Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1076

It was very windy and cold on the sea, Chen Ke huddled, stood on the creaking wooden trestle, and looked around blankly. This is the Qingfeng Port of the Salmon Islands!It's just that it's really cold today.

Qingfeng Port is not very big, or very small. Only a few hundred settlers, a hundred goats, and some wooden fortresses constitute the entire settlement.Perhaps the only distinctive buildings on the island are a few Taoist temples. A Taoist priest and several Taoist boys almost unified the beliefs of hundreds of people on the island.

There is a botanical garden invested by a northern seed company on the island, because a large number of wild potato resources have been found here (the islands in southern Chile are likely to be the original origin of potatoes on this planet, rich in genes), and the Ministry of Agriculture is a treasure. It was decided to cultivate potato seeds here, which is of great significance in agricultural production.But anyone knows that breeding is not something that can be done overnight. It often requires several generations and a lot of capital investment, and often requires a certain amount of luck. That is, the modern potato resource carried), even if it has degraded really badly after many years of planting, it still has a trace of descendant blood. A little "advanced", which brings more abundant genetic resources to breeding.

There are many islands of different sizes around Qingfeng Port. The Southern Railway Company selected some of the smaller ones, and then stocked some North American bison on them (some were purchased from outsiders, and some were free-range from the small islands around Tierra del Fuego. selected from the descendants of bison).This large animal is extremely adaptable, and these small islands are also rich in resources. As long as the number of bison does not seriously exceed the standard, there is absolutely no worry about food shortage.

In fact, this kind of behavior of introducing species to the New World is not without criticism, and Menghu is one of them.He cited the example of the large thistles brought by the Spaniards flooding La Plata, and at the same time cited the serious consequences of the introduction of hares to the grasslands, trying to prevent the Ministry of Agriculture or the Southern Railway Company from "disastering" Fireland. Island or Salmon Islands.It's a pity that few people are willing to listen to his words. The Ministry of Agriculture has been stocking bison, Norwegian musk ox, Sakhalin moose and reindeer on some small islands next to Tierra del Fuego for many years. They are planning to gradually spread it to other islands, and Qingfeng Port is one of them.Anyway, there are countless broken small islands here in the Salmon Islands. The terrain on the island is basically hills or mountains, with dense forests and green grass. Anyway, it is not suitable for farming, but it is suitable for grazing, and it is a high-quality pasture. It should not be a big problem for animal residents from the cold regions of the northern hemisphere to migrate to these small islands to reproduce.

Of course, the agricultural achievements of these broken islands may not be very great (mostly grow potatoes or pastures), but considering the excellent water quality and relatively nutrient-rich seas around the Salmon Islands, then perhaps the development of offshore cage farming ( The "green gold" of Xinhuaxia sisal will usher in the spring of export again) is a good business - at present, the South Railway Company is engaged in some experimental breeding programs near here, and there are so many small islands in the archipelago for cages It provides too many ideal anchorage points, which is very important for farming.

As for the fish to be farmed, I have basically thought about it at present, mainly salmon, and it is mainly farmed in two ways.The first is to artificially breed salmon larvae in inland rivers near the shore. After these fish grow to a certain extent, they will swim into the sea to feed and live, but after they mature, they will migrate to the area where they were born to lay eggs. Lots of catches.However, the loss of larvae in this process is often quite astonishing. They may be preyed on by trout or water birds when they are young, and there will be a lot of mortality during the migration process. It would be good if [-] to [-]% of them can successfully return to the place of birth, but The advantage is that the cost is low and there is no need for management in the middle, so it is worth a try.

The second type (cage culture) has higher technical content, and the cost is not cheap, that is, it is more convenient to put salmon larvae in the seawater surrounded by cages for feeding and breeding, and then harvest them after they grow up, but there are also problems. Quite a lot—one is that it needs to feed frequently, which is usually small fish or something, which is troublesome; the second problem is that this kind of intensive breeding will quickly deplete the nutrients in the seawater, and at the same time make the water quality worse, and it is easy to Infectious diseases spread to each other and affected the harvest. The salmon farming industry in Chile was plagued by such things in later generations. The quality of seawater in the Jones Islands deteriorated rapidly, and the number of diseases among salmon was also increasing day by day. This made investment in farming business The multinational fisheries companies are having a hard time.

The two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. The Southern Railway Company decided to take a two-pronged approach and allocate special funds to invest in the salmon farming industry. It is hoped that in the future (maybe a few years later, maybe ten years later) it will be able to break through various technical barriers, It really makes the large-scale industrialization of salmon farming and benefits the people on the east coast.

The ship only stayed in Qingfeng Port for one day, and Chen Ke left two people to continue the investigation, while he took the large team on board and continued to sail to the next stop. On September 9, the ship stopped briefly at Montessori Port and Blue Whale Port, and distributed a batch of living supplies to them to maintain the normal operation of these two settlements developed as places of exile.

