Chapter 746: Wheat and Long Island New York

North America, later Manhattan Island, New York, because of lack of experience, Albert ’s spring promotion of wheat cultivation was a failure. This is because the European wheat varieties in this era are too ugly, and the growing period is close to one year. Plant wheat in spring, and harvest it in winter. But is that possible? The temperature of wheat at the final maturity stage is quite high.

Therefore, after Marin's reminder failed, Albert also felt painful. Before the autumn harvest, Albert harvested the stalks of green wheat that had grown tall. Then, to feed ...

Earlier, Marin got 10,000 English ewes and brought them to Ayoun in Western Sahara for merino breeding rams. After returning, these ewes gave birth to 50,000 lambs.

However, after optimization, only four thousand lambs' wool is fine enough to meet the requirements of wool sheep. Therefore, the 4000 fine-haired lambs were specially selected by the Marinites to further breed and breed to form new breeds.

Of course, another 10,000 lambs were not abandoned. After all, these sheep are of excellent blood. Even if the wool is not as fine as the 4,000 selected, it is thinner than the wool of most sheep in Europe.

After careful consideration, Marin decided to select 5,000 hybrid lambs from them and send them to the North American colony for breeding in North America. Moreover, these lambs are raised as meat sheep. After all, the colony also needs meat.

As for domestic pigs, Marin did not provide pig breeds to the North American colonies. Why? The main reason is that the domestic pig breeds in Europe are too garbage. It ’s just a small body and a small amount of meat. The number of cubs is also small. Only five or six cubs are born in one litter. You know, Taihu pigs southeast of Daming can have more than a dozen piglets in a single birth. Moreover, the Taihu pig also grows fast, and the final size is also large. From the perspective of population expansion, it is obviously very good.

Although it is said that the domestic pigs such as Taihu pigs are black pigs, the proportion of fat is relatively high, unlike the white pigs of later generations, which have a high lean meat rate. However, do n’t forget what time it is ... In this age when people generally lack oil and fat, fat meat is more popular than lean meat ... Of course, Taihu pigs must be brought in no matter how good they are ...

After arriving in the North American colony, these 5,000 mixed-race lambs were sent to North America. Albert attaches great importance to these lambs and orders them to cultivate them carefully. After all, although these lambs were eliminated, the wool was slightly thicker. However, it depends on who you compare with. Compared with the merino sheep and the lambs that were picked before, their wool is indeed thicker. But compared with other sheep in Europe, they can be counted as fine wool sheep, which are better than the British sheep. More importantly, they can adapt to the humid climate in eastern North America. After all, their mothers are all from the humid country of England ...

And Albert ordered people to harvest the wheat stalks that have not yet matured. In addition to making room, there are also reasons for using the wheat stalks that are about to mature as feed.

You know, a plant, after maturity, most of the nutrients are absorbed by the fruit, and then the whole plant begins to dry ... So, the rye after harvest is mostly in rye grains, and rye straw , There is not much nutrition left ...

However, because these wheats have not yet had heading results, the nutrients of the stalks have not yet converged into the fruit kernels. In this way, the unsuccessful plant itself is still very rich in nutrients and suitable for use as feed. Therefore, Albert only ordered the harvesting of 5,000 acres of wheat stalks on Manhattan Island, all of which were stored as a feed reserve for new sheep. Even part of the wheat stalks have been silaged as high-grade feed.

In addition, after large-scale development, the cultivated land on Manhattan Island has reached 10,000 acres from the previous 5,000 acres, almost reaching the extreme. You know, the total area of ​​Manhattan Island is more than 14,000 acres. In addition to the 10,000 acres of cultivated land that was reclaimed, the rest are all necessary facilities such as castles, roads, ditches, and trade markets. After all, it is impossible to use all the land as cultivated land.

Da Vinci, with a steam engine and screw pump, came to Manhattan Island to test the pumping ability of the steam engine ...

Originally, Da Vinci planned to test the steam engine's ability to pump water in spring tillage after spring next year. But Albert was not willing to fail to grow wheat, so he encouraged Da Vinci to grow wheat after the autumn harvest period ended. After all, if 10,000 acres of wheat produce millions of pounds of wheat, the value is worth more than 20 million pounds of rye.

Da Vinci didn't think it mattered. Anyway, he was here to test the irrigation capacity of the steam engine. It had no effect if it was earlier or later.

To this end, Albert stopped using the water truck to pump water, and instead let the steam engine drive the spiral pump to pump water. The steam engines and screw water pumps brought by Da Vinci lived up to expectations. In order to exceed the efficiency of the waterwheel, they soon irrigated 10,000 acres of arable land on the island.

In fact, because the speed of the steam engine is only tens of revolutions per minute, the pumping speed is not fast, at least, it is much slower than the speed of the single-cylinder diesel engine driven water pump that is popular in later generations.

