The Pelotas plain area mainly grows rice, soybeans, wheat and corn. The inland Campos grassland grows pastures mainly composed of buckwheat, timothy, June grass, alfalfa, clover and other plants, and raises the wild animals left by Brazil.
Cattle, sheep, reindeer, as well as alpacas, guanacos, horses and other animals brought by the Chinese from Peru.
When the Chinese set out from Peru, they had more than 40,000 pack horses and more than 5,000 alpacas to carry food and supplies for the troops. During the long journey, more than half of the pack horses were lost, and nearly 4,000 alpacas were left.
Arriving safely in the Rio Grande do Sul region, half of the remaining 20,000 pack horses were distributed to retired soldiers who had made meritorious service. The other 7,000 were incorporated into the combat order of the National Defense Forces and engaged in logistics transportation tasks. Finally, more than 2,000 healthy pack horses were removed from the army.
Exit and be put as a stallion in the ranch of Campos.
Two draft horse breeding ranches, a military horse breeding factory, two draft horse ranches and a military horse farm were established in the Campos grassland. In addition to the horses brought by the Chinese, there are also more than a thousand horses from the two southern states.
The Campos grassland is part of the Pampas. There are many ownerless wild horses living in the border area between Rio Grande do Sul, Paraguay and Argentina.
They were originally Andaluan horses brought to the Pampas by Spanish colonists. After the Spaniards accidentally lost them in the grasslands, the rich pasture food and the living environment without natural predators prompted the horses to breed on a large scale and acquire
Free horses quickly evolved from wild horses. More than three hundred years later, a small number of horses rapidly multiplied and became the main animal population throughout the Pampas.
The Indians living in the grasslands and forest areas of southern Argentina captured the wild horses that wandered in the grasslands and woods, mastered the riding skills learned from the Spanish, and used horses as new combat tools to engage in guerrilla warfare with colonial soldiers for hundreds of years.
After the independence of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and other countries in the La Plata region, most of the Gaucho cavalry who resisted Spanish colonial rule were incorporated, and some retreated to the forest mountains with the Indians to maintain the ethnic group's way of life.
The interior of Pelotas is an endless grassland. Starting from Pelotas on horseback, it takes less than two days to reach the Uruguay River at the junction with Uruguay. The Gauchos living at the junction of Argentina, Uruguay, and Rio Grande do Sul
and Indians often crossed the border into Rio Grande do Sul to hunt.
The Pelotas garrison and the local ranch guards encountered hunting Indians and Gauchos many times. However, because of Li Mingyuan's order, the Chinese garrison did not expel the incoming Indians and Gauchos, but used the living supplies in their hands.
Exchange horses with them and cherish animal skins.
The Chinese, Indians, and Gauchos maintain a tacit cooperative relationship. More than 700 of the new horses in the ranch were traded with them. Some of the remaining horses were captured in traps designed by the Chinese troops, and some were imported from the local Brazilians.
Seized in human hands.
The number of horses in the military stable gradually increased in this way, and the Chinese also used the Indians and Gauchos to inquire about the geographical environment of the border area and the deployment of Uruguayan troops.
The supply of military horses is indispensable to the National Defense Forces who are interested in expanding their power in the Pampas, while alpacas can be used as a short-distance transportation tool and as one of the fur raw materials for textile manufacturing.
Four thousand alpacas are distributed in three breeding farms, and 500 guanacos are also concentrated in one pasture.
In addition, two thousand sheep and three thousand cattle also have specific breeding areas.
There are a large number of sheep in Rio Grande do Sul, but most of them are mixed-breed goats with poor quality fur, which is not suitable for use as fur raw materials for textile manufacturing. The two thousand sheep raised in Pelotas are selected Meri.
Slave sheep.
Merino sheep are native to Spain. They are small in size. The rams have spiral horns and wrinkled skin. The shearing amount is about 2.5 kilograms. The wool quality is good.
Before the 16th century, Merino sheep were mostly in the hands of Spanish nobles and churches. Later, Spanish Merino sheep were smuggled to the North American continent, and then spread to Australia, New Zealand and other places. In the second half of the 19th century, many areas
There are traces of Merino sheep and their descendants scattered throughout.
Merino sheep have been mixed and bred in different regions, and their coat characteristics have also changed. Australian Merino sheep are the offspring of Spanish Merino sheep and British long-haired sheep. Australian Merino sheep are physically strong.
, wool has a diameter of 20 to 22 microns, has a large output, and is of good quality. It is suitable for weaving high-quality worsted wool fabrics, is durable and beautiful, and is one of the best types of sheep.
Breeding Australian Merino sheep is the most profitable way, but the export of Australian Merino sheep is prohibited, and Rio Grande do Sul does not have the ability to reach Australia for the time being.
Merino sheep were smuggled out, so searching for local Merino sheep to provide urgently needed raw materials for the established textile mills became the first choice.
The harvester designed by American McCormick in 1834 was widely used in agriculture after 1850. The iron plow produced by another American company was also quickly put into agricultural use.
The structure of the harvester and iron plow is: a steam-powered tricycle in the front, and an iron plow or harvester in the back. People sit on the tricycle, and three horses or oxen pull the cart, which is driven by steam power.
The emergence of steam harvesters and iron plows has changed the traditional agricultural production method. In the past, a family cultivated 30 acres of land. With the help of agricultural machinery, a family can cultivate 200 acres or more of land.
Economic agriculture plays an important role in the overall development of Rio Grande do Sul, and the development of large-scale concentrated agriculture requires a mature industrial system and a large number of livestock.
The initial construction of Rio Grande do Sul's industrial system is still a long way from producing mature agricultural machinery, and it is limited by the development of the times. Today's machinery still requires cattle and draft horses as the main labor force.
Three thousand cattle are the main agricultural livestock for the time being in Pelotas. Two months later, in February (February is summer in South America, summer plowing begins), full-scale agricultural planting requires a large number of buffalo work, and three thousand cattle
There is still a big gap between cattle and crops.
Buffaloes in South America are mainly distributed in Argentina, and the relationship between the Chinese and Argentina is not very good. In addition, during the Misiones conflict, the Chinese favored Paraguay and provided Paraguay with a large number of reloaded weapons and ammunition. The relationship between the two parties became even worse.
, Argentina is unwilling to recognize Rio Grande do Sul as a legitimate country, and the two parties have been arguing over this.
Buffalo breeding involves the agricultural development of the Principality of Rio Grande do Sul. There will be a lack of buffalo for plowing next year, and crop yields will be affected. However, the number of Chinese is not very large, and there is a lack of buffalo to cultivate the land. The food produced is still enough for the consumption of the Chinese. The only difference is that
The question of how much food is left.
In Li Mingyuan's plan, it was already planned that even if part of the field planting was delayed during spring plowing, the buffaloes from the breeding farm would not be used excessively.
These buffaloes exist as seeds and cannot be lost easily. Once they survive the busy summer plowing season, buffaloes can be purchased from the United States and other regional countries to participate in the labor with the agricultural machinery purchased from Prussia.
