From the end of June to mid-July, farmland harvesting work continues.
Fortunately, after autumn, there have been very few heavy rains, and there are basically no violent scenes like the continuous heavy rains in April and May. Even if there is a heavy rain, the clouds will soon clear and the sun will rise.
Although the rain will affect drying and storage, it will not have a big impact on this year's grain harvest, because there are still sheds and enough houses and tools spread out for storage, so that it will not be as pure as before.
As the farmland harvesting work comes to an end, the numbers of drying and warehousing registrations are gradually completed. The last batch of grain seeds entering the warehousing are from the experimental fields. The grains are large and plump, and the yield is gratifying. The yield per mu is close to 70 kilograms, which is equivalent to the Qin and Han Dynasties.
A stone's throw from time to time.
Although Xu Chen is not satisfied, he also knows that this is the limit that human farming can currently achieve.
Without more advanced agricultural production conditions such as better seeds, pesticides and fertilizers, this yield will become a historical record that will remain unbreakable for a long time.
Because the manpower, material resources, time, etc. invested in this experimental field cannot be supported by the current tribe, it is impossible to promote it on a large scale and can only be used as a breeding experimental field.
As for actual farming, even if all the farming tools are available, including cattle and horses, that is, the farming method of this 100 acres of mature land, the yield per mu is about 50 kilograms.
And this yield also includes seeds.
Judging from the results of two years of farming, five to ten kilograms of seeds in one acre of land is far from enough. The plants are too sparse, and doubling them would be difficult. If you want to really increase the yield, you must have at least two kilograms of seeds in one acre of land.
Ten kilograms, then 8,000 kilograms of grain will be invested in 400 acres of farmland next year.
However, the high density of seedlings naturally requires more fertilizer, so a lot of manpower and time are needed to accumulate fertilizer.
In industrial and agricultural production, input and output are generally proportional.
However, it is impossible for the Ba people and other primitive tribes to continuously invest so much human, financial and material resources in farming.
Because there is a bottleneck in the development of anything. Under the current limitations of water, soil, climate, environment, seeds, manpower, technology and other production conditions, seventy pounds is the peak, fifty pounds is definitely considered a high yield, forty pounds is a good harvest, and two
Thirty pounds is considered normal.
What's more, in a situation where the land is vast and the people are sparse, what is lacking now is not land, but people.
Just burn a piece of wasteland and scatter a few kilograms of seeds, and you can harvest twenty or thirty kilograms of grain in the fall. In this money-grabbing mode of hoping for harvest, no one is interested in working on a few acres of thin fields.
This is why there was a lot of land reclamation in ancient times.
The same goes for Xu Chen. Instead of working on a single acre, it is far better to work on the area.
For the same number of seeds, if the planting area is expanded to 800 to 1,000 acres, farming and daily management can be more extensive and relaxed, but in the end the yield will not be much different. This is the value of increasing production in the era of slash-and-burn farming.
Although Xu Chen was not satisfied with the harvest in front of him, and even gritted his teeth, in the eyes of Muba and all the women, this was an unprecedented harvest, especially in the experimental field.
In the past, when harvesting in the wild, one acre of field could harvest about five kilograms, which was enough to support the sky, and it would take most of a day. To harvest seventy kilograms, one person would have to work for half a month. In one season, twenty
It looks like multiple women can make a thousand pounds.
That is the entire income of the entire tribe.
But in just two years, under the leadership of Xu Chen, the tribe's food collection income increased at least tenfold, reaching an astronomical figure that no one could dare to imagine.
The final statistics show that this year's total farmland income reached 17,680 kilograms, of which the experimental field yielded more than 1,300 kilograms from 20 acres, and the remaining 80 acres of mature field yielded nearly 30% more than the new field.
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Although this yield increase is not very obvious, under the premise of the same seeds, the total increase after large-scale planting is quite considerable.
Gathering sand into a tower, gathering armies into fur, any wealth is slowly accumulated through quantitative changes. If the overall output of the 400 acres of land is increased by 30% next year, then the total grain output will exceed 20,000 kilograms.
If all the plump seeds selected from the experimental fields are used, and the cultivation is more precise, the yield may increase by about 20%, and the total output will exceed 26,000 kilograms.
According to the fact that the Jah tribe does not include more than 40 captives, the remaining 130 people, men, women, old and young, are allocated food rations. If one pound of coarse grains per day can sustain basic survival, this food can last for nearly seven months.
In fact, the food configuration of all tribes now is half meat and half grain, and in many cases even more meat.
With such a large amount of food reserves, both men and women can save a lot of labor time on weekdays. They do not have to hunt and collect food in the wild all day long. Instead, they can spend more time on agricultural production and animal husbandry, and eventually evolve to the point where they do not need to
A point where you can be self-sufficient by doing field work.
