Chapter 201 Initial Results
The Cordyceps picking season in Qilian Mountain generally runs from mid-April to mid-June. With the help of Guo Chenzi and others, Xu Lingjun spent a month and a half picking all the Cordyceps around.
He would go to the supply and marketing cooperative almost every time he collected two kilograms of cordyceps. Nowadays, supply and marketing cooperatives in various places are responsible for purchasing Chinese medicinal materials. When he went to sell cordyceps, people didn't care that he was wearing a hat on his head. They just paid him directly after weighing the amount. It was very efficient.
Even during the most intense years, this business has never stopped, because everyone will get sick, and the pharmaceutical industry is not well developed now, there are not so many modern medicines, and many gaps have to be filled by traditional Chinese medicines.
The large-scale cultivation of Chinese medicinal materials has not yet developed to maturity. If people want to obtain medicinal materials, they have to go out to pick and dig them. If they are not allowed to do even this, there will be a shortage of medicinal materials.
When the Cordyceps picking season was over, Xu Lingjun did the math and found that he had picked a total of 16.3 jin of Cordyceps in the past month and a half, which earned him 228.30 yuan, enough to build a new house.
Li Xiuzhi was not idle during this period. When Xu Lingjun went out to collect Cordyceps, she was alone in the scorching sun at noon, mixing mud and making molds. She made thousands of adobe bricks and then brought back cartloads of dried adobe bricks and piled them in the yard. When work started, these mud bricks could be used directly.
This won her praise from all her neighbors, and everyone said that Lao Xu had found a very capable and good wife.
After returning from the last trip to the supply and marketing cooperative to sell cordyceps, Xu Lingjun bought a few jars of wine, cut some meat, and bought some vegetables that were hard to find on the ranch. He returned home and asked Li Xiuzhi to cook for him, while he went to invite Guo Xizi, Dong Kuan, Haisheng and others over.
They all guessed what Xu Lingjun was going to do, so they followed him cheerfully. Guo Zizi took the initiative to ask after just two drinks, "Are you going to build a house? There's no need to be so polite. You've invited us to dinner. Just tell us and we'll definitely come to help."
"If you hadn't taken care of me all these years, I might have died long ago. I wanted to have a good drink with you guys before, but I had no money in my pocket and couldn't even afford to buy some wine. Now I'm finally a little more well-off. Everyone, have a good drink today and don't worry about not having enough wine." Xu Lingjun said sincerely. Everyone who came here today were good people and deserved his sincere gratitude.
"Hey, why are you being so formal with us? You have helped us a lot in the past. Whenever any child encountered problems in studying, you were the one who helped teach. In my opinion, you should be a teacher. If you become a teacher, the children of several teams around us will be blessed." Dong Kuan has always felt sorry for Xu Lingjun. It is a pity that he has read so many books, but now he has to herd sheep with a bunch of rough guys like them.
Guo Zizi wanted to say something, but at this moment Li Xiuzhi came over with a large plate of food. "The fried eggs with ground soft are ready. Would you like to try mine?"
"Enough, enough. There are only a few of us. Can they finish all the food you cooked? Stop busying yourself and sit down to eat together." Aunt Dong quickly pulled Li Xiuzhi back and stopped her from cooking.
"That's right. We are all family. It hurts me to see you frying so many eggs at once. Please stop frying and sit down to eat." Haisheng's mother simply got up and put out the fire in the stove to prevent Xiuzhi from having to cook.
"Then Xiuzhi, just sit down and eat first. You can get busy after you finish eating." Xu Lingjun saw that there was basically enough food on the table, so he didn't insist.
Li Xiuzhi had already sat down, but Aunt Dong was still talking about eggs. "With so many eggs, it would be great to exchange them for money."
Xu Lingjun was originally going to talk about the eggs, so he quickly took over and asked, "How long do you think Xiuzhi has been saving these eggs?"
Aunt Dong has been cooking and raising chickens all her life, so she estimated immediately, "Such a big basin, I estimate that there are at least eight eggs in it. You have five hens, and if you calculate that one egg is laid every three or four days, it will take at least five or six days to save them."
In later generations, high-quality laying hens in farms laid almost one egg every day, but in the ranches of the 1970s, the egg production rate of hens remained at a relatively low level because breeding and farming technologies were still underdeveloped.
It is considered good if a hen can lay 100 eggs a year, which is completely incomparable to the 300 to 350 eggs laid by the later Hailan laying hens.
Xu Lingjun is currently unable to import high-quality laying hens from abroad, but fortunately, the egg-laying rate of hens can be increased by improving breeding techniques. His experiments have now shown initial results and he can teach them to others.
So as soon as Aunt Dong finished speaking, Xu Lingjun smiled and said, "You guessed wrong. Our chickens lay an egg at least every three days, and sometimes even every two days!"
"What? How did you do this?" Aunt Dong was shocked. Dong Kuan and Guo Chenzi didn't understand. She had raised chickens for decades, but she knew how rare it was to find a chicken that laid eggs so diligently.
"Xiuzhi mentioned raising chickens before, and I suddenly remembered a method I read in a book, using earthworms to raise chickens. Not only can it make the chickens grow faster, but it can also increase the egg production rate by 20 to 30%. So I asked her to try it according to what was written in the book, and I didn't expect it to work." Xu Lingjun spread his hands, "If you want to learn, I'll let Xiuzhi teach you. If you lay dozens more eggs every year, your family will be better off."
Aunt Dong calculated in her mind, "If it's really as effective as you said, it would be more than just dozens of eggs. Each chicken would lay one egg every three to five days, and then one every two to three days. In a year, each chicken could lay dozens more eggs. We have five laying hens at home, so maybe we could lay 200 eggs in total! That's incredible. It would help our family a lot!"
"It's not a big deal. Just give it a try. If it works, just do it. If it doesn't work, just stop." Xu Lingjun continued to persuade, and then he told you his own method.
After hearing this, Aunt Dong believed it to a certain extent. "Otherwise, why do the older generations always say that we need to study? We have been raising chickens all our lives, but we have seen chickens often eat earthworms, but we have never thought of using earthworms to feed chickens, let alone thinking about how to raise earthworms. Xiuzhi, when your house is built, I will come to learn from you."
"There's no need to go to so much trouble. We have a lot of earthworms at home now, and our chickens can't eat them all. I'll send some to you tomorrow. If you find them useful, it's not too late for you to raise some as well." Xiuzhi was also very grateful to them. Now that she had the chance to repay them, she was willing to do so.
"Okay, then we'll take advantage of you." Aunt Dong agreed readily.
Xu Lingjun took this opportunity to add, "When I was reading books before, I did read a lot of ways to increase production, but I never thought of using them before. If I find any good ideas in the future, I will tell you."
(End of this chapter)
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