Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 659 The Wind Blows the Wheat Waves ([-])

"According to the data of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, the number of various types of agricultural machinery currently in use across the country is as follows." Outside Dingxi Fort in the North Yazihu ​​area, the secretary of Deputy Minister of Agriculture Zheng Bin held a stack of documents in his hand, and was talking about the data in a serious manner : "72 horse-drawn wheat harvesters, 49 horse-drawn alfalfa harvesters, 35 horse-drawn soybean harvesters, 18 horse-drawn corn harvesters, 145 threshers, 60 grain lifters, 11 seeders, Among them, 95% of the machinery is animal power, 4% is manual, and only about 1% is steam power machinery."

"Steam-powered machinery is so difficult, and how to miniaturize the steam engine is really one of the obstacles in our agricultural modernization." Zheng Bin sighed and said: "The steam tractors trial-produced by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory have completely failed and have no practical value at all. Not only we People in the agricultural system look down on it, and farmers and users also look down on it."

The steam-powered machinery mentioned by Zheng Bin mainly refers to steam tractors.Due to the lack of smelting of non-ferrous metals, the material of the steam power system of the tractor, neither the boiler nor the cylinder is very ideal, so it is impossible to miniaturize and lighten the steam engine, so the steam tractors made of existing materials are not only of extremely poor quality Reliable, but also stupid, and has no practical significance at all.It can be said that the so-called steam tractor that the Ministry of Agriculture spent a lot of money on is currently a complete failure. The two prototypes that have been produced have been locked in the warehouse, and they should be used as technical reserves for future similar machinery.

In fact, it is no wonder that the Ministry of Agriculture spent huge sums of money to come up with such a failure.In fact, they don't know the tasteless image of steam tractors in history. This kind of power machinery invented in the middle and late 19th century was a complete failure from the beginning.Bad quality, poor reliability, cumbersome, complicated operation and other negative comments are its labels, this kind of machine did not succeed until the end of the 19th century on some of the drier farms in North America, but it failed to gain favor in most of North America ——Because of its great weight, it can only work on dry and hard land; and in Europe, this kind of power machine is a complete failure. Europeans refuse to use this kind of machine because of its bulkiness and inflexibility. Many people think that It's impractical stuff, so it's not even used as much in Europe as in sparsely populated North America.

Therefore, it can be said that in the early days of tractors, the era of steam tractors, this equipment was an utter failure and had almost no practical value.By the time the tractor was successful, it was already the era of the internal combustion engine.The invention of the internal combustion engine saved the tractor. It quickly reduced the weight of the tractor, so the machine became more flexible, lighter and easier to use than before. Therefore, it opened up the market in Europe and America in one fell swoop, and then gradually became popular all over the world.

The Ministry of Agriculture on the East Coast had indeed produced a prototype of a steam tractor before, but this kind of equipment could not be used in the prairie on the East Coast and the Duck Lake basin with abundant rainfall.Whenever tractors pass by, cultivated land is often destroyed and the loss is relatively large.In addition, there is a lack of roads for heavy-duty steam tractors in the countryside. Ordinary dirt roads simply cannot withstand this kind of big guy walking a few times before being reimbursed.Moreover, when in use, farmers have to constantly use large carts to transport a large amount of coal and fresh water to the field, and then laboriously transport the coal and water to the steam tractor for use, which consumes a lot of manpower, material and energy. It is too big, and the actual use cost is extremely high. Almost everyone who has used it has denied it. Therefore, this kind of heavy agricultural machinery was quickly put into the cold palace, just like it was in Europe and the United States in history. Much of the region received the same cold reception.

However, the steam tractor received a cold reception, but another steam plow, which was more primitive than the steam tractor, was unexpectedly successful.The principle of this kind of equipment is very simple, that is, the iron plow is pulled by the rope on the winch to plow in the field, and the position of the rope can be constantly changed by the anchored pulley, so that the plow can be plowed for a long time without moving the steam engine.This greatly avoids the disadvantage of the steam engine being inconvenient to move on soft land, and greatly enhances the practicability of the steam rope-pulled plow.

According to statistics from the East Coast Department of Agriculture, the plowing efficiency of this kind of steam plow is three to five times that of a horse. If it is deep plowing, the efficiency is even higher, and the cost is almost the same as that of a horse, and may even be less. , which undoubtedly attracted the attention of many people.At present, several sets of this kind of equipment are used in large-scale state-owned enterprises in Dingyuan Township, Dongfang County, the capital. After using them, the feedback is very good, because this kind of equipment does not need wheels to drive in the field, and the equipment itself will not crush and damage the soil. The efficiency is still very high, so it has been favored by everyone almost from its first appearance.

