"Ahem, they are all seeds. Even if I show them to you, young lady, you may not recognize them!"
Under Zhu Ying's piercing gaze, Old Xianyu seemed extremely cheerful. He untied a baggage and handed it over, saying with a smile: "Look, this is what I have been messing with in my spare time! Hey!
"In the past, I often drifted on the sea and had no other hobbies, so I often brought back some random things and planted them if I thought they were delicious. I didn't know what kind of things they were."
"As time goes by, I have built up a big vegetable garden. There are many things that I don't even know what they are. The secret garden is actually just like what the second young master said, just to make it sound nice. But since I have grown older,
I don’t go to sea much, so I only have this little hobby left, so I hide it and don’t want others to know about it. I really wasn’t playing tricks on the second son before.”
"Moreover, I once mistrusted the wrong person and took him to one of my original vegetable gardens. It turned out that the boy was not a real thing and actually stole the vegetables to sell. I went to question him and was criticized. I was so angry that I had stolen the vegetable garden.
They were all bulldozed and moved to another place. Over the years, not to mention Little Peanut, even Yun He has never been to my new vegetable garden, and the Second Young Master is still the first outsider."
Zhu Er snorted bitterly when he heard this: "According to what you said, if you take me there, do you still think highly of me? You don't even know who I am, how can I think highly of your garden full of only edible things?"
But he suddenly saw Zhang Shou opposite him glaring at him, and suddenly he came to his senses, and quickly changed his words: "I heard what Ah Liu said after returning from Cangzhou, and I came here to find those seeds with high yield and good quality, but I
Firstly, you don’t care about money, and secondly, you don’t care about a future. You just want to do something down-to-earth. Besides, don’t you have to use all your skills when you get to the capital?”
That's not necessarily the case! If you arrive in the capital, you will find that the emperor is a foolish king who eats, drinks and has fun all day long and ignores state affairs, or is played by the courtiers and trapped in the palace, or seems to have an iron fist, but in fact is
The Lord of Xiongcai who likes to play with people's hearts... He would rather pretend to be incompetent and leave!
While thinking about it, Lao Xianyu very diligently handed one of the bundles to Zhu Ying. Seeing that Zhu Ying had really untied the bundle and saw the paper packets inside, he let Zhu Er hold the bundle while he
He opened the package and examined the contents with great interest. He glanced at Zhang Shou and handed the other package over, then smiled so much that the wrinkles on his face relaxed.
"Dr. Zhang, you are both a doctor of Guozi and a university scholar. As for the ingredients I used before, you actually knew how to make the best use of them. Now, can you please give me some insight into these seeds? To be honest, there are some things that I don't know how to use."
I don’t quite recognize it.”
When Zhang Shouzai learned that Xian Yunhe had never entered Lao Xianyu's vegetable garden, he already realized that the vegetable garden was indeed Lao Xianyu's biggest secret. On the contrary, the stone tablets that Ah Liu had just carried on his back were on the old side.
From Xianyu's point of view, I'm afraid it was insignificant - he didn't recognize it anyway. At this time, he didn't take the baggage, but directly untied it from old Xianyu's hands and took out a paper bag.
Zhu Er couldn't help feeling bitter when he saw that he was being treated as a baggage carrier by Zhu Ying, and complained: "Yingying, you have never even planted flowers, let alone these seeds. How could you recognize them? I was in the vegetable garden before.
I've seen it in my house, but most of the things I've never seen before, I just don't recognize. Even if your brother-in-law is knowledgeable, he definitely doesn't know what it is!"
As he spoke, Zhu Er looked at Zhang Shou and saw that the man was taking out a black seed with white hair from a paper bag, turning it over and over thoughtfully. He suddenly became a little unsure.
After all, Zhang Shou grew up in the countryside. It can’t be true that he… farmed, right?
Sure enough, the next moment Zhu Ying rolled her eyes at him angrily: "The first time I met Ah Shou, he was leading people in the paddy fields to talk about a good harvest! Even if I didn't recognize these seeds, he definitely knew them!
"
Old Xianyu kept pricking up his ears to listen to everyone's words. When he heard that Zhang Shou actually went to the ground, he quickly smiled and said: "Miss, I don't believe what you said... Look at Dr. Zhang's character and appearance.
, even if he is born into a small family, he will definitely be held in the palm of his hand as a treasure, how can he be willing to let him go to the ground? "
"I didn't say that he worked in the fields himself!" Zhu Ying raised her eyebrows slightly and smiled slyly, "I mean, Ashou only knows a little about farming."
