Chapter 162: The Mistake of the Times

The sky was gloomy and the rain was heavy.

Roman, wearing a straw hat and a cloak, looked at the shrub in front of him.

The locals called it wild jujube, but the fruit was inedible and only cattle and sheep could eat it. It was widely distributed and everywhere.

The sickle could not cut it, and it had to be chopped several times with a hatchet to cut it off.

After wintering, all the plant tissues above the ground died, but the roots at the bottom of the soil were still alive and very resilient.

Roman pulled out the shrub with force.

The surrounding land first swelled, then cracked, and finally broke.

When the dense roots were exposed to the air, the hardened mud hung on the thin roots, like a big tumor, and was held in Roman's hand.

His palm had a layer of solid calluses, which resisted the damage caused by friction and force, but the back of his hand was retaliated by the shrub before its death.

A thorn pierced into his flesh. Roman put the back of his hand to his mouth, sucked out the broken thorn on the back of his hand, and then spit out the bloody saliva. He squatted down to observe the soil structure of this land to see if it was suitable for cultivation.

…

Soil is generally divided into sandy soil, loam, and clay.

Loam is the best.

It has a loose texture, is breathable and water-permeable, and has strong water and fertilizer retention.

As long as you do a little tillage and sow the seeds, the harvest will generally not be bad. It is the chosen place for agricultural civilization.

In Roman's impression, only the thousand miles of fertile land in the Grand Dukedom tends to be loam, and the sowing-harvesting ratio is within a reasonable range from 1:5 to 1:12.

Because places with fertile soil have higher yields than other places.

But the land in front of him is not loam.

The surface layer is compacted sandy soil, about ten centimeters thick.

And the deep layer is sticky clay.

The characteristic of sandy soil is that it has extremely poor water retention.

This sparse rain has accumulated countless small puddles in this wasteland. Even if it seeps down, it is difficult to remain in the sandy soil layer.

The characteristics of deep clay are very special.

The advantage is that it retains water and fertilizer well, and has high potential fertility.

The disadvantage is that it has high humidity and high water content. All the water that seeps down from the sandy soil layer is retained here, but it basically has no drainage and air permeability.

The land is tight and difficult to plow, the soil temperature is low, and the fertilizer effect is not easy to play.

Roman asked Lax to build a heavy plow in order to turn up the deep clay, remove weeds and prevent pests after being exposed to the sun, and release the fertility of the bottom layer.

The compacted sandy soil on the surface is not impossible to split.

But it is very strenuous.

The heavy plow that originally could be pulled by two cows now requires four cows.

Moreover, the effect is by no means very good.

There are only cows that die of exhaustion, but no fields that are plowed badly.

But no matter what, the land should be turned over.

The soil structure must be improved.

Roman is going to reclaim 7,000 to 10,000 mu of wasteland this time.

More than 10 million, nearly 20 million kilograms of peat and manure will be brought in.

Without a doubt, this is a big deal.

So this time he assembled 3,000 laborers.

This includes those women of marriageable age who married soldiers.

Soldiers' wives are also important laborers, who have to follow the heavy plows to pick up stones and smash dirt.

The construction team also has to stop for a while and come to farm first.

Because houses can be built at any time, but farming cannot be done at any time, and now there is an urgent need for labor.

Taking advantage of the momentum of this spring rain, use a cross pick to open the compacted soil layer, break up the dirt one by one, first loosen the soil, and then mix 2,000 kilograms of peat into each mu of land.

The humus of 2,000 kilograms of peat and manure can only be spread out in a thin layer on one mu of raw land.

But if too much fertilizer is applied at one time, it cannot be decomposed in time, which is not conducive to the maturation of the land.

Apply one or two thousand kilograms of peat and manure twice a year.

It will become a qualified cultivated land in three to five years.

The loose and soft soil with good structure and active soil layer of 20 to 30 centimeters thick will give a very high yield no matter what is planted.

…

Barro, the agricultural manager, is responsible for the guidance throughout the process.

Roman once used a sapphire to improve Barro's agricultural knowledge.

So the farmer's son understood the process of agricultural production more and more.

In simple terms, he got the hang of it.

He summarized his past farming experience and gradually formed a knowledge system.

Although it was only a prototype and very superficial, this knowledge was like a spell, which made Barro fascinated and unable to stop, as if he had glimpsed a new world.

Barro had a respectable and loyal father who worked hard for decades.

In the past, no one in the town of Sger knew farming better than that father. He had a very high prestige, and sometimes the agricultural officials would ask him for advice on farming.

But that man died at this time last year.

He was confined to the past tense by tradition, while his lord was looking far ahead and looking to the future.

His blood splashed at the lord's feet.

His death was unreasonable.

The son thought, my father had to face this dilemma, my lord had to face that dilemma, and they had to decide the winner, who was wrong?

Barro asked himself.

Gods, why did you let suffering flow into the mortal world, let the two sides who were not at fault decide the winner, and let innocent blood flow?

You covered our eyes with a dark cloth, and suddenly lifted it up, letting the dazzling light shine into our eyes, but you scolded us for not being able to bear the scorching sun.

If the sun is always there, why did you lift the dark cloth today?

If the sun is not there, what is shining in our eyes now?

Re-evaluate the true potential of the land under your feet with a new perspective, and Barlow is actually terrified.

But this is by no means a personal mistake.

It is the black cloth, the mistake of this era.

We must not repeat such mistakes in the future!

He wants to spread the agricultural technology he has summarized.

He asked for an audience with their lord, and received the latter's reply, allowing him to set up a training class to teach and promote agricultural knowledge, and thus lift the black cloth.

This tolerance and gift made him grateful.

…

They first went to pay homage to their father's grave, and then came to this wasteland that was in urgent need of reclamation.

"Barlow, look, these oxen and draft horses are so strong." His wife said to him.

Their whole family is farmers, and his wife is also a good hand at farm work.

The two children were raised in the big kitchen, one less than four years old and the other more than one year old. When his father died, his wife had just given birth and the family needed more food.

He also saw those fat and strong big animals.

Every winter, the big animals lose weight.

So the oxen in the spring are often skinny, so thin that you can touch the bones, and the ribs are clearly visible on the skin.

Even so, they still have to pull the plow every year.

However, they are well taken care of this year.

He knew that the master stored the chopped hay in the cellar, and also asked him to harvest 500 acres of green beans in advance as feed for the oxen during the winter, saying that this would not make them lose weight.

He was skeptical at the time, but did as he was told. Now that he saw that they were all fat, he no longer had any doubts and respected the lord as a god.

"Barlow, look, there are so many pickaxes!" his wife said again.

There are more than 2,000 pickaxes made of fine steel, piled here as if they were free of charge.

He knew that all the pickaxes were specially polished, and he saw it when he went to the blacksmith shed to get the pickaxes.

There is a position dedicated to sharpening the blade. Five blacksmith apprentices sit in a row and turn the whetstone.

The whetstone is soaked in oil in advance, and the blade crackles when placed on it. Another group of people pour salt water on it. It only takes a few minutes to sharpen the blade. Both the tip and the blade are shining, and the sharpness of steel is unique.

There is no doubt that this is a sharp tool!

He knows very well that steel farm tools can improve efficiency.

Some shrubs are so tough that even sickles can't cut them.

Now, you only need to swing the pickaxe blade hard to cut them.

He looked at the vast wasteland and said to his wife, "Let's do it!"