Chapter 570 Improved Farm Tools (Please vote and subscribe)
After a series of shocks, the Jiang family was once again shocked by the grain yield that You Fu had just eaten in the morning. It turned out that the grain they had just eaten in the morning had such a high yield. It matured once every three months. If the grain harvested in one season was not enough to eat, they could plant another season, which meant that the same land area had twice the grain output, which greatly improved the production efficiency.
But after being shocked, Xuan also raised a new question again.
"If you plant twice a year, wouldn't you have to do more work? It would be too late to just turn the soil, not to mention that planting the same land for two consecutive years will lead to lower yields and more diseases. You still plant twice a year on the same land. How do you ensure that the yield is so high twice and there are no diseases?"
The Jiang family has a long history of farming, and naturally has its own set of experience and theories. They know that continuous cropping of grain will lead to problems such as reduced yields and increased diseases, but there has been no effective solution. They can only use the most primitive way of fallowing to solve the problem, but it is only a temporary solution.
The nomadic farming tribes and the sticky tribes that the Han tribe encountered before were even worse. They would just move to another piece of land after planting for two or three years. The entire tribe was always in a semi-migratory state, and it was not as stable as the Jiang family.
"Well, our tribe also has this problem, or it can be said that all farmers will have this problem, but our leader knew it from the beginning, and he had his own solution.
Our leader said that there are nutrients in the soil, and these nutrients can provide for the growth of food, but these nutrients are limited. If you continue to plant, the nutrients in the soil will be used up. In this way, the food will not be supplied and the production will be reduced. The food will not grow strong enough and will be prone to illness, just like a skinny child who can't grow tall."
You Fu explained there, and Xuan pondered for a while after listening, muttering the words "nutrients", "soil", and "used up", and then nodded, obviously agreeing with this statement, and he also had a higher level of impression of the leader of the Han tribe. This person must be a wise person. If you want to solve a problem, you must first know how the problem occurred. Only when you find the root cause of the problem can you use the right method to treat it, right?
The Han leader's thinking logic is very powerful. Some people can't think of these, let alone let him come up with a solution.
"So what good ideas does your leader have to solve these problems?" Xuan asked again.
"There are not enough nutrients in the soil, so we just need to add nutrients to the soil." You Zhi added a sentence on the side.
The people of the Jiang family immediately had an epiphany, and they all said, "Yes, why didn't I think of it, but what is that nutrient?"
Seeing Xuan and Yong staring at him, You Fu spoke before they asked.
"For fertilization, we collect the feces and throw them into a big pit, then add some grain straw or weeds and wood ash, and put them together for high-temperature fermentation. Well, high temperature means it must be hot. After all the fertilizers are fully decomposed, they can be buried in the fields. Oh, by the way, they must be buried under the soil layer where the grain grows before sowing, so the land must be deeply plowed. In the later stage, when the grain is filling, you can also apply topdressing. At this time, you can dilute the fertilizer with water and then apply it directly from the surface."
Xuan listened to this incredible method and never thought that feces could have such a function. What is the principle behind this? Is it taken from the soil and used in the soil? Is this the natural cycle of heaven and earth?
People eat food and excrete feces, and the feces return to the fields to promote the growth of food? This is really incredible.
"Is this the method passed down by your ancestors? How did your leader know about it? Also, does this method work? As long as we pile up the manure for a period of time when it is hot and then bury it in the field, can we prevent the reduction of grain production? And prevent the increase of diseases?" Xuan thought for a while and asked again.
"No, it's not enough. Fertilization can effectively supplement nutrients, but continuous cropping will still have some impact. However, our leader also has a way. Since continuous cropping will be affected, can't we just not continue cropping?" You Fu replied with a smile.
"But you just said that a piece of land should be planted twice a year." Yong reminded from the side.
"That's right, it's planted twice a year, but it doesn't say we have to plant the same crop. We can plant a season of rice first, and then a season of corn, or soybeans, or we can intercrop soybeans and corn and not plant rice, or wheat and soybeans, wheat and corn, or even plant a season of grain and then a season of vegetables. In this way, we can plant two different kinds of grains in turn. Our leader calls this crop rotation. This crop rotation and fertilization can not only solve the problems of reduced yield and disease you mentioned, but can even increase production and grow more grains, vegetables and fruits."
