, he sent people to help the old farmer he had invited from out of town grow grain. They learned how to sow, how to fertilize, and how to manage it on a daily basis. Over the past few months, they have managed to develop a set of planting methods suitable for the local area. The next step is to promote it vigorously. Wheat flour is much easier to use than oat flour for cooking, and it tastes better too. Otherwise, people would say that a good life means eating rice and white flour every day.
Zhang Zhaoci took a large portion of his harvested wheat as seed for the next season, and the rest he took to a mill to have it ground into flour. Of course, it couldn't compare to the flour bought from the supermarket, but the steamed buns made from this somewhat coarse flour tasted very sweet.
Zhang Zhaoci's wheat harvest was bountiful. After harvesting the wheat, Zhang Zhaoci planted soybeans and mung beans in the field. These would also be harvested before the wheat was planted. Xu Rao had already planned to intercrop corn in the wheat field next spring, so that the field would never be idle all year round, as it would be used to fertilize the soil. With this in mind, Xu Rao felt that he should urge Xu Di to start working on the fertilizer matter again.
After several experiments, Xu Di finally figured out a relatively good method for making farmyard manure.
The excrement collected from public toilets, horse manure collected from horse farms, rotten vegetable leaves collected from the county market, and wheat straw collected during the wheat harvest were put into a specially dug manure pit. Some lime and fine soil were added, water was poured on, and then it was fermented. After fermentation, it was dried in the sun. After drying, it had to be dried completely. The final drying was the most important. After drying, it was packed into burlap sacks, which was very convenient for both transportation and use.
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