Chapter 869 You plant one by one? !
The Han tribe implements a tiered tax system, and the tax standard is directly linked to the number and age of children born. Simply put, this tax system is to encourage people to have more children and increase the population of the tribe as soon as possible.
After all, in this era, population is the primary productive force. Even if the Han tribe has a steam engine, there must be someone to use it, right? Moreover, the insufficient population cannot meet the domestic sales of industrial products. The sooner this problem is solved, the better. Luo Chong has also put a lot of thought into increasing the population of the Han tribe.
Tiezhen and Guan Tao walked and chatted. When they passed through the bamboo buildings, they saw the sparkling river not far away and the fields on the river bank.
This time it was Guan Tao who introduced the situation to Tiezhen. He pointed to the fertile land on the shore and said.
"Mr. County Magistrate, we can grow three crops a year here. We grow corn in the spring, beans in the summer after the corn is harvested, and corn again after the beans are harvested in the late summer. This rotation is repeated three times, and corn and beans can be harvested together."
Tiezhen nodded secretly. The main crops of Zhudao are corn and soybeans. The history of planting should be very long, and the details cannot be verified. Their method of rotating corn and soybeans coincides with that of the Han tribe. When the Han tribe introduced soybeans, Luo Chong clearly stated that soybeans can increase the fertility of the land, so rotating soybeans with other crops can get a better harvest.
Although the people of Zhudao do not understand the reason, their ancestors who have been farming for generations have taught them the experience of crop rotation, so Zhudao also rotates soybeans with corn.
However, when inspecting the fields, Tiezhen also found a problem. That is, the distance between the aerial roots of corn left on the surface of the fields is relatively large, at least much larger than that of the Han tribe. According to the local planting density, people can easily get into the corn fields, but in the Han tribe, it is too difficult to get into the corn fields because the planting density is very high and there is not much space between the plants.
Tiezhen just took a look and did not get entangled in the problem of planting density. These things will be taught by special people in the future.
Another point that Tiezhen noticed was the ditches scattered among the fields. The local people also dug ditches to divert water from the river when they planted, and then used the ditches to guide the water flow to irrigate the fields. However, their ditches were not large, and there were no special water diversion facilities. Moreover, the fields were above the water level. How did they divert water?
Tiezhen asked Guan Tao about this question directly. Guan Tao did not hide it. He answered directly, "Mr. County Magistrate, we use bamboo tubes to divert water. First, we make a pipe by punching the bamboo joints inside the bamboo tubes. Then we insert it diagonally into the river to divert water."
Tiezhen said that he could not understand. Guan Tao was very happy. He directly asked the villagers to bring a bamboo tube for diverting water, and then found a water bag made of a whole sheepskin.
Tiezhen noticed that the bamboo, which was as thick as a calf, was about three meters long, yellowed and shiny, and obviously had a long history and should be used frequently.
The bamboo tube was completely penetrated, and there were traces of burning at one quarter of one end, and then the bamboo tube was artificially baked into a bend at one quarter.
Two villagers worked together. One soaked the bamboo tube in the river and filled it with water. The other took a sheepskin bag and filled it half with water. Then they temporarily fixed the leather bag and the bamboo tube together with a rope in the water. Then they lifted the end of the leather bag to the ditch on the shore. Then one villager pulled the sheepskin bag back and forth a few times. When he saw the sheepskin bag swell up automatically, he quickly untied the rope at the interface, and then he saw a steady stream of river water flowing along the bamboo tube to the shore.
Tiezhen was immediately surprised. Shouldn't the water go to the lower place?
Why didn't there be a waterwheel to lift water? Just insert a pipe into the river, and the water can come up by itself. Isn't this too simple and convenient?
What is this? Why doesn't even the Han tribe have it?
Tiezhen, who didn't understand the principle of siphon, was confused. This was the first time he felt that Zhudao had something superior to the Han tribe.
Although he was quite surprised, Tiezhen didn't want to show his ignorance in front of Guan Tao. He decided to ask others about the principle after he returned, so he remained calm on the surface.
He nodded and praised, "Not bad, not bad, this thing is very practical, the cost is almost zero, and the materials used are almost everywhere. It is very suitable for irrigating fields. If all fields can use this thing, then we can transform more paddy fields."
Guan Tao originally thought that Tiezhen would be surprised by their irrigation equipment, but he didn't expect Tiezhen to be so calm. It seems that he must be well-informed! That's right, what good things does the Han tribe have?
Guan Tao laughed at himself, and then asked.
"Mr. County Magistrate, do we need to convert a lot of paddy fields here?"
"Yes, the rice in the Han tribe is not less productive than corn, but rice is a refined grain, suitable for people of all ages, and less harmful to teeth, especially for people as old as your father. When people get older, their teeth are old and fall out, so they can no longer chew corn, but fine grains such as rice and wheat are not affected, and they will definitely be promoted here in the future. In addition
, the leader encourages the people to grow more rice and wheat, because this kind of millet with skin can be preserved for a longer time, while the preservation time of corn is too short and it is not suitable for reserve grain." Tiezhen took the initiative to popularize science to Guan Tao.
"Oh? I don't know about that. I only know that white rice and white flour are indeed delicious. This spring, my family also planted some wheat, but unfortunately the yield was not very high, so we did not plant more. After the wheat was harvested, I sent it to the mission's residence and asked them to grind it into flour. Now I often make noodles for my father. His teeth are indeed not good, but he has no problem eating your noodles from our Han tribe.
By the way, Mr. County Magistrate, does rice need to be soaked in water to grow? How to cultivate it then?"
When Tiezhen heard Guan Tao's name for our Han tribe, he smiled knowingly, but did not say anything. After hearing Guan Tao's question, he felt around his body and took out a two-cent coin.
"Look, this is the scene of planting rice.
I don't know how you plant corn, but our method of planting rice is definitely more troublesome than planting corn."
"We all use farm tools to dig trenches in the ground, and then scatter corn kernels along the trenches, bury them by stepping on them, and finally flood them with water. This rice..." Guan Tao looked at the two-cent coin handed over by Tiezhen and said in surprise.
"This rice, do we have to plant it one by one?"
"Exactly!" Tiezhen nodded very affirmatively.
"
Guan Tao was speechless for a moment. The staple food of the Han tribe was actually planted one by one? There were so many people in the Han tribe, and they planted so much food every year. How long would it take to finish planting?
Tiezhen immediately introduced, "In fact, only rice is planted like this, wheat doesn't need to be planted like this. We have a special sowing carve that can sow three rows of wheat at a time.
Rice is more troublesome. To sow rice, you need to prepare a seedbed first, sprinkle the seeds after applying fertilizer, cover them with a thin layer of soil and wait for them to germinate. When they grow to about five or six leaves, you can take the seedlings out of the seedbed and then plant them one by one in the field according to the fixed row spacing. Then irrigate the field. After about seven days, when the seedlings turn green, it proves that they have survived. After that, you only need to irrigate regularly and prevent pests. You don't have to worry about other things. Just wait until they are mature and harvest them."
Guan Tao was immediately overwhelmed when he heard this. He had heard that the per capita arable land area of the Han tribe was not as much as theirs, so he felt incredible. Obviously, the Han tribe had so many cattle and useful agricultural tools made of steel, why was the area of cultivated land not as good as theirs? Could it be that the people of the Han tribe were too lazy? But it didn't seem like that when he met them?
Now he finally knew the reason. It would be weird if he could plant the crops one by one quickly!
(End of this chapter)
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