Bianshu Town is not suitable for growing sugar cane. People have been sent to obtain sugar cane seedlings in an attempt to plant them, but the results failed.

In order to maintain a decent life for the nobles, the Eisen family had to purchase sugar from other places every year, which was a considerable expense.

Therefore, when Owen learned that Bianzhu Town could grow sugar beets that could replace sugar cane, he was naturally very happy and specially designated a test field to grow this new crop.

In this way, Bianshu Town can directly plant sugar beets on its own land to make sugar instead of buying sugar from other places, saving a lot of money.

In addition to being used in sugar production, its by-products also have good utilization value.

For example, molasses can produce alcohol, alcohols, glycerin, etc. after fermentation or chemical treatment.

The filter mud after sugar production is rich in calcium and other nutrients and can be used as fertilizer.

Beet stems and leaves, green heads, tail roots and beet pulp are also high-quality and juicy feeds that can be fed to livestock or slime.

All in all, there are many benefits to growing beets.

Some people may ask, why not expand the scale of sugar beet cultivation?

The main problem lies with the wheat planted this year. Irving does not know exactly how much wheat production will be produced this year.

No matter how good the beets are, you must first ensure that the people in your territory can fill their stomachs. After all, wheat is everyone's staple food.

The data provided by Winster cannot be directly applied to the border town. The situation on both sides is completely different. The existence of magic power is the biggest uncertainty.

After this year's autumn harvest, Clive will calculate a rough figure, and then Owen will have a good idea.

At that time, he will reorganize the agricultural planting in Bianzhu Town to ensure the reasonable distribution of various crop plantings and make more scientific use of land resources, thereby promoting the development of the territory.

Before leaving, Owen said to the farmer: "Work hard, and when the harvest comes, I will buy it all at the price we negotiated before."

"I will, Lord Lord." The farmer nodded and bowed.

Previously, the farmer wanted to grow wheat like everyone else. Later, Clive came to him and said that the lord wanted to use the field assigned to him as a test field to grow sugar beet.

At first, farmers were reluctant.

Why was he asked to plant a crop he had never heard of? What if the harvest was not good?

In order to completely get rid of the farmer's doubts, Clive offered an attractive price. As long as he planted according to the guidelines, he would buy everything at this price regardless of the final harvest.

Moreover, he also made a simple calculation for the other party and concluded that growing sugar beets would be more profitable.

This made the farmer determined to grow sugar beets.

…

In a temporary laboratory.

Owen took out four oval-shaped yellow soaps from the mold. The shape was intact, and the trial production was very successful.

Since the laboratory already had the ability to prepare caustic soda, plus grease, high-purity alcohol and other raw materials, Owen decided to try making soap.

The fats and oils are directly obtained from animal fats, while the high-purity alcohol is produced from liquor purchased from other places through distillation and purification.

The principle of making soap is very simple, it is saponification reaction.

The oil and sodium hydroxide solution are boiled together and hydrolyzed into higher fatty acids and glycerin. The former is processed and formed into soap.

It is worth mentioning that grease is not easily soluble in sodium hydroxide solution.

At this time, alcohol needs to be added to increase the solubility of the oil and speed up the saponification reaction.

He picked up a piece of soap and put it to his nose and smelled it. Owen could smell an elegant floral scent. That was because he added essence during the production process.

In this way, the original strange alkali smell of soap can be replaced, and the outside world can be introduced that this is soap.

If it were to be sold externally, I believe the soap would be very popular among female aristocrats. After all, they love to be clean.

Therefore, Irving planned to build a soap factory in Bianzhu Town specifically for the production of soap.

In addition to making money from external sales, he also considered the health issues of his subjects.

As we all know, soap's ability to remove stains is quite powerful.

If relatively cheap soap could be mass-produced so that everyone had a piece of soap at home, and everyone would use soap to wash themselves clean, then the chances of getting sick would definitely be greatly reduced.

In addition, there is another more important reason, which is that when making soap, a by-product is produced, which is glycerin.

This stuff can be used to make explosives more powerful than black powder, and smokeless gunpowder also requires it.

Unfortunately, Bianzhu Town currently does not have the conditions for large-scale soap production.

First, the amount of caustic soda produced in the laboratory is limited, and priority must be given to the production of nitrocellulose to meet the demand for bullets.

Secondly, the current cost of producing high-purity alcohol is relatively high.

We have to wait until after this autumn harvest to see if there is any excess wheat that can be used to produce large amounts of alcohol through fermentation. In addition, sugar beets can also be used to produce alcohol.

Finally, there is oil. Animal oil is very expensive, and Border Guard Town alone cannot produce a large amount of animal oil.

Then it needs to be purchased from outside.

In this case, it is better to purchase a large number of plant seeds or fruits that are relatively cheap and can be used to extract oil, and then transport them to Bianzhu Town to extract vegetable oil.

Regardless of whether it is animal or plant, any oil can be used to make soap.

By the way, you can also purchase trona in large quantities and transport it to Bianzhu Town to use the causticization method to prepare enough caustic soda.

In this case, Bianzhu Town can meet the conditions for building a soap factory.

"We need to buy it from outside..." Owen murmured softly.

If a merchant's merchant ship is entrusted to transport the goods all the way over, Bianzhu Town will need to pay a freight fee, as well as the price difference between the goods being traded.

This will undoubtedly drive up the cost of making soap.

In order to reduce production costs, Owen increasingly felt that it would be better for Border Guard Town to have a fleet affiliated with the lord.

Not only the raw materials for making soap are transported, but other raw materials can also be transported.

For example, if President Masha promises to exclusively supply saltpeter to Border Guard Town, he can send his own ship to pick up the goods from her saltpeter factory, thereby saving some money.

In addition, Bianzhu Town no longer exports ore to the outside world and uses all of it itself.

Even so, Owen still felt that there was a serious shortage of iron, and he was already discussing with Clive whether to purchase a batch of iron ingots or iron ore from outside.

At that time, you can also send your own ship to transport the iron back.

It's really ridiculous when you think about it. Bianzhu Town itself is obviously a town rich in iron ore, but it needs to import iron ore or iron ingots from outside.

Decided!

After some thinking, Owen made a major decision.
Chapter completed!