Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 221 Agricultural Issues

The production of potassium nitrate makes both military and agricultural departments cheer.

The military industry department is pleased that they finally have the hope of being able to produce their own gunpowder.To be honest, between potassium nitrate and sulfur, sulfur is easy to import, but potassium nitrate is difficult to get.The main reason is that the output of nitrate in Europe is limited, and almost all of this limited output is used to make gunpowder.Now that potassium nitrate is available, the military industry department only needs to send a ship to Chile or Peru to pull a ship of sulfur back—there are a lot of these things, such as natural sulfur on the craters in Chile and the Colon Islands (volcanic islands) in Peru. It is enough to pull hundreds of tons at a time to make gunpowder, which is enough for the navy and army on the east coast for a long time.

In addition to the joy of the military industry department, the agricultural department is also extremely happy.There is no other reason, it is because potassium nitrate is also a rare compound fertilizer (contains nitrogen and potassium at the same time), which has an inestimable effect on plant growth.Therefore, when the Northern Gunpowder Factory produced nitrate for the first time, Minister of Agriculture Jin Kela was the only high-level Central Committee official present—he was here to see his future fertilizer.

On January 1639, 1, when the technicians and workers of the nitrate workshop put those pure white crystals in front of everyone, Kinkola was the first to run up and take a closer look.

"Minister Jin, 300 kilograms of pure potassium nitrate can be harvested per mu of nitrate." Zhang Zecheng, a former middle school chemistry teacher, said triumphantly. The output per mu will also be improved. After conversion, the annual output of these ten mu of nitrate fields is expected to reach 80-90 tons, and if you are lucky, it can reach hundreds of tons. This is the power of science."

Behind him are two immigrant craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty who stand respectfully.At this time, these two former craftsmen who were not in good condition were carrying a money bag in their hands, and there was [-] yuan in cash in the money bag.In fact, to be honest, the method they originally proposed to make nitrate soil was very primitive and crude. If they really wanted to collect nitrate soil according to their method, the efficiency would be frighteningly low.Fortunately, some chemistry teachers in the crossing crowd knew the principle of the production of nitrate and the function of nitric acid bacteria in the soil, so they made a major improvement in their method, which greatly increased the production and speed of potassium nitrate.

"It's less than 120 tons a year?" Jin Kela was a little anxious when he heard that, "How can this be done?! [-] tons of potassium nitrate can produce [-] tons of black powder. This output can support the navy, army and fort artillery. The normal training is enough, right? This is not going to work! Increase production! I’m still waiting to get some potassium nitrate back to use as fertilizer.”

After hearing Jin Kela's words, several persons in charge of the chemical department looked at each other in blank dismay, and finally Zhang Zecheng came forward and asked, "Minister Jin, when the nitric soil was first produced, there was no mention of using it as fertilizer? Our factory is Those who produce gunpowder do not produce fertilizer."

"Of course I know." Jin Kela waved his hand impatiently and said, "You don't know how much firewood and rice are if you are not in charge. Now the total area of ​​cultivated land in China has just reached [-] mu, of which Dongfang County has [-] mu of wheat , [-] mu of potatoes and [-] mu of soybeans; [-] mu of rice in Ping'an County; In the event of natural disasters, about [-] tons of various grains will be harvested, nearly half of which will be potatoes. But do you calculate how much grain we consume every year?"

"How much?" Zhang Zecheng asked a little foolishly.

"After thousands of new people have arrived, the total population of our country has historically exceeded 3." Jin Kela waved his right hand and said in an agitated voice: "3 people, assuming that each person eats two catties of grain per day Forget it, 30 tons of grain will be consumed a day, and more than 1 tons a year, so how big is the food gap?"

"Damn it! Haven't we eliminated the threat of hunger for several years? I remember exporting food to earn foreign exchange two years ago." Zhang Zecheng was a little silly, "How long has it been, and we don't have enough food? "

Hearing the food shortage calculated by Jin Kela, Song Qiang, one of the chemical industry directors who had been standing aside without speaking, also asked in a questioning tone: "Minister Jin, why did the food shortage become so large all of a sudden?" ? Isn’t Hezhongbao and the local still using grain to make wine? If there is not enough grain, how can people be allowed to use grain to make wine?”

Jin Kela's face turned red, and he felt a little embarrassed by cheating the two chemical "otakus".In fact, due to the large amount of fish and shrimp produced in the east coast area, plus the cheap beef imported from La Plata from time to time, as well as the large amount of beef cattle, live pigs, goats, and poultry raised by the Animal Husbandry Bureau and farmers themselves, the people on the east coast enjoy practicality every day. Instead of consuming two catties of grain, what you actually eat may be just a little more than one catty.