She deliberately emphasized the words she understood in a literary way, and then said calmly: "The reason why he was talking about the harvest with people in the paddy field was because he dug canals to divert water into the fields and turned the wheat fields into rice fields.
, it was he who persuaded the people in the village. Nowadays, there are many people in the south of the capital, and wheat is cheap and grain is expensive in the capital all year round. In addition, tussahs are used to gather silk and weave silk, so the income of every household in his village is much higher."
Old Xianyu couldn't help but glance sideways at Zhang Shou again. Seeing that the man was still turning over and over to look at the black seeds, he asked tentatively: "Does Dr. Zhang know what this is?"
"If I didn't even know this, wouldn't I be laughed to death by you?" Zhang Shou chuckled, then looked at Lao Xianyu calmly and said, "Isn't this cotton seed? Could it be that you brought this from overseas too?
"
Zhu Ying was okay, but Zhu Er suddenly became furious: "You old salted fish, you are actually fooling me? These are just cotton seeds. You lied to me and said they were brought from overseas!"
Old Xianyu took his time and looked at Zhu Er with contempt: "Cotton is not produced in our country. It was originally introduced from the west. The second young master calls himself a good farmer. Could it be that he doesn't even know this?"
Zhu Er was like a ball that had been full of energy but suddenly had a hole in it. He was completely deflated.
Seeing his guilty face, Zhang Shou interrupted: "Well, there's no need to talk outside all the time. Let's go inside. As for these cotton seeds, as the old salted fish said, in fact, our country did not grow them in the past, and even if
The varieties planted today are not very good. If there are superior overseas varieties and they are successfully planted, it can be said to be a more important achievement than new spinning machines and new looms."
After seeing Zhang Shou say this, he picked up the cotton seed and went back to the house thoughtfully. Zhu Er saw that Zhu Ying quickly wrapped the cotton seed in her hand and stuffed it into his arms.
Li knotted the baggage again, and then hurried forward to catch up with Zhang Shou. Thinking about what he had just said that would definitely be considered ignorant, he suddenly felt uncomfortable.
The eldest brother is both civilized and martial, and the brother-in-law is good at arithmetic, but he can actually "get a little bit" into farming. He really can't survive!
Old Xianyu put away the baggage in his hand, then reached out and easily picked up the other one from Zhu Er, and then said meaningfully to Zhu Er: "Second Young Master, if you are really good at farming, you can also
You have to learn a lot from your teacher and future brother-in-law, otherwise it will become a joke if you don’t even know a cotton seed!"
"Hmph!" He let out an angry cold snort, but Zhu Er knew that he was right. When he followed him into the courtyard, he said angrily, "My family is a noble family. If you don't have any talent in martial arts, you will be detained."
I have to go to school, even if my family has a farm, it’s not my turn to go there. I didn’t grow up in a small village, so how can I recognize these things?”
At this point, he felt that these words seemed to be satirizing Zhang Shou's background, and quickly changed the subject: "Speaking of which, since you said that the cotton seeds were obtained from overseas, I would like to ask you, how did you get them?"
How does it compare with the cotton here after it comes out? Is it high yield or good quality?"
The old salted fish walking in front smiled, but did not answer immediately.
It wasn't until he entered the room and saw that Ah Liu had neatly placed the fragments of the tablets on the table in the middle, and Little Peanut was looking at them curiously, that he finally said, "This cotton is from when I was overseas."
I’ve seen that those from local races are better than ours in terms of yield, length of cotton wool, or toughness.”
Zhang Shou was still holding the cotton seeds in his hand and looking at them. After a while, he looked up at Old Xianyu and said with a half-smile: "But after you get it back and try the seeds, you should find that the effect is average, far less than when you were overseas."
It’s so good to see, isn’t it?”
Lao Xianyu didn't expect Zhang Shou's judgment to be so accurate. After being stunned for a moment, he pretended not to see Zhu Er's gloating and nodded.
"Indeed. I have brought this thing back several times, and asked others to bring it back several times, but the results are not very good, far inferior to those things like tomatoes and peanuts."
But he was also honest and simply listed his failures again and again: "One time it was because the boat drifted on the sea for too long. When we finally arrived in Cangzhou, it was already late for the sowing period. When I planted it, the cotton seeds didn't move at all.
.”
"One time, we planted them too densely and couldn't open many bolls, so the yield was sparse and the bolls produced were small and light. I thought it was probably because there was not enough sunlight."
