Lord: Taken away from inheritance at the beginning

Chapter 45 45. Grain production in Shanlin Town
  With the administrative officer, Luo Ning no longer has to manage some things in the territory personally.

But this does not mean that he completely gives up and becomes an aristocratic gentleman who only wants to enjoy himself (although this is his ultimate goal).

On the contrary, he wants to build the territory into his own utopia, and he has to deal with many things.

Therefore, Luo Ning made a request to Wilson for "weekly reports and monthly summaries", which could not only deepen his grasp of territorial government affairs, but also understand Wilson's level.

After these two busy days, the personnel arrangements for Shanlimbao have basically been completed.

You just need to make appropriate adjustments later according to the situation.

After the lunch break, Ronin, escorted by McCann, David and Tom, began to patrol the territory on horseback.

As a lord, he was full of enthusiasm for this inspection and looked forward to every production and operation area in the territory.

This kind of feeling is like falling in love online. I have imagined so many beautiful things in my mind and envisioned many pictures. Only when it really happens can I have the most intuitive understanding.

The town center of Shanlin Town is very small, and the surrounding houses only extend for four to five hundred meters. They are mainly composed of free people's houses and various shops.

Although the street is short, there should be a lot of people coming and going here every day, otherwise the street would not be so dirty.

Luo Ning did not stay on this street for long, and turned eastward under the leadership of Tom.

If the street is compared to an urban area, then after you turn out, you will find the suburbs.

Luo Ning could see many low houses built of mud, thatch, or wood. They were simple and unstable, and could be blown down by a strong wind.

Compared to living in the city, the only advantage here may be that the air is fresher, right?
  "Sir, the wheat fields in the town are mainly distributed in the east and southeast. The northeast area has orchards and vegetable fields, the northwest area is mainly grassland, suitable for grazing, and the southwest area is mainly flax land."

Although Tom's family is a tailor, when he was a guard and professional knight in Hillwood Town, he was often responsible for patrolling agricultural areas, so he knew more about this area.

"As we follow this dirt road to the east, we reach the barley and wheat farms."

Luo Ning raised his head and looked forward. He could indeed see a little yellow, which seemed to be wheat swaying.

"Do you know how big the wheat field is?"

Tom considered it for a moment, "Sir, I have heard people talk about it, but the specific number cannot be determined."

Luo Ning looked at the opponent. The surrendered professional knight's actions in the past two days were either followed by David or McCann. There was nothing unusual.

For him, as long as he really wants to surrender to himself and work for himself, he can treat everyone equally.

As he had said to Tom before, as long as he performed well within the three-month inspection period, Ronin agreed to restore Tom's salary from 20 copper coins per day to the same 30 copper coins per day as David.

"It's okay, tell me what you know."

Tom then replied: "I have heard many farmers talk about nearly 30,000 acres of cultivated land in Shanlin Town. Although half of the area is fallow every year, there are still more than 9,000 acres of barley fields cultivated. There are also nearly 7,000 acres of wheat fields.”

Luo Ning had heard the word fallow, which meant that if the land was planted this year, it would not be planted next year. It would take a year off to gain some fertility.

However, even if they were left fallow, the wheat fields planted in Shanlin Town each year totaled more than 16,000 acres, which completely exceeded Luo Ning's expectations.

You must know that Shanlin Town was once a wasteland, and everything needed to be reclaimed.

Without the leadership of a lord, it is not easy for people to cultivate so much farmland with just this.

Luo Ning frowned slightly, thinking of the cooperation between Thain and Prince.

With such a large area of ​​cultivated land, a large amount of the food produced every year can be digested in Shanlin Town and sold abroad.

I don’t know how much of it ended up going to the swamp town in Thane Territory.

Luo Ning became interested and asked, "Do you know how many kilograms of barley and wheat are produced per unit of land?"

Tom replied: "Sir, I don't know the exact number, but I heard it from farmers during the busy farming period. They said that the yield of barley per mu is about 90 jins, and that of wheat is a little higher. The yield per mu is over 105 jins, about It weighs a pound."

"This……"

After hearing these two numbers, Luo Ning was stunned for a moment.

He had already expected that crop yields in this world would be low. After all, the cultivation level here was not comparable to that of flower growers.

But he never expected that the barley yield per mu here would be as low as 90 kilograms!
  "Why is it so low?" He couldn't believe it.

Tom subconsciously believed that the baron was from a privileged background and had never been exposed to agriculture, so he did not know the output of the operation, so he explained:

"Actually, this yield is pretty good, sir. It is said that the barley yield in Swamp Town in Thain Territory is less than 50 kilograms per acre."

Fifty catties?
  Luo Ning was completely shocked by this number.