The people of the Jiang family were stunned again. Using manure for fertilizer was incredible enough, but there was actually a way to plant several different kinds of grains in turn to reduce reduced yield and disease. This was even more incredible.
However, Xuan would not admit that it was the incompetence of the Youjiang family, but that they did not have the conditions. The Youjiang family only had two crops, millet and sorghum. They were called two kinds, but in fact they were yellow rice and millet. To put it bluntly, they were two subspecies derived from one crop. In fact, there was no essential difference, just like the rice and glutinous rice of the Han tribe, which were actually rice.
The Youjiang family only had this kind of food, so how could they rotate crops? They didn't even have the opportunity to experiment, so it was even more impossible for them to discover the benefits of this crop rotation, so it was understandable that they did not master this skill.
Xuan Heyong and others were lost in thought for this newly acquired theory, absorbing the knowledge they had just learned, but at this time Xuan Heyong suddenly reacted again. They didn't have a second kind of food at all. What's the use of knowing that crop rotation is useful? Moreover, they had to apply fertilizers and plant one more season a year. The workload had more than doubled.
How could they handle it? "You Fu, you haven't answered the first question yet. How did you manage to do so much work with two people?" Xuan reminded.
"Oh, this, mainly because the farm tools we use in the Han tribe are different from yours, made of different materials and in different shapes. They are more labor-saving and faster than yours, and we have helpers to help us with the work. You Zhi, bring your military shovel to them."
When You Fu mentioned You Zhi, several people from the Jiang family looked at him with stern faces. Just now, when Yong led a few people to demonstrate how to turn the soil, this kid was actually laughing there, and said that if the Han tribe also farmed like this, they would definitely starve to death, which was really infuriating.
Seeing the unfriendly looks of several people, You Zhi also smiled awkwardly, then pulled out the military shovel from his waist belt and handed it to You Fu.
You Fu handed the military shovel to Xuan and Yong and asked, "How does this thing compare to your plows?"
Yong took the shovel. He had seen it before. He had seen You Zhi chopping firewood with it in the morning. Shouldn't it be a weapon and tool similar to a stone axe? How could it be like a lei shu?
However, after You Fu's reminder, he compared the shovel with the lei shu. They were really similar. To put it bluntly, the lei shu was the most primitive shovel. There was really no difference between it and a shovel. It was just that the lei shu was a little more crude. It didn't even have a shovel surface.
After looking at the shovel from left to right, Yong started to use it. He used the shovel to turn the soil like a lei shu. It was really easy to use. The efficiency and effect of turning the soil were much better than that of a lei shu. The only difference was that the wooden handle was a little shorter. However, since the people of the Han tribe carried it with them and used it to chop things, it was obviously not a dedicated farm tool, but a tool with two functions of digging and chopping. It was both a tool and a weapon.
You Zhi took a military shovel from a follower next to him and handed it to Xuan. Xuan also tried to turn the soil with this thing and found that it was indeed better than their plows. Then he knocked on the iron shovel surface and immediately made a unique metal clang. Then he took the one in Yong's hand. After comparing the two, he found that the two military shovels were exactly the same, just like twins, which was even more incredible.
However, even such a tool still needs to turn the soil one by one like a plow. In essence, except that it is stronger and more durable, it is not significantly different from a plow. Can using this thing increase the speed of turning the soil? Xuan still didn't believe it, so he raised this doubt.
"This is just a tool we carry with us for digging and chopping wood. It is not a special agricultural tool for turning the soil. What we use in the Han tribe to turn the soil is a large tool called a 'plow'. It is not like a plow that turns the soil one by one, but a tool that is pulled and walked." You Fu introduced again.
"Plow? What is that? How do you pull it?" Xuan and Yong asked in confusion.
"Well, how can I explain this to you? Hey? Got it, let's do this, you get a rope." You Fu thought for a while and suddenly said, Xuan nodded, Yong ran to get a rope, and soon brought a rope made of fiber like bark.
