With local fertilizers, there must be local pesticides. Ma Yilong's pesticide laboratory has developed more than 300 local pesticide recipes for different diseases of various crops, basically covering the common diseases of various crops.

This is not just the contribution of Mr. Zhao. As early as more than 2,000 years ago, our ancestors began to use plant-derived biological pesticides to treat various diseases of crops.

For example, during the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River, burning chrysanthemum leaves into ashes and sprinkling them on crops will prevent the crops from being affected by pests and diseases. Another example is spreading rabbit feces with seeds on the ground to kill cutworms; spraying leek water to prevent aphids; brushing rice water on cotton branches and leaves to suffocate red spiders, etc.

Among the more than 300 kinds of local pesticides, half are local secret recipes collected by the development companies of each county. In those days, information was not smooth, and often different villages in the same county could not exchange information, so many recipes were only circulated in a small range. After the establishment of the Agricultural College, Ma Yilong asked each county to find ways to collect various agricultural secrets and skills. And it was also considered performance... Whoever collected more would be trained as an agricultural technician. Sorry, if you can't collect it, the quota is full. Come back next time.

It turns out that those who have served as prefects are all masters of management.

In addition, Li Shizhen also contributed 70 to 80 proven effective prescriptions and more than 200 unverified recipes. Although he was a doctor, he had traveled all over the world to compile the Compendium of Materia Medica and collected medicinal materials and prescriptions for half his life, many of which were used to prevent and control crop diseases and insect pests.

"I tried my best to invite him to join the Agricultural College, but he ignored me." Ma Yilong complained depressedly: "What a rare talent, it's a pity that he didn't come. He could have become the king of pesticides."

"It's still King of Pesticides..." Young Master Zhao muttered inwardly, then laughed, "He is the dean of the medical school and has to see patients in the hospital. He definitely can't spare the time."

"Can a hospital be compared with an agricultural college? Agriculture is the foundation of a country!" Ma Yilong said proudly.

"It is also very important to save lives and cure diseases. There is no need to judge who is better. You all have bright prospects." Young Master Zhao said skillfully, and then asked, "By the way, those things I brought back last year..."

"It's grown." Ma Yilong nodded excitedly and took Zhao Hao back to the I-shaped teaching building.

On the way, he also showed Zhao Hao the ten mu of corn field that he had carefully taken care of. Last year, he used the basket of corn Zhao Hao gave him to plant one mu of corn, and after the harvest, he used all the corn for seed. This year, the planting area has expanded tenfold.

"We can harvest 6,000 kilograms of corn in the fall. Next year I plan to find a farm to try planting it." Ma Yilong said complacently, "But my opinion is not to rush to promote it. First, the yield is far from what you said. We have to continue to select and breed seeds to increase the yield before it will be attractive. Second, this new crop needs to adapt to the climate and soil. It will not grow well in Jiangnan for ten or eight years. Next year, Sishan and his friends will go to Beijing to take the imperial examination. Let them bring a few hundred kilograms of seeds back to the capital for a trial planting. Since they have been planted in the imperial garden for decades, they should be more adapted to the climate and soil in the north."

Zhao Hao couldn't help but glance at Shi Jizhi, and saw that he also had a bitter smile on his face. Others went to Beijing to take the imperial examination and write essays to meet friends, but they went to Beijing to take the imperial examination and had to ask others to farm the land, which was really not decent.

"Brother Sishan, don't bother with this kind of thing. Let Xishan Group do it and he can just give some guidance." Zhao Hao relieved the pressure on him, and Shi Jizhi smiled gratefully.

"Oh, you also have a Xishan Group?" Ma Yilong was surprised and said, "What a rich guy!"

"My master started a company not to make money, but to benefit the people." The two children didn't like what he said and protested loudly.

"Haha, listen to his nonsense. Wolves travel a thousand miles to eat meat, and dogs travel a thousand miles to eat shit. Habits cannot be changed." Ma Yilong did not give face to Master Zhao. He led everyone to the open space on the west side of the school building, where a permanent greenhouse made of all glass was built.

This is the ten acres of greenhouse that Mr. Zhao promised him. However, because the flat glass is too expensive, only one acre of it is available at present, and the remaining nine acres can only be paid in arrears for the time being.

It's April and the weather is warm, so the glass on all four sides of the greenhouse has been removed and a layer of tarpaulin has been laid on the top to prevent the crops inside from being damaged by the overly strong sunlight.

There is also someone guarding the door of the greenhouse to prevent any person or animal from harming Mr. Menghe's treasure.

Zhao Hao and others followed him in, and saw rows of half-meter-high pine boxes neatly arranged inside. Plants that were not from Middle-earth were planted on the nutritious black soil in the boxes.

One row of flowers had enchanting stems, purple flowers, and yellow stamens, and looked very beautiful. Secretary Ma fell in love with them at first sight and thought that the flowers were so beautiful, just like daffodils.

"These are potatoes." Mr. Zhao said in a voice full of surprise, "They're grown so quickly?"

"This is the second crop..." Ma Yilong said calmly. Nothing makes him prouder than growing a new crop.

~~

This was one of the spoils that Zhao Hao looted from two large Western sailing ships last year.