To this end, Da Vinci let the craftsmen create a screw pump with a relatively large diameter to win by quantity. In addition, he also used the transmission system of large and small gears to let the large gear of the steam engine drive the small gear of the spiral pump. In this way, the speed of the pump can be faster.

After these changes, the pumping efficiency of the steam engine pumping system really improved a lot. However, it is still not as efficient as the pumping efficiency of the later-generation single-cylinder diesel engine. However, it is better than waterwheel. Because the speed of the waterwheel is slower, and it needs to change according to the speed of the water flow. The rotation of the steam engine is relatively stable, so the efficiency is much stronger than the waterwheel. Of course, it is more coal-consuming ...

Albert's fall cultivation on Manhattan Island aroused great interest from the Delaware. The Drava were very envious of the colonists' use of arable land. Because they are still in the backward agricultural era of slash and burn, using human resources to dig the land.

To this end, several female chiefs of the Drava people jointly found Albert, hoping to buy cattle and plows from Albert, and obtain iron farm tools such as shovel and iron sickle.

For this, Albert thought about it and agreed. However, it is not free. He promised to provide cattle and iron farming tools for several Delaware tribes in the future, but he wanted land-the fertile land at the mouth of the Hudson River near Manhattan Island. In addition, he also wanted to hire a group of Indian archers as an auxiliary force against the army of Iroquois. After all, the old hunters from the Black Forest are far worse than those familiar with the North American jungle. With these people acting as leading parties, the action will be smoother and safer ...

After discussion, the several Drava tribes finally agreed to send Albert the western half of the Long Island area across the east of Manhattan Island from the Hudson River Estuary in order to improve the level of agriculture. Albert needs to provide them with 500 cows and corresponding ploughs. Of course, you need to provide other kinds of iron farm tools ...

Albert estimated that the western half of Long Island is estimated to be one or two thousand square kilometers, which is dozens of times larger than Manhattan Island. To this end, he agreed without hesitation. Anyway, the thing of farming cattle is really nothing for the Grand Duchy of Beihai. Every year, the Grand Duchy of the North Sea imports tens of thousands of cattle from the Crimean Khanate. Among them, a lot of cattle were killed directly to eat meat ... Therefore, to send the Delaware 500 cattle, there is no pressure. Of course, Albert also remembered Marlin ’s request to never send Indian horses to avoid the fierce Indians from bringing out fierce cavalry ...

When the winter wheat planting was completed, Albert immediately organized thousands of farmers, arrived in the western part of Long Island across the river, and began deforestation in preparation for transforming it into farmland. The 5,000 sheep were also taken to the Long Island area for grazing. After all, this place is much larger than Manhattan Island. There are many wild grasses in the forest, enough for those sheep to eat ...

In addition, the Long Island area is also relatively independent of the North American continent, separated from the land by the East River, and has a low chance of being invaded by the Indians. There is an Indian fishing village in the eastern part of Long Island, but that is an ally of the Drava.

Therefore, Albert believes that agriculture and animal husbandry can be vigorously developed in the western region of Long Island. At least, 100,000 acres of arable land can be reclaimed in the western region of Long Island. Of course, this requires sufficient labor. Therefore, Albert intends to ask Garland, who is in charge of Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland, to ask more than 10,000 immigrants from England ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ to reclaim the west of Long Island. Moreover, the tens of thousands of immigrants on Cape Breton Island actually have a slightly overpopulated population. Because of the low temperature there, only rye and sheep can be grown, which is a waste of human resources.

If some people are immigrated to develop Long Island, it is estimated that the effect will be much better. After all, New York can grow not only rye, but also wheat and soybeans, and many vegetables. But on Cape Breton Island, there are very few types of vegetables, and only a few relatively hardy varieties can be grown.

In addition, Albert believes that the Upper New York Bay (UpperBay) on the west of Long Island is a very good freshwater port, which can be made into an excellent freshwater port. In addition, a shipbuilding base can also be built here. Because the harbor conditions here are really good. This is an inland harbor that has a relatively narrow but actually wide exit to the sea. Because it is the estuary of the Hudson River, the upper part of the upper New York Bay is basically a freshwater area. The southern part of the estuary has a certain amount of salt, but because of the impact of the river, the salt content is also very limited. In the era of wooden boats, the upper half of the New York Bay area is an absolutely excellent port area. The terrain is wide, the water is deep, and it is still a freshwater port, and it is not affected by the sea storm ...

In fact, Albert's vision is accurate. Because, the Upper New York Bay is the famous New York Port in later generations, and the largest trading port in the United States in later generations. And the main dock area of ​​New York Harbor is located in the Hudson Estuary area on the west end of Long Island ...