Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 658 The Wind Blows the Wheat Waves ([-])

At the end of January, the Duck Lake Basin has entered the grain harvest season.In New Corniche Township, the Anderson family is preparing to harvest the grain in the field.Since his family has only one agricultural household registration, he only has 1 mu of arable land, of which 30 mu is planted with wheat, and the other 20 mu of fallow land is planted with alfalfa—several stubbles have been cut this year, and the 10 heads of his family were bought. The lean cows are raised to be fat and strong.

Since there was only one horse-drawn wheat harvester purchased by the villagers with funds raised in the village, and priority was given to harvesting the land of the martyrs’ families, Anderson saw that the weather was not very good these two days, so he discussed with his wife and hired a famous labor broker. Three Italian mikes introduced by my friend Sorrentino hired them for three days with a daily salary of [-] cents plus room and board.During these three days, the Andersons will work with the three wheaters to harvest the wheat by themselves first with a sickle, and then threshing, raising the grain and exposing to the sun.

The devil knows when the harvester will come to his home to harvest. The gloomy weather is not very good. In order to save his crops from the possible bad weather, Anderson decided to hire a few black workers to do it himself. get up.Anyway, it only costs one yuan and eighty cents to hire three people for three days, and at most it will cost a little money to go to the village to buy some beef and whale meat. The total cost will not exceed three yuan.But if bad weather comes and the wheat in the field is not harvested in time, it is hard to say how much the loss will be.Now is the time to race against time, and we can't lose the big because of small things.

The situation of Anderson's family is not an exception. In fact, on the east coast today, the number of agricultural machinery is still quite lacking.Let's start with various products currently launched by Xihu County Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, such as: horse-drawn wheat harvester, horse-drawn corn harvester, horse-drawn soybean harvester, thresher, grain lifter, etc.Among them, there is more than one version of thresher and grain lifter, because the power system is different, there is a hand version, a version with animal power (horse or donkey), and of course a steam version.

These agricultural machines are like miracles to the mud-legged people in the village, whether they come from Livonia or Daming.They are not fools, of course they can see the benefits of this kind of machinery, but there is no doubt that these agricultural machinery are quite expensive.Taking the horse-drawn wheat harvester as an example, one set costs more than 100 yuan-because a considerable part of this type of harvester needs to be hand-made-the price is simply too high for farmers who are still in debt today. Just like astronomical figures.

The harvester in Anderson’s village was purchased by crowdfunding. Among them, two veterans who had been on the battlefield contributed the most. They raised a total of more than 30 yuan. , and then the village finance subsidized ten yuan, and the Ministry of Agriculture's "Agricultural Machinery Going to the Countryside Special Action" subsidized 50 yuan. Only then did their village get this professional horse-drawn wheat harvester produced by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, some spare parts, and lubricating oil (seal Oil).

To be honest, working with agricultural machinery and working without agricultural machinery are definitely two concepts. One horse-drawn wheat harvester is worth dozens of strong laborers.And as long as there is no problem with the machine and the horse is replaced in time, it can continue working without sleep, and the efficiency is much higher than that of people who still have to rest.However, the high price is the most important factor preventing the spread of this popular machinery to the countryside. After all, although the Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory is a state-owned enterprise, it still has to achieve a balance of payments.After the production cost of the horse-drawn wheat harvester is shared with the previous research and development costs, the cost is almost 80 yuan, plus a batch of spare parts, lubricating oil and transportation costs, it is not uncommon for a machine to cost more than 10 yuan. However, the actual profit margin of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory is actually only about [-]%, which is not high.

New Konis Township is the first large-scale planting of wheat this year, and a lot of the land in it is also the first year’s raw land. In addition, the local farmers have also owed a large amount of housing mortgage loans, mortgage loans for female slaves, and their future. It is a small calculation to save money by buying more fields, so the villagers who are not very optimistic about this year's harvest are really unwilling and unable to spend huge sums of money to buy those expensive agricultural machinery.

In fact, let alone them, even in the mature agricultural areas in the south, villagers have a lot of concerns about raising funds to purchase agricultural machinery, mainly because of the contradictions in use rights and property rights.In addition, a family owns a maximum of 100 mu of arable land ([-] mu per person), one third of which is still in a fallow state. They really cannot buy a separate one for their own [-] mu of wheat field, which costs [-] mu. Multivariate horse-drawn wheat harvester.That is to say, the state's upper limit on individual land ownership limits their impulse to buy agricultural machinery.

At present, in the mature agricultural areas such as the southern capital and the northern Xihu County, these relatively wealthy farmers are three or five friends or trustworthy people, and they jointly purchase a horse-drawn wheat harvester, a horse-drawn soybean harvester, and a horse-drawn alfalfa. Harvesters and other professional harvesting machinery.In addition, if the economic situation is still a little more, they may also buy some threshers, grain lifters and other machinery-of course, hand-cranked or animal-powered versions.

