After a spring rain, the long-prepared spring plowing began with great vigor.
Except for the iron smelting plant, all other factories were shut down for half a month just to allow spring plowing to proceed smoothly.
This year's farming method is completely different from previous years for farmers.
The seeds are high-quality grain seeds that Miss San began to select a month in advance, and the fields were spread with plant ash swept out from the charcoal factory and fertilizer specially made from sorghum stalks and other materials before sowing began.
Master Wang Dayou's blast furnace worked day and night to create a curved plow that could be pushed by humans. Compared with before, the speed of plowing was as fast as a god casting a spell.
Not to mention the large rakes pulled by cattle, donkeys and other livestock, which can quickly bulldoze an acre of land.
Seven hundred acres of land is undoubtedly a bit excessive for more than 200 people.
But the farm tools in his hands turned into iron plows, shovels, hoes, shovels, iron sickles and other items. Planting 700 acres of land did not seem to be as difficult as imagined.
Four hundred acres of wheat, two hundred acres of millet, and one hundred acres of sorghum were sown in ten days before abundant rain came.
Xu Yue made some calculations. An ordinary person needs 30 kilograms of grain a month, and a person with strong physical strength eats 45 kilograms. Taking a compromise of 40 kilograms, a person needs 480 kilograms of grain a year.
To feed the 500 people on the farm, 240,000 kilograms of grain are needed per year.
Then spread it evenly over 700 acres of land, and the yield per mu must reach 343 kilograms to be sufficient.
In modern times, the average yield per mu is more than 600 kilograms, and the yield per mu is no less than 1,000 kilograms.
However, in this era, the yield of high-grade fertile land is about 350 kilograms per mu, and the yield of medium-grade fertile land is 200 kilograms, while the yield of low-grade barren land, which accounts for the largest proportion, is less than 100 kilograms per mu.
After deducting taxes and other household expenses, you can’t even think of being full even if you have porridge!
Among the 700 acres of farmland in the village, the proportion of fertile land is pitifully small, most of it is of medium and lower quality, and there is also a lot of wasteland that has just been cultivated and lacks fertility.
Therefore, even if she has exhausted all methods to add fertilizer to her fields this year, it is still an impossible goal to achieve a yield of 343 kilograms per mu.
Food is the most important thing for the people. Looking at the satisfied expectations of the villagers, Xu Yue was stunned and couldn't even squeeze out a smile.
Fortunately, the farm now has other outputs. It relies on selling cloth, glass, china and other items to maintain its growing business.
After all, if you want to solve the problem of eating, you have to look at hybrid rice.
After spring plowing, Xu Yue finally got some free time.
She circled a small area of land in the small courtyard outside her room and put up a warning sign that no one was allowed to approach.
Not only that, in order to protect the few cotton seeds and watermelon seeds that she finally got from the system bug, Xu Yue also specifically told her family and servants in the courtyard not to touch her vegetable patch.
After making sure that everyone paid attention to it, Xu Yue breathed a sigh of relief and decided to study the three-line hybrid rice breeding method obtained from the system.
In the past, Xu Yue only knew how to buy hybrid rice if she wanted high yields, and she had also heard about the difficulties faced by agricultural ancestors.
But the specific method is not easy. Most people are probably the same as her and have no idea at all.
It wasn't until she read this hybrid rice breeding book that Xu Yue understood how difficult it was for her ancestors to keep everyone fed.
Completely different from most species in nature where "the best are matched with the best" to obtain "better" genetic reproduction, hybrid rice requires a "tall, rich and handsome" to be paired with a "short, short and poor" in order to produce better offspring.
It is not difficult to find a tall, rich and handsome and a short and poor, but rice is a self-fertilizing type. Once the pistils and stamens are planted, they will pair up by themselves. You have to separate the tall, rich and handsome from the same plant and make them white.
They went to crossbreed with the dwarfs.
But there are so many ears of rice, and there are 150-300 flowers on each ear. Let’s not mention how to do it without causing damage to the stamens. Just arranging all the ears on each rice plant will drive people crazy.
Already.
Therefore, the agricultural ancestors came up with the idea: is it possible that there is such a strange breed that is naturally castrated?
It turns out!
As a result, the current three-line hybrid rice breeding method was derived.
Gudong
The standard answer has been placed in front of Xu Yue, but Xu Yue must first find three strange things in the rice world.
There are sterile lines, maintainer lines, and restorer lines, and each of these three types is difficult to find.
And in Youzhou, a place where wheat, millet, and millet are accustomed to be grown, where can I find rice?
Xu Yue was depressed, lying on the soft blanket in the room, and began to give up on herself and be in a daze mode.
The busy family members didn't realize something was wrong with their little daughter until the fourth day after she stayed behind closed doors.
"Bang!" There was a loud noise, and the closed door was kicked open. Just by listening to this familiar breath, Xu Yue knew who was coming.
"Sister?" Xu Dalang knelt down in front of the blanket and called her cautiously.
Xu Yue, who was staring at the roof in a daze with her eyes open, rolled her eyes and sat up helplessly.
She doesn't want her emotions to affect others.
Besides, it's not her style to be depressed all the time.
Looking at the grandma, sister, and dad who had just arrived from the county government on horseback after hearing the news, Xu Yue thought to herself: My family, who are too busy to see anyone, have time to see how I live and die.
"Ahem!" Xu Yue cleared her throat that was raw from not speaking for a long time. The family immediately stared at her closely, fearing that something was wrong with her.
Wang's forehead was still stained with gray and black coal stains, which showed that she had just arrived from the arsenal.
"Are you thirsty?" Wang asked with concern.
Xu Erniang didn't need to be reminded, she immediately stood up, poured a glass of water, and handed it to her sister.
Xu Yue said thank you, and the whole family immediately breathed a sigh of relief. They watched her drink the water, feeling relaxed as if the child was in good spirits.
Xu Yue finished drinking the water, her mind was still a little confused, and she said incoherently:
"Ship, go south, rubber, sugar cane, and most importantly, rice!"
Xu Da reacted immediately and asked, "Young lady, you want to build a boat and go south to buy rice?"
Xu Yue nodded, that's about it.
She looked at Aniang Wang again. After all, this was the real infrastructure boss, and she immediately grasped the key point.
"Rubber can be used to make tires, shoes, leather straps, improve traffic speed, sugar cane can be used to make sugar, and rice. I heard that you lock yourself in your room and read a book..."
His sharp eyes fell on the scattered desks aside, including "Sucrose Extraction", "Three-line Hybrid Rice Cultivation Method", "History of World Sailing", "Colonization and Colonization", "Utopia and Marx", "Materialist Dialectics", etc.
Wait, the style of painting gradually deviates...
Mrs. Wang first touched her little daughter's forehead to check whether her little brain had been burned out with so many things packed into it.
Well, no.
Mrs. Wang let out a long sigh of relief, and then glanced at Xu Da again. Why did she get so many ancient books from the Confucian School of Renmin University?
Look what the young lady has exchanged for these ancient books and technology trees!
Is this something a child should worry about?
Xu Da blinked, feeling confused and innocent. If my mother wants to read these books herself, what does it have to do with him?
However, the whole family is not stupid, and they have already seen clues.
What Xu Yue wants to express is actually very simple, that is, seize Jiaozhou!
As long as she takes possession of this territory, a large part of the problems that trouble her can be solved.
Rice can be grown for two seasons in the warm south. Even if hybrid rice cannot be produced for the time being, the food problem can be solved.
