Chapter 133 Questions One After Another
When they walked out of the woods, Ah Hei grabbed a handful of rotten soil and looked at Su Ying, "Is this it?"
"Yes!" Su Ying nodded.
"This is the accumulation of leaves and dead branches that have decayed over the years. The soil is loose and rich in nutrients needed by crops.
However, it is necessary to sift out the unrotten leaves and dead branches, expose them to the sun for a few days, and then mix them with slaked lime to kill the pathogens and pests in them before they can be used in the fields.”
Ah Hei's eyes widened. Making compost is so complicated. How much manpower would it take?
"If you want the crops to grow well, these steps cannot be skipped. The initial stage is the most difficult, and you cannot slack off every year thereafter. You must deep plow where necessary and fertilize where necessary. Otherwise, even the best land will degenerate and become barren!" Su Ying said with a smile.
"The girl has a lot of insights into farming!" Wang Yannian saw that Su Ying was always busy, and many times when Su Bucheng couldn't answer, she would supplement and prompt.
"Your Excellency is too kind. I often go to the fields with my father, so I see more than others!" Su Ying said modestly.
"Do you draw the water from here when you dig the pond?" Wang Yannian asked as they came to the stream.
"Yes, sir!" Su Ying said, "The pond can be dug in the open space next to the experimental field. Using bamboo tubes to draw water from here can save a lot of manpower and time."
"Oh, this is a clever idea, using bamboo tubes to draw water!" Wang Yannian said with a smile.
It makes sense when you think about it. Since there was a shortage of manpower, they used bamboo tubes to draw water, which is practical and durable.
It is common to use bamboo tubes to bring water to the doorstep in mountain villages, so that people don’t have to carry water back and forth. I didn’t expect that Su Ying also used it to bring water to the pond.
"Once the pond is dug, we will start to divert water and find time to reclaim the remaining vacant land. A few months is enough time for preparation and cultivation, and we can plant rice in the spring of next year." Su Ying calculated the time.
"Well, I hope the second crop of rice can be planted by this time next year!" Wang Yannian fantasized happily.
"Your Excellency is absolutely right!" This coincided with the Su family's opinion. "After harvesting the first crop, we plow the fields and rush to plant the second crop. One piece of land is used as two! The yield will double."
Ah Hei, Die Xiu and other Li people looked at Su Ying in admiration, saying that she was so amazing and knew everything.
There are also paddy fields in their Li village, where they grow two crops of rice.
They don't cultivate the land so meticulously. Even the second season of rice is not sown, but regenerated from the rice stalks in the fields after the harvest. There is no deliberate management, and the harvest is random.
This kind of second-season rice should actually be called regenerated rice.
From what Su Ying said, the second season will also be about sowing seeds and planting rice seedlings like the first season?
It must be so tiring. During the rice harvest, people are exhausted to death, and then they have to plow the fields. Oxen can bear it, but people can't!
"Oh, you also use sowing and planting rice seedlings in the second season?" Wang Yannian was as surprised as the Li people. The intensity of the labor was too much for even a strong man to handle.
"Yes! Letting the rice stalks grow naturally in the fields is easy, but the yield is not high. It's a waste of a season. It's better to plow it and start over. It just means a few more days of hard work." Su Ying calculated the cost.
"But people can't bear it!" Wang Yannian said worriedly.
Who doesn't want a good harvest? But you have to be able to do it! You can't work yourself to death in the fields just to harvest more food. If you're dead, what's the point of growing more food?
"Sir, human physical strength has its limits, but we can improve production tools!" Su Ying said.
"Oh, are there any other tools that can be improved? Tell me about it!" Wang Yannian really wanted to know what other magic weapons Su Ying had.
The Jiangdong plow has been promoted in Wuzhou and reported to the Lingnan Dao envoy. I believe that soon, people in Wuzhou will be commended for the Jiangdong plow and receive top evaluations.
I didn't expect this girl to have such a flexible brain. She could think so far ahead even though the rice field was nowhere to be seen.
If using ponds to grow paddy fields is really practical and effective, Wuzhou will be able to add a lot of paddy fields in the future.
If we continue to sow and plant rice seedlings for the second season, the grain production in Wuzhou will increase dramatically!
Then..., thinking of this, Wang Yannian's heart was pounding. What would it mean to promote the entire Lingnan Road?
Richer than Jiangnan! Every household eats dry rice every day! The people are prosperous, and officials are promoted step by step!
"Uh..." Su Ying came from the future thousands of years later. She was accustomed to modern farming and harvesting, so what naturally came to her mind was mechanized sowing and transplanting.
The reactions of the crowd at this moment made her realize the limitations of history. Even if farmers were willing to work hard in the fields, without modern tools and limited physical strength, it would be difficult to achieve the desired results.
The only way is to improve production tools and increase labor productivity.
"What's wrong, are you in trouble?" Wang Yannian thought that Su Ying was reluctant to make the advanced tools public.
"No! I thought of a way, but it's just an idea and not mature yet!" Su Ying explained.
Since there were no electrical appliances in ancient times and mechanization was impossible, we had to find another way.
She thought of a pedal thresher used in rural areas in the 1970s, which could save a lot of labor.
"Oh, tell us about it, let's discuss it together! Three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang, maybe we can come up with it." Wang Yannian suggested.
Among the officials who went to the countryside, there were officials from various government offices. Were they worried that they couldn't put together a makeshift team?
If he could invent another advanced agricultural tool, would he be able to reach the pinnacle of his life? From now on, whenever he mentioned this agricultural tool, he would be referring to Wang Yannian.
The thought flashed through my mind, and what I felt more was a sense of participation and accomplishment.
"In fact, the principle of this thing is very simple. It is a threshing barrel with pedals and a transmission system. Inside the threshing barrel is a roller with many spikes.
The pedal is stepped on with the foot, which drives the transmission system, and the transmission system rotates the drum. The spikes on the drum rotate to remove the grains from the rice ears.
This is much easier than shaking the rice grains by hand, and it is faster, shortens threshing time, and doesn’t require too much fatigue.”
Su Ying explained the general principle, and no one present spoke.
Yes, after thousands of years of hard work, how come no one has thought of this? Wang Yannian marveled.
As soon as Su Ying said it, he understood it and could even imagine what it looked like.
"Sister, look!" The Li people's eyes were all shining, looking at Su Ying eagerly.
Even Su Bucheng was shocked. He had long been accustomed to his daughter's intelligence, but this idea still surprised and delighted him.
This thing is too bizarre, but also very practical. It is very simple. There are so many farmers and talented people in the Ministry of Agriculture throughout history, but no one has thought of it.
"Aying, where did this advanced agricultural tool come from?" Su Bucheng suppressed his joy and asked quietly.
"No, I just had a random thought. It's still unclear whether it's feasible or not!" Su Ying replied quietly.
Although this pedal threshing mechanism is clever, it has a bug. What is used as the transmission system?
In this era, there was no rubber or transmission belts. If chains and large and small gears were used for transmission, what ratio would be used? Should they be made of wood or iron? And how to build the chains and gears? Problems arose one after another.
It seems simple, but there are many details to overcome.
This is also why productivity developed slowly in ancient times. Many things did not have theories or physical objects, which limited people's creativity. Even if you wanted something, you might not be able to create it.
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