Chapter 195: Cultivating the Soil for Sugarcane
As June came, the temperature suddenly became hot. Gao Mingcheng's gunshot wound had healed long ago, but he was too lazy to move. He stared at the watermelons in the field, wondering when they would be ripe.
This year he also planted a small plot of watermelons and cantaloupes, each with only a dozen or so seedlings, just enough for his own consumption as he had no plans to sell them.
Other families in the village plant more watermelons, some planting three or four acres of land. When the watermelons are ripe, they load them on flatbed trucks and send them to the town and county to sell.
As for the old market in Junling, when the watermelons are ripe, this old market will be the hardest hit area and it will be difficult to sell them. Only the local people in Junling will sell them here. If they want to sell in large quantities and at a good price, they have to go to the county to sell them.
In addition to selling them in the county, there are also dealers who go to the countryside to buy watermelons. However, the price will naturally be much lower, so those who lack labor at home will just sell them. After calculating the accounts, they don’t make much money from a few acres of watermelons. But this money is also one of the main sources of income for many families.
He was staring at a watermelon flower in a daze when his third brother Gao Mingwan came over.
"Second brother, you haven't been to the county recently?" Gao Mingwan said it quite vaguely, but Gao Mingcheng understood it as soon as he heard it.
Only then did he remember that he had promised to find a job for Gao Mingwan in the county.
So he stood up, adjusted his straw hat, and said, "Tomorrow is the county market day. I'm going there tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?"
When Gao Mingwan heard this, his eyes lit up instantly and he couldn't wait to say, "Go!"
After the agreement was made, Gao Mingwan went home contentedly. He dug out a wardrobe, took out a new set of clothes, and tried them on. These were new clothes he had specially made and had never worn before.
Seeing his actions, Gao Yuanjian knew that the second brother would take the third brother to the county tomorrow.
Putting aside his worries, Gao Yuanjian called his son and said, "Third son, come with me to work in the fields. We need to cultivate the soil for the sugarcane field."
"Hey." Gao Mingwan put down his new clothes, picked up a straw hat, carried a hoe, and went out with his father.
The sugarcane they grow here is summer sugarcane, which is not planted until May. Now it has grown six or seven leaves and started to tiller. At this time, it is time to carry out the first soil cultivation. While cultivating the soil, the weeds also need to be weeded out.
As the father and son walked along the country road, Gao Yuanjian reminded them, "When you go to the county tomorrow, let your second brother take you to get a haircut first. This way you will look more energetic."
"You brothers all played with Gao Hong and Gao Yue when you were young, so you have some friendship with them. When you meet Gao Guobing, don't be shy and call him uncle warmly, okay?"
"Hey." Gao Mingwan responded with an expectant look on his face.
They were of similar age and lived in the same village when they were young. They had indeed played together, but Gao Hong and Gao Yue preferred to play with their second brother and often left them behind to play somewhere else.
Well, to be precise, Gao Hong has the best relationship with his second brother, and Gao Yue is Gao Hong's follower, so the three of them play together.
The place where Gao Yuanjian grows sugarcane is far away from the village. One has to climb over the back mountain to get there. When the land was first reclaimed, all the land near the village had been occupied. If one wanted to reclaim more land, one had to go to a farther place. So Gao Yuanjian led his family to the hillside here to open up a piece of land.
After climbing over the back mountain, you will see a large, gently sloping field planted with sugarcane.
Not all of these belong to their family. They occupy two acres of land, and the rest belong to other families in the village.
The reason why people choose to plant sugarcane here is not because the soil here is good, but because it is far from home. For land closer to home, everyone would choose to grow vegetables and melons because it is convenient to manage and pick them in time and sell them for money.
As for sugarcane, this is a tough task assigned by the higher-ups. It must be planted, and the variety planted is for making sugar. It is sweet, but too hard to chew. Plus, every household has it, so it is rarely stolen.
If it is fruits like watermelon and melon, you have to be careful and keep a close eye on them during the ripe season. Although most people in Gaojia Village have the surname Gao and their ancestors are from the same family, there are still some people in every village who steal other people's things.
Especially children who are not too young, they will steal food when they are greedy.
When they arrived at the sugarcane field, the father and son began to work. This was the first time to add soil to the sugarcane field. It did not need to be too high, just about three centimeters would be enough. When it was the peak period of tillering, the second soil addition would be required, this time six centimeters would be needed.
But this is not the end yet. When the sugarcane reaches the early stage of growth, the third soil cultivation will be carried out, and this time the soil needs to be 20 to 30 centimeters high!
In addition to three times of soil cultivation, you also have to weed, fertilize, water, and remove the dead leaves under the sugarcane. There are a lot of things to do during the entire planting process, and the sugarcane leaves are prickly and very uncomfortable.
But the most frustrating thing is that the price of sugarcane is very low. And because it is a hard task, the sugar factory will send people to purchase during the autumn harvest every year, but the time is uncertain. Sometimes it is on time, and sometimes it will be delayed for more than a month!
Every time this happens, there will be complaints in the village. Almost no one is willing to grow sugarcane, but they have to do it.
Gao Mingcheng's family did not plant any sugarcane this year because he had just split up the family business and only asked for one acre of land from his family. He had no land, so he had to reclaim all the land by himself. Although he reclaimed several acres of land, no one from the brigade came to find him, so he played dumb and did not plant sugarcane.
Planting sugarcane is a thankless job. He remembered that in 1992, the villagers went on strike collectively and made a fuss for a long time. Only then were they no longer assigned the task of planting sugarcane. Since then, no one in the village has planted sugarcane for several years, which shows that they hate sugarcane.
Although my grandmother's family planted sugarcane this year, they planted a small amount. At the beginning of the year, she went to the village committee and said that she was old and had few laborers at home, so she didn't want to plant sugarcane anymore.
But the people in the village committee were unwilling to let her stop planting, fearing that if she did, others would follow her example and stop planting. So they agreed to let her plant less, and Grandma Xi planted half an acre of land just for the sake of politeness.
At this moment, she and Gao Zhuang were also here adding soil to the sugarcane. He Xiuman also came, but she was not asked to do any work. She was just asked to stand under the shade of the tree and rest.
He Xiuman was in good physical condition. After becoming pregnant, apart from having no appetite, she had no other discomforts.
At this time, she was standing under the shade of a tree, watching Gao Zhuang working. Although Gao Zhuang was shorter and less strong, he was diligent and down-to-earth, and had no other bad habits. The more He Xiuman watched, the more satisfied she became.
However, thinking that in two days her family would come to give her money for the baby's pregnancy, He Xiuman frowned slightly.
Oh, I have to find another reason to appease her parents!
(End of this chapter)
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