Chapter 326 Planting trees, plowing fields, extra income
Soon it was the end of the month, and the village party secretary of Shimen Village sent someone to deliver the fruit seedlings as promised.
Shimen Village is a wealthy village with fertile fields, a large reservoir, and mountains full of fruit trees. Many families in the village have contracted a piece of mountain and make money by selling fruit.
Because they were well-off, there were four delivery tractors in total, and each tractor was fully loaded.
After the convoy arrived, Gao Mingcheng went to take over the goods. He first counted the fruit seedlings to see if the number matched, and then checked if there were any obvious defects. If not, he would unload the goods by category and pile them at the foot of the mountain first.
With Gao Yue's presence and the help of the village party secretary of Shimen Village in arranging this batch of fruit seedlings, there was basically no problem with the quality of the fruit seedlings.
Perhaps they are not specialized in the seedling business. Although this batch of fruit seedlings looks large, the number is actually not that large, because most of the fruit seedlings are two or three years old and are very close to bearing fruit.
In particular, there are two bayberry trees, which look to be two meters tall.
The deliveryman pointed at the two bayberry trees and said, "These bayberries have borne fruit several times. The fruits are big, sweet and delicious. The price must be higher. The bayberries in our village were transplanted from Zhejiang at the beginning. They are much more delicious than our local wild bayberries. These two trees are now called Dongkui Bayberries!"
Dongkui Bayberry was not called this name at first, but was named Dongkui Bayberry by Zhejiang Agricultural and Forestry University in 1979. Its fruit is as big as a ping-pong ball, purple-red in color, with a thick flesh column. It is a large-fruited late-maturing variety that begins to mature in early July.
Gao Mingcheng knew this, because when Dongkui Bayberry became famous, people from Shimen Village once sold it in the market pretending it was from Xianju. Of course, after making a fortune, they were reported.
Dongkui bayberry is the pillar industry of Xianju. The bayberry is highly protected and the price is extremely high, so most people are reluctant to buy it.
Therefore, it is reasonable to buy fake goods at a lower price.
Having said that, this bayberry is definitely considered a very good variety in their local area. Looking at these two bayberry trees that are already bearing fruit, Gao Mingcheng is in a good mood.
You get what you pay for, so the higher price is understandable.
After counting all the fruit seedlings, Gao Mingcheng readily paid for the goods.
The delivery man drove back with the empty truck.
"Uncles, get to work!" Gao Mingcheng shouted to the workers.
"I've told you before which fruit trees to plant where. Just plant them according to what we agreed." Gao Mingcheng gave the instructions, then he carried a large bayberry tree in one hand and walked towards the north slope of Xiaofu Mountain.
Bayberry likes shade and tolerates moisture. When there is plenty of rain and the climate is humid, it has a long lifespan and is high-yielding. It can be said that if these two Dongkui bayberry trees survive, they will be able to produce well for decades!
By then, Gao Mingcheng’s descendants will all be able to eat the bayberries grown on this tree.
Therefore, Gao Mingcheng was quite cautious and decided to find a place to plant it himself.
Dongkui bayberry has a shallow root system and lush branches and leaves, so it is afraid of wind, so the place where it is planted must be sheltered from the wind. In addition, bayberry is not very demanding on light, so it is also suitable for relatively hidden valleys.
Soon, Gao Mingcheng arrived at the northern slope of Xiaofu Mountain, and then stopped on a gentle slope. Dongkui bayberry can be planted in valleys but not on high slopes. The sunlight on the high slopes is too strong, the wind is too strong, and the soil water content is low. The fruits grown in such places will be much smaller and the taste will not be so good.
Before planting bayberries, Gao Mingcheng picked up a hoe and dug up a few wax apple trees.
These few thuja trees were deliberately left here, but now they have to be transplanted to other places to make room for the bayberry, because the place where wolf ferns, azaleas, myrtles, pines, and firs grow well is most suitable for growing bayberry.
The scientific name of this tree is myrtle.
In addition to these two large bayberry trees, there are also a dozen smaller bayberry trees, which look to be two years old at most. They are thin and small, with few branches and leaves. It will take a few years for them to bear fruit.
Because bayberry has a shallow root system and lush branches and leaves, it is best to plant each tree a little far apart, otherwise they will be crowded together when they grow up.
He planted bayberries here, and the workers he hired planted the corresponding fruit seedlings in the planned locations. Mandarin oranges were planted on the sunny slopes, and peach and pear trees were planted side by side. When the flowers bloomed, it was a patch of white and a patch of red, and the red and white complemented each other, which was very lively, like the grand scene of peach and plum trees competing for spring.
All fruit seedlings are basically planted at the foot of the mountain and on the hillside. As for the top of the mountain, generally, ecological forests are planted there because the top of the mountain is relatively dry and barren. If fruit trees are planted there, the fruits will not grow well. Therefore, only soil and water conservation forests or timber forests can be planted.
Gao Mingcheng plans to plant tea oil trees on the top of the mountain. This type of tree is an ecological forest and has low requirements for soil. Tea oil seeds can also be picked every autumn.
He doesn't even need to buy tea oil tree seedlings. He can just go to the mountains and transplant some over.
What's more, there are some tea oil trees growing on Xiaofu Mountain itself.