But after all these years of being a high-ranking official in the ministry, Jin Kela quickly adjusted his emotions, and said with a straight face: "You guys really don't listen to things outside the window. You only know how to do research all day long. You don't Look, in the past two or three months, how much population has suddenly increased in the country? More than 2000 French immigrants, more than 500 pirates, more than 1000 immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, more than 800 French children, and hundreds of indigenous Indians who have just been brought into the country , This is a full 5000 more people! 5000 people accounted for 20% of the original 5000 people! There are [-] more mouths at once. It became a low-yielding area for growing wheat, which further reduced food production."

"Besides, you also said that wine making is popular in China now." Speaking of this, Jin Kela really gritted his teeth. He himself doesn't drink alcohol, so he especially hates those who use precious grains to make wine, " Those people are also hateful, good food is ruined by them! Especially Hezhong Fort, relying on the height of the mountains and the emperor's distance, desperately brews wine, and the good sorghum rice turns into alcohol! It's hard to say that the demand for this spirit is strong. It is understandable, but those who make wine purely to satisfy their appetites cannot be forgiven! I must find a way to suppress this unhealthy trend!"

The two chemical nerds automatically filtered some of Jin Kela's words, and then they met to make a hard calculation. They felt that according to Jin Kela's situation, there is really not enough food for next year. No wonder he wants to use chemical fertilizers.

"Minister Jin, I understand what you mean." Zhang Zecheng nodded, and then asked, "About how much chemical fertilizer does your agricultural department need every year? Let me explain first, there is only potassium nitrate here, nothing else."

"I don't want too much. Give me 60 kilograms of potassium nitrate per mu of wheat field, supplemented with some struvite, and I can increase the current yield of wheat per mu to more than 400 catties." Jin Kelayomo said after estimating.

But his number obviously frightened the heads of the two chemistry groups in front of him.

“每亩60公斤？”张泽成喃喃说道：“光东方县就有整整一万亩小麦田，这就需要600吨。再加上其他那些杂七杂八的田，合着我们一年要生产1000多吨硝酸钾才够你们挥霍的啊。1000多吨啊，这得要多少硝田才够满足你们的胃口啊？1000亩？还是2000亩？我勒个去！”

"No way." Jin Kela spread his hands and said helplessly: "We don't have many people engaged in agricultural production now. Even if I want to cultivate more land, I can't find enough manpower. Who is the economy of our country? It’s so deformed, everything is for industrial development, look at how far our primary industry has been squeezed? So, I came to you today, don’t think that I am here to trouble you, it is indeed The situation is very serious now. There is only so much arable land, and there are so many people to feed, it is absolutely impossible to find a way to increase the grain yield.”

"We can understand you, but the amount of potassium nitrate you need is too large, and we can't make so much." Zhang Zecheng explained, "Not to mention anything else, even if we open up a 900-mu nitrate field, But where did you find so many human and animal manure and animal carcasses? Without these things, it would be difficult to make nitrate. Moreover, if my guess is correct, agriculture also requires a large amount of human and animal manure to be applied to the fields as a base fertilizer, right? This is another big piece. Now there are less than 500 sheep, more than 3 cows, [-] military horses, and more than [-] pigs in the mainland of China. Oh, yes, plus [-] people, this daily How much feces are produced in it? How much is consumed?"

"What you said is also reasonable, but let's start with a scale of [-] mu of nitrate fields. I will report this matter to the executive committee after I go back, and try to get more manpower and funds to be transferred to you from above. Just build a large pig farm here, which can produce meat and make manure, which is really killing two birds with one stone. In this way, you can expand the scale of the nitrate field as soon as possible and produce more potassium nitrate." Jin Cora thought for a while and said, "Also, after a winter, the public toilets in cities and towns and family toilets in rural areas should be cleaned up. Later, I will organize people to dig out the excrement in these places and collect them all. , part of it is used for fertilizing the farmland, and part of it is transported to your nitrate field for use. Rub it, it’s all good stuff! We must quickly organize people to dig it out!”

When Zhang Zecheng and Song Qiang saw that Jin Kela had a soft spot for the feces in the public toilets, they felt a chill, which was too much.Others said that the people in the chemical industry department were perverts, but seeing how obsessed Chairman Jin was with feces, Zhang and Song immediately knelt down.

On January 1, just a week after Jin Kela left the gunpowder factory, his superiors sent more than 10 Khoisan people to Jushu Village, Ping'an Township.They were accompanied by two ships of foul-smelling excrement and a team of construction workers. The excrement was transported to the nitrate fields, and the construction team was here to build the nitrate fields and pig farms.

Kinkola really fulfilled his promise, and it seems that he is determined to adjust the fertilizer.Zhang Zecheng shook his head: "Do whatever you like, anyway, the scale of the nitrate field is getting bigger, and my complexion is also bright, so let's just do it."

(End of this chapter)