"I finally managed to grow cotton once, and the harvest was decent. After I hired someone to ginning cotton, I found that the cotton lint was thin, long, and tough. It was indeed a good thing, better than what we have now. I wondered if I could mix it with cotton.
So I took a batch of seeds from the best-growing cotton field in Cangzhou, but the result of the mixed planting was that the results were getting worse... Oh, I was really pissed off."
Old Xianyu did not hesitate to explain his failures again and again in detail. Seeing that Zhang Shou listened attentively, he smiled bitterly and said: "I am so angry. Things like tomatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, etc., even if the taste is different at first
, but after three or five years of planting, it was almost done in the end. Only this cotton, I can’t remember how many times it failed.”
This time, Zhu Er was no longer in the mood to ridicule the old salted fish. He asked himself, if it were him, would it be possible for him to be so persistent just to grow good cotton? Even Zhu Ying couldn't help but said: "I didn't expect you still have
Such patience.”
Zhang Shou was both angry and funny. You know, when later generations of mainland cotton - mostly called American cotton among the people - was introduced to China, it was said that the time span was as long as several decades. At first, it was promoted by the government, but among the people.
Not only are there no results, but harvests are often small or even non-existent. Even after hard work, the so-called foreign cotton is not as good as Chinese cotton.
At that time, from the government to businessmen to the private sector, countless people were involved in the experiment. It was a large-scale trial planting all over the country. Ten tons of seeds were often used. Lao Xianyu really relied on one person to promote such a project.
Can it be called a great undertaking?
Since Old Xianyu said before that he had people bring seeds to him from overseas several times later, it is obvious that he has people who have traveled across the ocean all year round as helpers. Then, then, someone’s vegetable garden is really just his own.
Take care of yourself, no outsiders around?
But such a thing as farming, a daughter and young master like Zhu Ying and Zhu Er didn't know about it, but he did.
Even if you just leave it alone for a day or two, not to mention watering and fertilizing, weeds and insects alone can make a mess in the vegetable garden! Especially for cotton, which is prone to diseases and insect pests, overgrown weeds can easily attract various insects.
, it won’t work if there is no one to serve you!
Zhang Shouzheng was thinking this when he saw Old Xianyu suddenly look towards him. He looked at the person calmly until the person looked away unnaturally. He knew that the old man was still guilty after all.
At that moment, he didn't expose the trick, and said with a smile: "About how many cotton seeds do you have on hand? Isn't it just the bag I saw just now?"
Seeing that Old Xianyu hesitated and said nothing, he said to himself: "As far as I know, these plants from overseas, excluding tomatoes that we have never had here, and local varieties like cotton, once
If you mix overseas varieties and local varieties at will, no matter how good the foreign varieties are, the results when planted together are often very bad. Where did you hear about hybrids?"
Although I don’t know where Zhang Shou knew this from, Old Xianyu still said hesitantly: “I heard that by mixing different varieties together and stirring them up during pollination, you might be able to breed better ones.
The seeds...this seems to be called hybridization?"
Zhang Shou almost spit out a mouthful of old blood. At this time, he no longer had any doubts. If he could be used to using such terms in this era, but he was not a time traveler - then the old salted fish must have obtained the favor of Emperor Taizu.
Some legacy. Whether it’s information, connections, or anything else, this is definitely a person who cannot be let go!
Of course, I don’t know if this is a variety of sea island cotton or upland cotton. Lao Xianyu should have been introduced to the local area for trial planting not long ago. If they really tried planting for many years and still got this result, then he really wants to blame them for their failure.
Tears of sympathy.
An article he occasionally read in his previous life talked about the degradation of American cotton. It was claimed that until the mid-twentieth century, China continued to introduce and even cultivate fine varieties, and degradation was still a big problem. Nowadays, without first ensuring its
Always self-cross, so as to keep the seeds pure and avoid degeneration, and cross them with those Asian cotton varieties that are far inferior... Is this funny?
If you want to hybridize, it must at least be a hybrid between different upland cotton varieties... Is this really a group of farming veterans messing around?
So, he had to say sincerely: "Oranges growing in Huainan are oranges, and oranges growing in Huaibei are tangerines. This is actually the same when applied to cotton. Just as people of different types are not compatible, the types of overseas cotton are different.
In fact, the types of cotton are different from those in our country. Even if you want to cross-breed, you have to bring different overseas cottons back to breed them, and then try to cross them with each other."
"Otherwise, it would be the same as a mule that is a cross between a horse and a donkey and is infertile. That's the same truth."