Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 710: Finding Raw Materials for Composting

Because of the hot weather, the crops here matured much earlier than those in the capital. Many of the rice in the fields had already formed ears, but unfortunately, the ears were very small.

On the one hand, it should be due to insufficient irrigation and fertilizer, and on the other hand, the variety is also related. Looking at the sparsely growing rice, Hualei sighed helplessly.

When he went to the capital, he could only use the fertilizer produced at his Yuanying Farm himself, and he could only exchange a portion of it for use by other families.

However, even if Hualei opened another breeding farm, the fertilizer produced would be a drop in the bucket. The government office is currently breeding donkeys, but the scale is still not large enough.

The toilets built and the feces collected can now only be used in a small part of the fields. If we want to increase the fertilizer in the fields on a large scale, it is far from enough.

We still need to find a way to increase the fertility of the fields and improve the yield of crops. However, this cannot be done in a hurry and we still need to take a long-term view.

Hualei took out her little notebook and wrote down the matter of fertilizer. In this way, Hualei and Rongjin hurried back while checking the fields in various counties.

Seven or eight days later, Hua Lei and Rong Jin returned to the yamen. After hugging Jinnian and Jinshi, the exhausted Hua Lei fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, she asked Qingxia and Qingqiu to sort out the grain seeds she brought and pick out some to release. Bai Liyun said that when some of the water carts were ready, they would be sent to the government office.

By the way, he brought back the grain seeds, so Hualei was not polite to him. After all, Hualei was not well-staffed at the moment. After dealing with the grain seeds, Hualei went to the official fields where hybrid rice was planted.

Feng Shuangxi was walking around the field. When he saw Hualei coming, he was delighted and took the initiative to greet her and said to her, "Sir, look, this is the rice planted according to the method you mentioned. The ears of rice are indeed longer than ordinary rice."

Hualei nodded, bent down and took a closer look. The ears of this hybrid rice seemed to be longer than those of other ordinary rice.

However, it only grew a little bit, not very noticeable. It was far from the expected flower buds, and even less than the hybrid rice varieties in the previous life.

Moreover, the ears of rice in some rows did not vary much, and the ears of rice on each row were uneven, some long and some short. I wonder if the grains will be fuller by then.

If the grains are really full, then the yield should be higher than that of ordinary rice. However, the estimated increase in yield is limited. However, as long as there is growth, I can promote this method.

By then, pure original grain seeds must also be reserved. After all, our own technology is not up to standard, and hybrid rice seeds are not suitable for seed preservation.

The corn in the cornfield next to it is growing well. Because there are special people to take care of the official field, irrigation and fertilizer are all provided to the official field. In addition, based on the growth of corn seen along the road, Hualei feels that there should be no problem with the corn harvest this year.

After going around other places, Hua Lei finally returned to the government office. There was already a huge pile of documents on the desk. Fortunately, Rong Jin was good at this and had already helped Hua Lei go through them, which reduced Hua Lei's pressure a lot.

In the next few days, Hua Lei worked in the government office. He originally wanted to go to Changliang Prefecture to see the ripening of the lychees and the completion of the Kangjina, but he didn't have time.

It hadn't rained for a long time, and the crops in the fields were in urgent need of irrigation. Fortunately, the Nufang Office in Bailiyun was very helpful, and half a month later, water trucks were sent to Hualei one after another.

Of course, the seeds that Hualei had prepared were transported back to the military camp as soon as possible and were sown in the cleared fields in a hurry.

At the government office, the water truck was sent directly to the excavated well before it was moved down, and installation and debugging began in full swing. After one truck was installed and debugged, it was immediately put into irrigation after successful debugging.

Seeing that Hualei's workshop was indeed short of staff, Bailiyun transferred a group of soldiers from the military camp to help out, thus relieving Hualei's urgent need.

Soon, vertical well water wheels were put into use one after another, allowing timely irrigation of farmland in Changhuai and Changwu, where drought was most severe.

Changhui Prefecture, which had dug ponds, did not suffer from severe drought because of the water storage in the early stage. In other prefectures, although wells and water trucks were not sufficient due to lack of manpower.

Fortunately, there were a few moderate rains, so it was not too bad. The crop yields decreased, but not seriously.

By mid-August, all the rice had been harvested, more than half a month earlier than in the capital, and more than a month earlier than in Mobei.

After the rice harvest began, Hualei also sent some threshers to various state capitals. Some people began to use foot-operated threshers to thresh the rice, which greatly increased the speed.

However, the rice straw stalks and flower buds were all chopped into small pieces and mixed with the collected feces, weeds from other fields, and miscellaneous fallen leaves.

Following the method of Minister Zhang, I started to compost a lot. In Xichang, the temperature is high, and even in winter, there is no need to light a fire to keep warm, so straw compost is very suitable.

After the bags are piled up and sealed, the compost ferments very quickly because of the high temperature. However, Hualei feels that this is still not enough, as there are too many barren fields in Xichang.

So, they directly scattered the seeds of sedge on the ownerless wasteland, watered it, and let it grow freely.

In fact, 荩草 is also a kind of forage grass. However, in Xichang, because there are not many livestock raised, it is basically not planted. It just grows randomly on the roadside and in the mountains.

These seeds of the sedge were brought by Hualei from Shangjing City. When her fleet went out, Hualei would ask the crew to bring back some seeds from various places.

When Hualei came to Xichang, he sorted out the seeds in the warehouse, picked and chose, and brought a lot of seeds. Although, the seeds are likely to become ineffective and fail to germinate after a long time.

However, the flower buds are now a last-ditch effort, because the sedge is extremely resistant to drought and high temperatures, has low requirements for soil, and has extremely strong growth ability and vitality.

As long as there is sedge, it will grow into a large patch without you noticing, and it basically only takes about fifty days from seed to the first harvest.

If the temperature is high, it will be faster. It can be harvested six or seven times a year, and it can be harvested continuously for many years, which can be said to be both high-yield and convenient.

Of course, Hualei is now planting sedge on the wasteland. On the one hand, it can indeed be used as fodder for donkeys and horses. On the other hand, she decided to use it as fertilizer.