pdf-ebookys Chapter 888 Raking the Fields
Chapter 888 Raking the Fields
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "I appreciate your kindness, but I won't do it. It's spring ploughing season now, and you all have a lot of land at home. It will be troublesome if you don't have oxen to cultivate the land. I can't let everyone suffer because of myself. I will be grateful if you can just bring back your own fertilizer."
Things went surprisingly smoothly, and she also promised to reimburse everyone for the shipping costs.
The next day, the convoys arrived.
In this way, the pressure on vehicles on the farm was suddenly reduced, and they could deliver fertilizers to each farmer more calmly.
The villages in other counties followed suit, which greatly eased the busyness of spring ploughing.
Zhuangzi is no longer as chaotic as a pot of porridge.
People living nearby no longer have to bring their families along to carry the fat, as the caravan from the village can transport it in one trip.
After the ground was leveled and large fields took shape, Zhou Guo began to lead people in raising seedlings.
With the help of several farms, plus the grain seeds left over from the family over the years and those purchased from the village, most of the land in Song County can be used for planting.
The grain seeds that the Wang family compensated her with were far from enough for the two thousand acres of land, so the rest was planted in Song County.
Planting wheat and rice seeds together can provide a good comparison.
The land in several other counties can only be used to grow wheat this year, using the common wheat seeds from Zhou’s grain shop.
She opened up a separate piece of land to plant the grains harvested from the experimental field last year separately from other grains, so that she can better distinguish the differences when the time comes.
The other plots of land also need to plant some rice to a greater or lesser extent, so we can know whether rice or wheat is better on such land.
Breeding seeds for hundreds of hectares of land is not an easy task, but fortunately she has a lot of people.
Once the ingredients are ready, just mix them together.
Although the workers didn't know what these things were, they knew they must be breeding materials. In previous years, they would soak the wheat in warm water for a few days before planting it, which indeed made it easier to germinate.
I guess this is pretty much the same logic.
It's just that there are too many seeds, so it's a bit troublesome.
By the time the rice seeds are planted, people have started harrowing the fields.
Zhou Guo looked at the farmers standing on the plows being pulled forward by the oxen. Her hands itched. To be honest, she hadn't plowed the fields for a long time.
Although she wanted to work on the two acres of experimental fields in the village herself, reality did not allow it.
In previous years, we could still raise seeds and plant rice seedlings, but this year even the planting has to be left to my family.
Fortunately, Li saw that she had been doing this for so many years and had seen it all, so she knew everything and didn't need her to give her any further instructions.
He went back to the house, changed his clothes, took the plow and whip from an old farmer, stepped on the plow, and drove the cows forward.
This large piece of land is very flat, so each piece can be divided into large pieces, about ten acres each.
She drove the cattle around the field for a long time.
When the old man saw her starting to till the land again, he shook his head. How idle she was! Not to mention the young lady, even the men in the family had never been so idle as to go down to the fields to till the land.
When County Magistrate Yao came over, he saw Zhou Guo wearing a neat short shirt, driving cattle to plow the fields, waving a whip in his hand, and occasionally shouting "Aoqiqiaoqiqi..."
Even more peasant-like than an old farmer.
"Hey, this, this... Why is Young Master Zhou working in the fields?" He pointed at Zhou Guo in amazement. How could a young lady work in the fields? He had been a county magistrate for so many years and had never seen or heard of such a thing.
The old man said, "What's so strange about this? Farmers who have lost their breadwinners are left with only widows and orphans. They don't have money to hire people, and they don't have time to exchange labor with others. They still have to work on the land. Don't you, the county magistrate, understand this?"
Very disgusted.
Lord Yao smiled and said, "Not really, I've never seen a young lady tilling the land."
"Why can't the young lady farm the land? Our young lady can still go out and do business, and she does it better than anyone else." The old man was dissatisfied.
If the Zhou family were here, they would definitely be speechless.
The old man has been getting older in recent years, and his temper seems to be getting weirder. He can tolerate whatever his family members say to his apprentice, but he will get angry if an outsider says something bad or even if the tone is a little off.
He is very protective of his own children.
"The old man is right. Young Master Zhou is indeed very capable, much more capable than the average person!" Lord Yao was not angry. Zhou Guo was indeed amazing. He could support such a huge family business by himself, and he was still so young. It was simply unbelievable.
When Zhou Guo came back from plowing, she saw Lord Yao. She greeted him enthusiastically, "Lord, would you like to come down and try it too?"
At this moment, she was covered in mud, and her face was splattered with many mud spots. If it weren't for her delicate and fair face, she really looked like a farmer working in the fields.
Lord Yao waved his hands quickly, "Forget it. I can handle the dry land, but I can't do anything about the paddy field."
As a local official, he had to go to the countryside to encourage farmers to engage in farming every spring. He had worked as a plowman before, but he was not very experienced. However, he had no idea about paddy fields. If he stood in them, he would probably not be able to stand steadily.
Zhou Guo returned the tools to the farmer, washed his hands and feet in the clean paddy field next to him, and then walked forward with a smile, "We have been busy with spring plowing for some time, why are you here now?"
When the old man saw her coming, he nodded to Lord Yao and left.
Lord Yao said, "I have been busy in the village, and when I came here, I remembered that your land seemed to be planted this year, so I thought of coming to see it, but why didn't you tell me before that this land was for planting rice? I thought you were going to plant wheat."
After all, very few people in the north grow rice.
Zhou Guo said, "We also grow wheat and both. But since I prefer rice, I also tried to grow some rice when I got to the north. The few acres of land at home have grown well, so I wanted to try this land. If it can also survive, then people in the north will have one more kind of food to eat."
"So that's how it is." Lord Yao knew what was going on when he heard her say that. It turned out that she was just greedy. That's right, this little ancestor would find a way to grow and raise anything she liked to eat, and the more she did, the more money she would make.
I don’t know if she died of poverty in the Temple of the God of Wealth in her previous life, but in this life, the God of Wealth is particularly fond of her and she earns everything she does.
Zhou Guo said, "Shall I take you around?"
"Okay, okay, I was just thinking of taking a walk." Lord Yao was very happy. He was just wanting to see the situation of this farm. When the salty and bitter lands in other parts of the county were successfully rehabilitated, they would be the same as this farm, and he wouldn't have to worry about what to plant.
"Sir, you just came back from the countryside. What stage has the spring plowing progressed to now?" Zhou Guo hasn't been to the countryside for some time, so he doesn't know what the situation is outside.
Lord Yao said, "The seeds have already been sown."
He looked up at the sky and said, "I estimate that this year will be another year of good weather and good harvest. When your high-yield seeds are spread all over the north, the people's lives will be better by then."