Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 719 Going to Changtong Prefecture

Therefore, many wheat fields only have a few green leaves, and the stalks are thin, which shows that irrigation and fertilizer are not enough.

The irrigation problem is easy to solve. We can ask the Anbang soldiers to come and help. However, there is no military camp in Changtong Prefecture, so the feces cannot be replaced.

In addition, the sedge on the wasteland has just emerged and cannot be composted, so the compost bags in the fields are sparse and the piles are very small, which cannot meet the subsequent fertilization problems at all.

Hua Lei and Rong Jin walked and stopped for a few days, and finally arrived at the Changtong Prefecture Government Office. The tall and thin Zhao Zhizhou was already waiting at the door of the government office.

Seeing Hua Lei and Rong Jin, he hurried over to greet them and invited Hua Lei and the others into the government office. Because it was already afternoon, Hua Lei decided to wait until the next day to check Pingwang County, where Zhao Zhizhou said he had found a place similar to Hsinchu.

Sitting down in the side hall of the government office, Hua Lei first listened to Zhao Zhizhou's account of the recent planting situation in Changtong Prefecture. When he heard that the proportion of wheat planting in Changtong Prefecture this year was about 70%, basically completing the requirements of crop rotation, Hua Lei expressed satisfaction.

Therefore, Hualei gave instructions on the subsequent management of the wheat, irrigation, topdressing, etc. As for fertilizer, they could exchange ideas with the governor of Changlanzhou next door to see if they could provide emergency relief and solve some of the fertilizer problems.

At that time, Hualei, Changlan Prefecture, where the government office was located, was the first prefecture to grow sedge, although a batch of them were exchanged with military camps.

However, there is still a surplus of sedge, so, combined with livestock manure and fallen leaves, Hualei has piled up a lot of fertilizer bags in Changlan Prefecture. It is adjacent to Changtong Prefecture, so it is also convenient to use some of it.

On the other hand, Changtong Prefecture was asked to actively dredge river channels and ditches, and while dredging the rivers, the river silt was actively used for composting, or directly added water to irrigate the wheat ridges.

As Hualei came along, she found that some ditches in Changtong Prefecture had been dredged, but many rivers had not been cleaned due to lack of manpower.

During this period, Anbang soldiers have been helping to dig ponds and wells in several other states to help fight drought. Now, the excavation of ponds and wells in several states has been basically completed.

There is almost enough manpower available to help Changtong Prefecture dredge rivers and canals, and dig ponds and wells according to local conditions to meet irrigation needs.

Dredging the river can also solve part of the fertilizer problem. After the sedge grass can be harvested, the subsequent fertilizer should be able to keep up. If it really doesn't work, burn some rice straw to save the situation.

As she spoke, Hua Lei wrote a note and asked the guards to deliver it to Bao Qianhu in Changwu Prefecture, asking him to dispatch some people to Changtong Prefecture to help.

Seeing that Hua Lei kept her word and immediately dispatched people to help, Zhao Zhizhou was very happy and nodded repeatedly in response to Hua Lei's instructions.

After arranging the follow-up management of the wheat, Hualei checked the relevant tax account books of Changtong Prefecture and the actual tax grain situation in the warehouse. Seeing that the account books were consistent with the actual situation, Hualei was relieved.

After resting in the government office for a night, Hualei and her friends had a simple breakfast the next morning and followed Zhao Zhizhou on horseback to Pingwang County under Changtong Prefecture. This was where the place similar to Hsinchu that Zhao Zhizhou mentioned was found.

After riding on the official road for half an hour, they walked along a dirt road along a small mound for a quarter of an hour, and when they arrived in front of the small mound, General Zhao dismounted in front.

From a distance, there was a large area of ​​sparse bamboo poles, with purple pole bodies, sections, and green tips, just as Zhao Zhizhou said in his letter, only as tall as an adult. Hualei got off the horse and took a closer look. It should be a variety of purple sugarcane.

It's just wild, and is relatively short, about the same height as a flower bud, and the sugarcane nodes are arranged very closely.

It is very unfriendly to people with bad teeth. However, it is very good if used for seed preservation and planting.

In order to confirm whether it was sugarcane, Hua Lei brought several local chronicles from other places that recorded sugarcane before coming to Changtong Prefecture.

I opened the book and carefully compared it with the sugarcane growing in the fields. I found that the appearance was exactly the same as the purple sugarcane in the regional annals, except that the stalks were thinner.

It was the end of October, the season when sugar cane was ripe, so Hualei asked the guards to cut down some more sugar cane and chop them into pieces.

I used my fingers to pick up a little bit of the overflowing juice, twisted it, and it felt a little sticky. I licked it with my lips and it tasted slightly sweet.

Maybe it was not very sweet due to the lack of fertilizer, but it was indeed the taste of sugarcane. After asking everyone around to verify it, I finally confirmed that it was purple sugarcane.

Hualei smiled and stood up straight. This piece of sugarcane field is wasteland, about seven or eight acres of land. Although the sugarcane grows sparsely, the sugarcane nodes are arranged closely. If you save seeds, you can plant a lot of wasteland.

Therefore, Zhao Zhizhou was told to wait a few days until the sugarcane was fully mature before harvesting it for seeds. The entire head of the sugarcane should be lifted up, and the sugarcane head should not be left in the field, otherwise it would affect the planting of the next crop.

Use a knife to remove the roots at the head of the sugarcane, cut off a small part of the head, and keep a section of the tail with leaves, so that the sugarcane with both the head and tail will not lose moisture and can be stored for a long time. It can be planted in March or April next year.

According to Hualei's idea, he definitely hopes to plant it in the official fields with fertile soil so that the sugarcane can grow better and be conducive to the subsequent promotion and planting in the entire state capital.

However, the Great Sheng Dynasty had restrictions on the varieties of crops that could be planted in the fields. Sugarcane was not a crop, so it could not be planted in fertile fields and could only be planted in wasteland.

Therefore, we can only apply more fertilizer to supplement it. Hualei was worried that Zhao Zhizhou had no planting experience, so she wrote down the storage and planting methods of sugarcane on a piece of paper and gave it to Zhao Zhizhou.

In her previous life, Hualei was a southerner and had seen others grow sugarcane.

Generally, sugarcane seeds that are to be kept for planting the following year are those with thicker stems and shorter nodes. The sugarcane heads are not cut off, and the leaves are not peeled. Instead, they are piled together and covered with straw to prevent them from drying out.

However, now, there are only these wild-growing sugarcanes, and there is no choice, so all the sugarcanes in the wasteland must be preserved for seeds.

In March or April of the following spring, when you dig out the sugarcane seeds and peel off the leaves, you can clearly see that on each section of the sugarcane there is a "sugarcane eye" where new buds can grow.

Use a hatchet to chop it into small pieces, each of which has several sections of "sugar cane eyes", which are sugarcane seeds. Of course, if you have a choice, it is best to use the sugarcane tips.