Excluding the seeds, the barley harvest in Thainland is estimated to be only 1:2. I'm afraid it can't even feed itself, right?
  To be honest, why grow it with this little yield?
  Luo Ning suddenly understood why Thain wanted to include Shanlin Town.

Baron Leisen may have regarded Shanlin Town as his family's granary, specializing in the production of grain.

During the conversation, several people quickly arrived at the wheat field, but the closer they got, the tighter Luo Ning's brows became. Counting the time, today is already the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the imperial calendar, and in half a month it will be time to harvest the barley.

In Luo Ning's impression, the wheat fields should be neat and golden, but the land in front of him was not like that.

First of all, the wheat here is not neat and tidy. Their straws are high and low, very inconsistent;

Secondly, Luo Ning discovered that some wheat had begun to mature, while some wheat was still a bit underheated. The same wheat field was sown at the same time, but the maturity time was actually different;
  Finally, what puzzled Luo Ning was that there were many weeds in the wheat field, and it looked like no one had ever taken care of it.

Luo Ning just sat on the horse and looked at the wheat field carefully. He found that there was not a single farmer here.

"Tom, where's the farmer?"

He finally couldn't help but ask: "Why don't you see a farmer here?"

Tom replied: "Perhaps they are reclaiming wasteland, my lord?"

This answer once again exceeded Luo Ning's expectations. He left the wheat fields here alone and devoted himself to reclaiming the wasteland. How could he do this?

"Is this arranged by Prince?"

Tom nodded, "At the beginning of every year, Prince will issue a task to each family to reclaim wasteland, which must be completed within the year. I also reclaimed wasteland before I became a professional knight."

"Alright alright."

Luo Ning really didn't understand the reason for only pursuing the reclamation of wasteland without taking care of the food planted.

He dismounted, came to the edge of the wheat field, reached out and pulled out a well-growing weed.

"You said you have reclaimed wasteland, but how much do you know about farming?"

He handed the weed to Tom and asked, "Why don't you weed it?"

"That's too much trouble."

Tom took the weeds and replied matter-of-factly: "Weeds do not affect the growth of wheat, and as you can see, the wheat grows densely. If we walk into the wheat field casually, we will damage them."

Indeed, the growth of wheat is not neat. To be precise, it is disorderly. It seems that the seeds are scattered on the ground casually and allowed to grow on their own.

In this case, it may be difficult to fertilize and water.

"How do you sow seeds?" Luo Ning couldn't help but ask.

Tom began to make gestures with his hands: "Sir, we usually burn the grass on the wasteland first, then turn the ground twice, and then sprinkle the seeds evenly on it."

Seeing that the other party did not continue speaking, Luo Ning couldn't help but ask: "What then?"

"Nope~"

Tom smiled and said: "Then we just wait for the harvest. Then, if we feel that the yield here has dropped, we will leave it fallow for a year or two and graze here. After two years, we will plant food again, and the yield will be magical." The height has increased, this must be a blessing from the Seven Gods!"

Luo Ning suddenly felt that with such an operation, the yield per mu could reach 90 kilograms, which seemed to be very, very good.

Without fertilizing or weeding, just waiting for harvest, this is probably only a little better than slash-and-burn farming.

Why is there such a situation?
  Luo Ning didn't know much about the history of this world. He only knew that records began from the founding of the Orlant Empire.

Although the empire is now destroyed, both the Kingdom of Alduin and the Kingdom of Tricia claim to be the bloodline of the empire and have legal inheritance rights.

Because of this, both kingdoms followed the imperial calendar.

It is now the year 968 of the Imperial Calendar.

In nearly a thousand years, the level of farming is still so low?
  Or is it that the level of farming was once high, but it took hundreds of years of continuous war to reduce the level of agriculture to an almost primitive state?
  Without the help of good agricultural technology, when the lords saw that the grain yield per acre was too low, they might have no choice but to let farmers cultivate more land.

Use the expansion of cultivated land area in exchange for an increase in total food production.

Luo Ning couldn't help but sigh for the farmers here.

This method of farming will inevitably lead to low yields. In order to increase the total amount of food, they can only expand the planting area, which requires them to cultivate more land.

In this cycle, most of their energy is spent on reclamation. Where can they find the time and energy to study how to increase the yield of a piece of land?
  "Agriculture must be optimized to increase food production per acre of land. Only in this way can more people be freed to develop other areas."

"Only with sufficient food can I feed more people."

Agriculture is the foundation. Only when the problem of food and clothing is solved can we talk about development.

"Let's go, let's go to the next place."

Luo Ning patted the dirt in his hands, mounted his horse and walked towards the next area.

(End of this chapter)