As for the high-end version of steam, the high price is definitely beyond the reach of ordinary people. Nowadays, this kind of mighty and domineering equipment can only be seen in some state-run large farms in Dongfang County, the capital.This kind of equipment is generally fixed. Farm workers transport the harvested wheat (already bundled) to the steam thresher for threshing, and then blow the collected wheat grains to the blower to blow off the awns and shriveled grains. , grass seeds, dust and other sundries, and then the remaining relatively pure wheat grains are taken to the drying yard for drying - even if this process is assisted by machines, it is extremely labor-intensive.Those threshed wheat straws are piled up as fuel for cooking rice and water. Of course, the burned plant ash has to be sprinkled on the fields to maintain soil fertility.

As for the obstacles to purchasing agricultural machinery, in addition to the high price of the machinery itself, the scarcity of domestic horses on the east coast is also a very important reason.Compared with the price of 10 yuan for a cow (low-cost war bonus cattle), the price of a horse of hundreds of yuan is enough to make most people daunting.And this price is still for those poor horses, if it is a good horse, the price may be even more expensive.What's more, raising this horse is not worry-free at all, and the cost is also very high, especially during the busy farming season, the bean feed must be fed every day, otherwise it will lose weight due to hard work.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the number of agricultural machinery in rural areas is growing slowly today, and the cost is too high.Nowadays, in many rural areas, some wounded and retired soldiers who have just returned from the battlefield have purchased some agricultural machinery through joint ventures, and then lease them to villagers in the same village or even neighboring villages who are in urgent need of machinery.The rental price is quite reasonable, and the farmers are full of praise for using it. On the one hand, these wounded and retired soldiers have improved their status in the village, and on the other hand, they have also found a way to make money for themselves.

After all, many of them were injured on the battlefield, and their health was not as good as before. In addition, they were all from simple peasant backgrounds. It is suggested to go back to the hometown to do some work related to agriculture.For example, the purchase of agricultural machinery and then leasing it out is an example. This is definitely a long-term and stable income now that the grain sown area on the east coast is expanding every year.

Three days later, the Anderson family, who was drying wheat grains on the drying ground in front of their own door, finally received good news: tomorrow the harvester will drive into his family's field for harvesting.After getting the news, Anderson immediately sent his wife to the village to buy some bacon and beer and came back. Tonight he had to treat the driver of the harvester (a veteran) to dinner so that he could work carefully, don't Let a lot of wheat be lost in the field - that's all loss.In addition, because the harvester harvests food for everyone for free, not only the driver’s rations must be prepared during work, but even the rations of the two draft horses (for rotation)—alfafa and soybeans—have to be prepared. Everyone agrees on the rules.

And the results of the grain harvest in the previous few days were almost counted.After the grain of the first few households harvested was dried and put into storage, the yield per mu was weighed at about 70-90 catties.The wheat field in Xinkenis Township was opened up in early 46. After the reclamation was completed, everyone planted some beans, vegetables, corn, sweet potatoes and other miscellaneous grains in the field, and in the autumn after the harvest, under the unified call of the township government, all wheat was planted— —Wheat seeds were transported in via Highway No. 2 from Hekou Township, Zhenhai County.Therefore, strictly speaking, these wheat fields in New Konis Township are actually half-grown in the first year, and it is not surprising that the yield is so bleak.

You must know that the farmers in this township are either from the North Zhili of Ming Dynasty, or from the Principality of Prussia in Livonia, and there are even a few immigrants from England, which has advanced agricultural technology, and the Ministry of Agriculture has specially assigned a certain quota to this place. Andalusian black cattle are sold (farmland has more organic fertilizers), so if it is cultivated land, it should not be done like this.The harvest of cultivated land should be about [-] to [-] catties per mu, which is mostly the case in Xihu County.Not only is the land there more fertile than here, but the number of cattle is also larger than here, and the irrigation system is far superior to that of New Konis Township, which is mostly dry land, so the grain yield per unit area is fully twice that of here.

Anderson compared the situation of those farmers' families. Yes, everyone took care of the fields more diligently, but his family had eight meat and dairy cows. Those people were poor people who had just arrived, and it was enough to have one or two cows. It is already a fluke, how can the amount of manure be compared with my own?He estimates that the yield per unit area of ​​the 20 mu of wheat field in his family should be more than 100 catties, and if he is lucky, it may even reach about 110 catties.

15 jins of seeds per acre of land (the land is not fertile enough, you can’t spread too many seeds, otherwise the number of shriveled grains will increase greatly, and it will be more likely to be competed by weeds during the growth process. This actually shows that it is very unreliable to plant widely and harvest poor ), the harvest is 100-110 catties, and the seed-to-harvest ratio is 1:7, which is already quite low.I believe that the longer the three-crop rotation system is implemented, the seed-to-harvest ratio will continue to rise.

(End of this chapter)