Zhao Hao knew that potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers and the like had been brought back to Portugal from America decades ago, so after capturing the Duke of Goa and the Oriental Beauty, he ordered a search of their inventories to see if he could find these things.

However, to his disappointment, the Portuguese who were doing business with Japan had very good food. The red-haired devils ate bread, the South Asian natives ate rice, and the vegetables were all supplied by the Omura family. He did not find anything special.

Just when Zhao Hao was about to give up, he suddenly saw little Lucas coming back to pack his luggage. He was holding a few pots of flowers in a wooden box. He looked very familiar.

Zhao Hao asked him to bring the pots of flowers over and looked at them carefully.

Pinto told Mr. Zhao that his adjutant was a handsome young man who loved life and was full of interest. He not only loved to write poems, but also wrote about flowers and plants to relieve the boring voyage...

"Damn, aren't these just potatoes?" Young Master Zhao looked at the purple, white, and pink potted plants and cried out, "Columbus worked so hard to bring them back to you, and you treat them as flower seeds?"

After listening to the translation, Lucas told Zhao Hao that it was indeed 40 years ago that Francisco Pizarro brought back this strange round tuber from the Andes Mountains. Because of its shape similar to mushrooms, it was called "truffles", but no one in the Iberian Peninsula used it as food. It was only because its flowers and stems were particularly beautiful that it was planted as a novel ornamental plant by princes and nobles.

When little Lucas left Lisbon, he took a few potatoes with him and planted them on the boat to express his longing for his hometown...

A bunch of idiots who wasted the natural resources, no wonder they were fucked by Da Ying. Mr. Zhao ignored the pleadings of poor little Lucas, confiscated his beloved potted plants, asked Chen Huaixiu to take them back to China, gave them to Ma Yilong, and explained the cultivation method in the letter. In fact, there is no trick, it is similar to planting taro.

Ma Yilong had long heard Zhao Hao boast about the magic of potatoes - this plant is high-yielding, drought-resistant and cold-resistant, it is the savior of the poor and the stabilizer of the dynasty! So how could he dare to be careless? He quickly followed Zhao Hao's instructions and transplanted the potted plants into the greenhouse. After the branches and leaves withered, he dug out the tubers. After waiting for the potatoes to sprout, he cut them into several buds and planted them in the carefully prepared seedling soil. He served them like serving his ancestors until now...

~~

At Zhao Hao's strong request, Ma Yilong agreed with a painful look on his face and dug a few potatoes to try for lunch.

After much calculation, he was only allowed to dig four potatoes. He planned to use half of the remaining potatoes as seed potatoes and keep the other half for seeds...because Zhao Hao told him that potatoes are mainly obtained through asexual reproduction of tubers, but the virus will continue to be passed on, causing degeneration and lesions after several generations, leading to reduced or even no yield.

Although Bordeaux liquid can be prepared with copper sulfate and lime water to reduce the toxicity of the buds and greatly slow down the rate of degeneration, it is still necessary to save seeds for potatoes, cultivate good varieties through sexual reproduction, and constantly update the buds, which is the long-term solution.

Zhao Hao asked two disciples to dig out four potato plants, but the harvest disappointed him. After washing away the mud, he saw that the potatoes on each root were not only few in number, but also mostly the size of quail eggs, and the largest was only the size of a chicken egg.

"First, there are still ten days before the harvest, and by then they will have grown to the size of an egg." Ma Yilong said as a matter of course: "Second, it's still the old problem of acclimatization. It takes many years to transplant wheat from the north to the south of the Yangtze River before it can be harvested normally, let alone something like this that has been shipped across the ocean."

"That's right." Zhao Hao nodded in agreement. He recalled that in another time and space, in the 22nd year of the Wanli reign, Jin Xuezeng promoted the cultivation of sweet potatoes in Fujian. During the Tianqi reign, under the pressure of the Little Ice Age, large-scale cultivation began throughout the country, but the effect was poor and the yield was extremely low. Later, Hong Chengchou forcibly promoted it in Shaanxi, which even caused a civil uprising.

In the end, the time-traveling artifact sweet potato did not save the Ming Dynasty, and Chongzhen still hanged himself on the old crooked tree. It was not until the reign of Emperor Kangxi that sweet potatoes adapted to the soil and water of the Ming Dynasty, and the yield gradually increased, finally creating the famous sweet potato heyday.

This is also the reason why Portugal and Spain did not take the three high-yield South American brothers seriously even after they were introduced to Europe for decades. It’s not that they don’t eat them - even if the nobles disdain to eat them, they can still use them to feed the lowly farmers.

Why did they become really fragrant after dozens or hundreds of years? The reason is that the three brothers adapted and the production returned to normal...

~~

Then why is Ma Yilong confident that he can make potatoes adapt in ten years or so?

Because he wants to let the potatoes adapt to the environment from a seed, and then select the strongest plants to continue cultivating, which of course can greatly shorten the adaptation period.

So it is not good not to save seeds, brothers. If you have this bad habit, you must actively correct it!

In addition to potatoes, the greenhouse also grows tomatoes, peppers, and sunflowers that Zhao Hao got from Japanese missionaries. These have been grown in Japan for many years and are generally adapted to the climate of East Asia, so they are growing quite well.

But its importance cannot be compared with potatoes...