Lin Yinan stood outside the county government office and watched Su Kunliang and the others leave.
From afar, they saw Lin Shuo leading Lin Yisong, driving a mule cart out of the city.
Lin Yinan was slightly taken aback, then asked, "Second Uncle, where are you going?"
Lin Shuo saw her too, and his face immediately lit up with a smile.
"Anan, let's go check on the cotton in the field."
"Has it bloomed yet?" Lin Yinan asked.
"No, there are quite a few flower buds, all about the size of a thumb. It will probably be a while before they bloom."
Lin Shuo didn't know why fine cotton cloth was so expensive until he planted it himself.
It takes about a month for cotton to go from budding to flowering.
"I'll go with you to take a look."
Lin Yinan moved nimbly and lightly leaped onto the mule cart.
"Madam, wait for me!"
Qianwu hurriedly ran out of the county government office, carrying two straw hats in her hands.
The mule cart had already gone quite a distance. She ran very fast, and when she got close to the mule cart, Lin Yinan reached out and pulled her onto the mule cart.
In the cotton field, rows of cotton plants stand neatly arranged, swaying gently in the breeze.
The cotton leaves are dark green with slightly serrated edges and covered with a layer of down. Each branch is covered with buds of all sizes.
Before Lin Yinan could take a closer look, he heard Qianwu's exclamation.
"Oh dear! There are so many bugs on this!"
Upon closer inspection, several large, green caterpillars were indeed found on the leaves, which had gnawed many leaves to a pulp.
Lin Yisong brought over a small bucket and skillfully searched through every leaf on the cotton tree, throwing the insects he caught into the bucket to feed the chickens later.
"Recently, there have been a lot more bugs, and I can't catch them all every day."
As Lin Shuo spoke, he brought over several bundles of dried mugwort and lit them in several places in the field.
Instantly, the entire cotton field was enveloped in smoke.
"Will this method work?"
"We'll try anything, no matter what," Dr. Lin said, "we'll give it a shot, and if that doesn't work, we'll try something else."
"What other methods are there?" Lin Yinan was not an expert in farming.
"Use lime to fumigate for two days first, and if that doesn't work, sprinkle some lime on it."
Sprinkling lime is the best method. Lime is corrosive and, if not controlled properly, can easily burn the cotton leaves and stems.
Lin Shuo then told Lin Yinan about several deworming methods provided by Dr. Lin.
"Father, there seem to be fewer bugs than yesterday." Lin Yisong comes every day, and after catching a row, he can clearly feel that the fumigation from the mugwort is still somewhat effective.
Lin Shuo: "Dr. Lin said it might be useful, but it's also possible that once the insects adapt, they will come back."
Lin Yinan was not optimistic. Upon closer inspection, she discovered that there were still many insect eggs on the leaves. Once the insects were caught, the next batch of insects would hatch from the eggs.
Hearing her say that, Lin Shuo frowned. "It seems we still need to take a two-pronged approach."
Without the slightest delay, Lin Yisong and Qianwu drove the mule cart back to the city to retrieve quicklime.
In the cornfield not far away, many villagers were harvesting corn.
In the scorching heat of the south, after the spring corn harvest, autumn corn can be planted immediately.
Someone emerged from the cornfield and saw Lin Yinan and Lin Shuo catching insects in the cotton field.
They all shouted at her, "Anan, when can we harvest the potatoes we planted?"
"These past few days, everyone has noticed that the potato leaves are all curling up. I'm really looking forward to a good potato harvest!"
Lin Yinan replied with a smile, "I don't know, I haven't gone to see it yet."
"Anan, go take a look. I reckon we'll be able to harvest them in a while," Lin Shuo said.
Lin Yinan plucked a large, fat caterpillar from a cotton leaf and threw it into a bucket. Then she came out of the field, put down the bucket, picked up a hoe, and went to the potato field.
As she walked into the potato field, people picking corn emerged from the cornfield and followed behind her.
"Lord of the city, are you going to dig potatoes?"
"Hmm, let's dig one up and see if it's ripe."
Lin Yinan and the others arrived at the potato field where the potatoes were growing well. The leaves of the potato plants had gradually turned from green to yellow and were wilting under the sun, but they had not yet withered. Some of the stems and leaves at the bottom were withered and yellow.
Just as Lin Shuo said, we can start digging in a few days.
She picked a potato vine with mostly withered leaves and the soil on the ground was neither too dry nor too wet. She pulled it up and then, holding a hoe, dug around near the base of the vine, digging several times with force.
Everyone was both surprised and delighted to see the golden potatoes suddenly unearthed from the soil.
"They're out! They're out!"
Lin Yinan ruffled the soil; this potato vine had produced a total of nine potatoes, almost all about the size of a fist.
"Anan, these are potatoes!" an elderly man from Linjia Village exclaimed in surprise.
"That's right, this is a potato."
Lin Yinan picked up the potato and showed it to everyone.
The villagers had never seen anything like it before, and they carefully held it in their hands, turning it over and over to examine it.
"My God, how can one vine produce so much!"
"Lord, can we dig them all up now?" someone asked.
Lin Yinan: "We need to wait a few more days until most of the potato stems and leaves turn yellow and wither. Only then can the potatoes be stored for a long time."
Everyone was very happy, and their hands kept rubbing the potatoes back and forth.
"Okay, let's finish harvesting the corn first, and then we'll harvest the potatoes."
"I'll have the cafeteria prepare a potato feast for everyone!" Lin Yinan declared with boundless confidence.
The crowd immediately clapped and cheered, "Lord, we'll wait!"
After chatting for a while, everyone went back to work, eagerly anticipating finishing the corn harvest so they could dig up the potatoes.
After waiting for more than three months, they were eager to know if the potatoes would indeed yield as high a yield per acre as the city lord had claimed.
Lin Yinan lifted her clothes and carried the potatoes back to the cotton field.
Lin Shuo sat on the ridge of the field to rest. He couldn't hear the sounds from over there very clearly. He was very curious about the potatoes that Lin Yinan was carrying.
"Is it time to dig?"
Lin Yinan handed him the potatoes, and Lin Shuo took them and examined them carefully one by one.
After a long pause, he said, "It seems we don't need to water them anymore. They can be harvested after another ten or eight days of sun exposure."
Lin Yinan couldn't help but give him a thumbs up.
"My second uncle truly is a master at farming!"
After chatting for a while, Qianwu and Lin Yisong drove over in a mule cart carrying a bag of lime.
Lin Shuo divided the lime into two, and he and Lin Yisong each carried half a bag and scattered it in the cotton field.
Qianwu was eager to try, but Lin Shuo was worried that she might not be able to sprinkle the powder evenly due to her lack of skill, so he asked her and Lin Yinan to sit down and rest.
Lin Yinan searched through the cotton leaves that had been sprinkled with lime, and saw insects with lime on them writhing in pain before falling to the ground.
It seems this method is effective, but I don't know if it's effective against insect eggs.
The father and son quickly finished spreading the lime.
On the way back, Lin Yinan gave Lin Shuo the nine newly dug potatoes, asking him to take them back to add to Grandma Zhao's dishes, and also told him how to cook them.
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