There are still only a few hundred people in these two settlements. Among them, there are more in Blue Whale Port, about 800 people, and there are fewer in Montessori Port, about [-] people. Captives, etc., are not good people anyway—but since they are in such a bitter cold place, they can't tolerate any more troublesome things, just work honestly, otherwise, the state violence machine naturally doesn't mind killing them sink into the sea.

Blue Whale Port is now dominated by whaling and fishing. The Southern Railway Company parks two whaling ships here all the year round, and there are also some messy fishing ships to catch horse mackerel, trout, Chile There are mainly hake, South American pintail hake, and multi-scale hake, but horse mackerel is undoubtedly the most produced, reaching more than 3000 tons, which is the main source of protein for the [-] residents of the South Railway subsidiary.

"The long coastline in the south of Chile and the densely packed broken islands are a huge asset if you make good use of them. It's a pity that many people in the ministry say that this is a worthless and bitter cold place. Humph, these small islands have abundant rainfall , The forest is dense. Is it difficult to put some cattle and sheep on the hillside? Not to mention cattle and sheep, even deer can be free-range. The island is a natural closed pasture. Animals can’t escape even if they want to. Just come and catch them regularly. Not to mention the extremely rich fishery resources here." Sitting in the warm hotel in Blue Whale Harbor, Chen Ke lit a high-end whale oil candle, and was about to start writing the outline of the work report, but before writing, he subconsciously complained Some people in the Ministry said: "I heard that the executive committee has agreed to the request of the Southern Railway Company to place the Salmon Islands as a county. It seems that the name is Qingfeng County. This is the first county-level county in the jurisdiction of the Southern Railway subsidiary. Administrative unit. After the establishment of Qingfeng County, the development of the entire Salmon Islands can be put on the agenda, but I don’t know how strong the Southern Railway Company is. At that time, the population of the entire Qingfeng County will only be 2000 people, which is not even as good as Chiloe in the north. The population of one settlement on the island is really discouraging."

The news Chen Ke heard was not groundless.In fact, after the Executive Committee instructed the Government Affairs Council and the Southern Railway Company to clearly divide their respective territories, Liu Ang, the president of the Southern Railway Company, immediately submitted the application for the establishment of counties in the Salmon Islands and the southern half of Chiloe Island, and was approved by the Executive Committee. The approval and authorization of the Council (authorizes the Southern Railway Company to manage and collect taxes in these two counties).In this application, the entire Salmon Islands were placed in the soon-to-be-established Qingfeng County, which temporarily governs three townships, Qingfeng Township, Mengshi Township, and Blue Whale Township, with a total population of just over [-] residents. It is estimated to rank first in the country in terms of sea area and ocean area, and the population density is undoubtedly the lowest in the country.

In addition, several settlements secretly established by the Southern Railway Company in the southern half of Chiloe Island will also be divided into a county in the future, which will also be managed by the Southern Railway Company (theoretically until 1678, but the executive The committee has the right to take back the governing power of these two counties in advance, but it needs to pay premium compensation to the Southern Railway).This county is named Guanhai County, and it has jurisdiction over four townships: Guanhai Town, Mishan Township, Wanghai Township, and Qiongqi Township. After a new batch of enrichment immigrants, the total population of the county has exceeded 9000, which is quite amazing—— You must know that even in the mainland, [-] people are enough to set up a county, although most of them are lower counties with poor population and economy.

However, Guanhai County is currently in the early stages of creation, and the Southern Railway Company obviously does not have as strong financial resources as the central government, so the speed of construction is definitely not satisfactory. At present, most of the food in the county needs to be imported from Peru, which already shows the problem In addition, the South Railway Company pessimistically predicts that in the next three years, most of the county's food will still be self-sufficient, and it will still need to continue to import from Peru.

The geographical scope of Guanhai County is also not small, basically covering the southern half of Chiloe Island (including the adjacent Guafu Island), and the northern half is in principle bounded by the Chakao Lake-Qongqi Township line.In the future, most of this county will use wheat, potato and corn planting as its agricultural foundation, and logging, fishing, and tanning as its basic industry.With such a foundation, if the Southern Railway Company manages well, it should be able to recover the cost.

As for the northern half of Chiloe Island, the Southern Railway Company has also decided to set up a county, but this matter may have to be delayed, because it is not easy for the Southern Railway Company to engage in immigration now, and the Southern Railway Company The Pacific immigration route is quite difficult, and the shipwreck rate is extremely high (so far, four ships have sunk unfortunately, and thousands of immigrants from the Ming Dynasty have died in the belly of the fish), and the immigration department has been clamoring to stop this route.In this way, there may be no immigrants coming next year, and the development of the northern part of Chiloe Island will inevitably be delayed. As for when it will be restored, I am afraid it will depend on the development of the war in the Blackwater area.

(End of this chapter)