After several days of hard work, all the fruit seedlings were finally planted.
After the fruit seedlings are planted, they need to be covered with soil, compacted and watered. When there is no water pump, water has to be pumped manually for irrigation.
Fortunately, there was a pond at the foot of the mountain, and even more fortunately, a spring rain fell in the middle of the night on the third day after the fruit seedlings were planted.
The spring rain drizzles, nourishing all things.
It is the beginning of April, the time when all things come back to life and the vegetation begins to flourish. Apart from anything else, the weeds in the fields have begun to grow wildly.
It's not just weeds that are growing wildly, there are also a lot of wild vegetables.
Gao Mingcheng noticed that there were more wild vegetables on his grandmother's table, including purslane, dandelion, plantain, and ash. As for the toon sprouts, they were too small to be picked yet.
Toona sinensis sprouts are a magical wild vegetable. Some people think they are very fragrant, but some people think they are very smelly. Gao Mingcheng has a good acceptance of it. Toona sinensis sprouts are not delicious if eaten as they are, but they are delicious if fried with eggs.
Of course, Luo Xiaohua doesn’t like it and is reluctant to fry it with eggs, so she doesn’t pick it every spring.
Every time Gao Mingcheng eats fried eggs with Chinese toon, he eats it at his grandmother's house.
One spring rain after another, the rainwater rushes to nourish the land that has been dry for more than half a year, making the tenacious weeds change every day.
The fruit trees in Xiaofushan have been planted, and next, the entire Gaojia Village will start spring plowing.
Plowing, turning the soil and sowing are their daily routine.
Ever since Gao Yuanjian bought Gao Mingcheng's cow, he has treated it very well, because he has high hopes for the cow. In the future, he will rely on it to plow the fields at home.
But Gao Yuanjian never expected that before his cows were even put to use, a more advanced and efficient plowing method was already being used in the fields at home.
Gao Mingcheng bought a plowing machine, and naturally he didn't just plow his own fields. He also arranged to plow the fields for his grandmother's house, his parents' house, and his second sister's house.
They didn't have to pay any money, but Gao Mingcheng would eat at the home of whoever he plowed the field for.
Once this request was made, even the stingy Duo Yu did not hesitate. When it was her family's field's turn, she even specially asked Zhang Chengyuan to go to the market in Junling and buy three pounds of pork belly.
One meal was pork belly stewed with pickled mustard greens, and the next was braised pork. Although the cooking was average, at least the meat was solid.
Luo Xiaohua was also very generous. Her family had a lot of fields, and Gao Mingcheng took two days to finish the work. During these two days, Luo Xiaohua did her best to cook a large table of delicious meals.
There was also a lot more smile on Gao Yuanjian's face.
Spring ploughing is the busiest and most tiring time every year. After plowing eight acres of land, people are exhausted.
Now with tractors to plow the fields, it is easy to complete a task that would take several days.
Gao Mingcheng's actions attracted the attention of the villagers and even the brigade, so many people came to ask Gao Mingcheng to plow their fields, some brought gifts, and some said they were willing to give some money.
Gao Mingcheng did not take the money, but he was also unwilling to plow the fields for them and waste his precious time on plowing the fields. He originally wanted to lend out his tractor and let others buy diesel and plow the fields themselves.
But then he was afraid that others would not take good care of the tractor, so after thinking about it, he handed the matter over to Gao Zhuang.
When he was using a tractor to plow the field, Gao Zhuang was also next to him, so he taught Gao Zhuang how to drive a tractor.
Now is a good opportunity for Gao Zhuang to earn extra money.
So he told Gao Zhuang about this matter first and asked for his opinion. Since it could make money, Gao Zhuang naturally had no objection and even suggested giving Gao Mingcheng half of the profit because it was Gao Mingcheng who bought the tractor.
But Gao Mingcheng didn't want it, and just asked Gao Zhuang to pay for the diesel himself.
Gao Zhuang treated this matter as a serious job, so he proposed a certain amount of money to be charged for plowing one acre of land, and he would only accept money, not gifts.
Why don’t you accept gifts? Because some people are honest and give expensive gifts, but there are also some sneaky people who give worthless gifts to fool others.
For example, taking some damp, expired, and poor-quality snacks, taking wine diluted with water, taking rotten eggs, etc.
It is not easy for villagers to make money, so when they hear about the money involved, many of them become discouraged and decide to just work harder.
But there are also families with less labor who are willing to pay tall and strong people to plow the fields.
When the wild boars came down the mountain last year, the villagers organized people to hunt them. As a result, several people were injured in the process.
Skin injuries are not so bad, but those who have bone injuries are still unable to do heavy work. It is said that it takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone, and only two months have passed.
While Gao Zhuang was busy plowing fields for others to earn money, Gao Mingcheng had already gone into the mountains to check his beehives.
As spring comes and flowers bloom, the nectar sources in the mountains suddenly increase and the bees begin to become more diligent, so Gao Mingcheng decides to move the beehives.
Before moving the beehive, you have to check the condition of the beehive, replace the honeycombs that need to be replaced, and make arrangements for adding or reducing beehives.
In addition, killing wasps is an activity that will never go out of style. These hateful wasps specifically target bees, and if you are not careful, they can eat several bees.
There are often a lot of dead bees near the beehives.
(End of this chapter)
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