You Fu directly tied the rope to the connection between the iron shovel and the wooden handle of the military shovel, and used it as a simple plow. First, the shovel head of the military shovel was inserted into the soil sideways, with the wooden handle facing 45 degrees to the back and up, and then the rope was thrown to the front, and then he said to Xuan and Yong.
"Leader Xuan, you hold down the handle from behind, and then follow Yong. Remember not to let the shovel leave the ground, just keep this angle and keep the shovel forward. Yong, go ahead and pull the rope, and just walk forward in a straight line."
You Fu arranged for the two. Xuan and Yong were a little confused. It was just a shovel. What difference would adding a rope make? However, seeing You Fu's serious expression, they still tried it as he said.
Xuan was holding down the wooden handle from behind. At first, there was no reaction, but when Yong in front started to pull the rope, the shovel was immediately pulled forward. If there was no one holding it from behind, the military shovel would definitely be pulled out of the ground directly. However, with Xuan holding down from behind, the iron sheet in front of the shovel could only stand sideways and be inserted diagonally into the soil, and then quickly move forward with the traction of the rope, leaving a deep and long gully in the soil, but the soil turning effect was not obvious. After all, the shovel standing up was just a line, so what soil turning effect could it have? But it did plow a deep line in the soil.
But this was a makeshift tool after all, and the wooden handle of the military shovel was also very short. Xuan, who was following behind, could only squat to move forward. However, after pulling a few meters like this, he was immediately shocked by the effect of this plowing. Just adding a rope would actually make such a big difference. This was too fast!
"Stop, stop quickly, Yong, try replacing this thing with our plow." Xuan said immediately.
Yong turned around and saw a deep plow mark behind him. He was also a little surprised. He knew that his leader must have thought of something, so he untied the rope of the military shovel, and then tied it to a wooden plow in the same way. The two used this makeshift tool to plow the land again.
The wooden handle of the plow was very long, so Xuan could stand and hold the wooden handle at the back this time. It felt much easier than before, but Yong, who was pulling the rope in front, had a hard time. The conical wooden tip increased the resistance in the soil, making it more difficult for him to pull the rope, and the speed also decreased a little, but no matter how slow it was, it was faster than poking the ground one by one.
Xuan, who was holding the wooden handle at the back, and several members of the Jiang clan around him were already open-mouthed in shock, but Xuan suddenly laughed out loud and quickly called out to Yong in front.
"Yong, turn around and pull backwards, look at the land behind you."
Yong turned around after hearing this and found that the land behind him had been plowed into a shallow gully. The tip of the plow tied with a rope just stopped at the front of the gully, which clearly proved that the gully on the ground was made by this tool.
Then he followed Xuan's order, tied the rope around his waist, and pulled the rope backwards with his back facing forward, so that he could see how the tool behind him operated.
I saw that under my pulling, the tip of the plow was deeply inserted into the soil, and then it was pulled forward by the rope, turning over all the soil in front. The broken soil slid outward from both sides of the tip, and finally formed a gully behind. The efficiency of turning over the soil was simply amazing compared to their plows, but just adding a rope, it actually brought about such a revolutionary change.
"Youfu, is the plow of your Han tribe like this?" Xuan looked at Youfu with shining eyes, hoping that he could give him a positive answer.
"It's almost the same, but the plow of our Han tribe is bigger than this. The front is an iron plow made of steel, which is the same material as this ordnance shovel, and the back is a hand-held curved handle. Our leader said that this is called a curved plow. It is easier to bear force than your straight handle, plowing faster, more efficient, and turning deeper. The most important thing is that our Han tribe does not need people to pull the plow." Youfu introduced while gesturing.
"No need for people? How to pull it? It should take two people to use it, one to pull it in front and one to hold the plow in the back?" Xuan asked in confusion.
At this time, You Fu suddenly took out a golden five-cent coin from his waist pocket, showed the front of the relief with an ox pulling a plow in front of Xuan and said,
"We use oxen to pull it."
(End of this chapter)
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