This not only further reduces the risk of survival, but also greatly increases food security. It also leaves more time and manpower to develop other industries, such as spinning and weaving, making pottery, mining and smelting, and building roads and canals.
Make weapons, develop business, etc.
What will follow is that the division of labor will become more and more detailed and clear, and various industries will slowly develop.
At present, the Ba people have actually embarked on this road.
With such huge profits, Xu Chen believes that Mu Ba and others will definitely further request to expand the planting area this winter. In two or three years, the Ba people's grain planting may eventually expand to a thousand acres. On both sides of the river,
The gentle slopes of the mounds that cannot be flooded by rivers will basically be slowly opened up into grain fields.
To celebrate this great harvest, the Ba people once again held a grand bonfire dinner.
At the dinner, Xu Chen had several jars of fresh fruit mixed wine brewed in May brought out. As always, he praised everyone and drank with everyone.
As the spiritual leader of the tribe, the little witch sang and danced at the bonfire dinner to release her powerful halo of blessing, celebrating the Ba people's harvest and at the same time bestowing blessings from the gods on all the Ba people.
Dozens of captives from the Gonghuo Tribe were invited to attend this grand celebration party, and everyone was lucky enough to taste a few sips of the sweet and sour fruit wine.
This is the second time they have been treated to wine.
Everyone burst into tears with excitement, and some even burst into tears.
There is no doubt about the harmony and strength of the Ba people.
Although they are all slaves in the Ba tribe and have to work and undergo labor reform every day, this rich and harmonious tribe with endless food and drink, mountains of wealth, is the paradise life they dream of.
It's a pity that they are not Ba people. After they are redeemed, they will never see such a grand and rich harvest scene again, let alone eat such delicious food.
The field harvest is over, but the autumn harvest has just begun.
There are still a lot of wild wheat beans that need to be harvested on both sides of the valley and on the riverbanks.
Although the yield is low compared with farmland and the environment is complex and dangerous, for women who are used to collecting in the wild, they feel an inexplicable distress when watching the food mature without harvesting it. Therefore, in the following time, the mother
Ba and Amu took the women of the two tribes to start large-scale field harvesting activities.
This kind of collection is very different from farmland. One person can only harvest five or six kilograms a day. However, because of the large number of people, the Ba people currently have more than 60 adult women. If it continues until mid-August, the total harvest
The entire tribe's grain reserves can be increased by at least 5,000 kilograms. Then the tribe's total grain reserves will exceed 22,000 kilograms. After excluding the thousands of kilograms of grain seeds left for next spring plowing, the rest will still be full of warehouses and houses.
It is enough to ensure the food supply for the entire clan for most of the year.
The women were busy collecting, and the men naturally didn't take a break either.
July and August are the most abundant times of the year.
In addition to normal hunting and fishing, a large group of captives were arranged to pick chestnuts, hazelnuts, acorns and other nuts from nearby mountains. They carried them back every day in baskets on their backs like ants moving, leaving them full to dry inside and outside the yard.
In order to drive away wild beasts and birds from stealing food, Xu Chen put all the beasts except horses into the guarding and security team.
The wolf Big Wolf Er and Leopard Tou were tied up in the open space outside the yard to take care of the wild fruits being dried. Two big eagles were tied up in the two yards to drive away the birds respectively. A group of monkeys squatted on the roof as a mobile unit to take care of the overall situation.
With this group of wild beasts guarding the house, basically no birds or wild beasts will come to steal food.
In particular, the two giant eagles are the natural enemies of all small and medium-sized beasts and any birds. As long as they chirp, the gods and ghosts will appear for miles around, and birds and animals will fly away everywhere.
Xu Chen carried a small backpack on his back and four personal followers including Gu Heju and carried a wooden hoe and stone ax up the mountain every day. His target was not the common nuts, but some mature medicinal materials and other mountain products.
The big rotten tree discovered in the first year has now become a mushroom cultivation base that the Ba people care for.
In order to increase the production of shiitake mushrooms, Xu Chen arranged for people to cut down many oak trees, chestnut trees and some miscellaneous trees around the big trees after autumn last year. After a year of wind, sun and heavy rain erosion, these trees have begun to decay.
, some began to grow mushrooms.
As for the super-large rotten tree that served as the source of bacteria, it was still densely covered with wild shiitake mushrooms.
These mushrooms are delicious and nutritious. They are one of the rarest high-quality delicacies nowadays. Cooking them with meat can not only enhance the freshness, but also greatly supplement the various amino acids needed by the tribe and enhance immunity, especially for women, children, old and young.
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Chicken stewed with mushrooms is still the favorite delicacy of the entire tribe.
Soft mushrooms, chewy chicken, fragrant soup, a hot spoonful poured on the multigrain porridge, the wonderful taste is simply indescribable.