Perhaps the only disadvantage of this kind of equipment is that it is so expensive that small farmers and small households simply cannot afford it. At present, only state-owned farms with deep pockets can buy it.However, with the in-depth promotion of the "agricultural machinery going to the countryside" activity of the Ministry of Agriculture, there may be a considerable number of agricultural machinery leasing companies to purchase this kind of equipment in the near future.

Historically, this kind of equipment was invented in the middle and late 18th century, and it was immediately popularized in Britain and Germany, two countries that used a large number of agricultural machinery, especially in Germany. In 1882, there were only 836 steam plows. By 1895 There were already 1696 units in 1907, and the number had soared to 2995 units by 1902; at the same time, there were about a few hundred units in France, and Austrian survey data in 383 showed that [-] farms used steam plows.Correspondingly, the use of steam tractors in these countries is extremely small, and other countries, except some in England, have almost completely forgotten this kind of machinery.

"Based on the current usage of the steam plow, it is an extremely cost-effective invention in the Ministry." Hearing his boss lament the difficulties in the production and development of steam-powered machinery, Zheng Bin's secretary couldn't help but mention the steam plow. Hearing him say: "This machine has a wide range of applicability. A few days ago I heard that the Ministry of Communications and the State Railway Administration are also very interested in this new machine, because they found that this equipment is very effective in digging gutters and cleaning ground debris. They are also very "talented" when it comes to things. The work that used to require a lot of labor can now be completed with only a short time to start the machine. Therefore, they decided to buy some of this equipment and use it in urban construction, railway/highway construction, and it must be able to It saves their workload a lot.”

"Hehe." Zheng Bin smiled slightly when he heard the words, and said: "At least our Ministry of Agriculture has finally exported equipment to our brother departments. It's not easy. Forget it, let's not talk about it, let's move on and go to the dock to take a boat to the other side Take a look at the northern botanical garden."

Zheng Bin came to the north with his secretary, entourage and others today to inspect the agricultural harvest here.They just came from Ping'an County. Although it is an important industrial town, there are still some farmlands under cultivation. Due to the local fertile land and good irrigation conditions, even if the three-crop rotation system is not strictly implemented, the area's wheat acres The yield still reached about 100 jins, and the situation is relatively gratifying.

After leaving Ping'an County, Zheng Bin and the others stopped by Dingxi Fort to wander around. This year, the executive committee has planned several towns here.In addition to planning a large number of villages in the Northern Botanical Garden (San Jerónimo) to form a settlement, they also planned a large number of villages in the towns of General Camara and Taquari along the Taquari River in Brazil in later generations, as well as the town of Dos in the south. A settlement was set up in each of the three towns of Doslatos on the banks of the Ratos River, and they were named Pingxi Fort, Taquari Fort and Rat Fort (Ratos free translation).

These three new settlements will each have two thousand new immigrants, and the agricultural conditions here are acceptable—or even good—and irrigation and water are very convenient.After the people on the east coast have cleaned up these three places and took root, these new settlements will be connected with the original Dingxi Fort and the Northern Botanical Garden, and the prototype of Dingxi County will come out in the future.After Dingxi County can be self-sufficient and has a certain industrial and agricultural foundation, the people on the east bank can use this as a springboard to continue to expand to the Yakui River, Taquari River, and Rat River Basin, and completely control this large piece of fertile land In the hands of the East Coast people.

Zheng Bin and others quickly crossed the river and came to the Northern Botanical Garden.In the past few years, the Ministry of Agriculture has invested about 5000 yuan here almost every month to maintain its daily scientific research and breeding work.In addition to simulated cultivation and selection of a large number of plant seeds collected from other places in various artificial environments in the garden, the most outstanding achievement of the botanical garden this year is naturally the cultivation of high-yielding 48 wheat seeds and high-sugar 48 beet seeds .

Among them, the high-yield 48 seeds are a hybrid variety obtained by the garden after more than ten years of research and development from the former Capital Agricultural Technology Station.The seed has been cultivated continuously for three years in the small-environment experimental field in the botanical garden (simulated by the three-crop rotation system), with an average yield of more than 180 catties per mu, which is about 15% higher than that of traditional wheat seeds, and has almost caused a sensation in the entire agriculture. system.Perhaps the only disadvantage of this kind of seed is that the seed degrades very quickly, and it needs to be cultivated and selected every year before being sold to farmers. Therefore, it is not yet time for large-scale promotion. The first thing the Ministry of Agriculture needs to do is to expand various County and township seed production bases.

According to estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture this year based on feedback, the country's total wheat output is probably over 4.7 tons, with an average yield of about 104 jin per mu.If this figure can be increased by 15%, based on the price of wheat sold to the Dutch last year, the economic benefit is almost 28 yuan, which is definitely worth the money spent by the Ministry of Agriculture to prepare.

As for the other sugar beet seed named Gaotang 48, it is not as eye-catching as Gaoyi 48 wheat seed.Since the sugar content of this seed is still extremely limited - although already more than ten times higher than that of European sugar beet seeds - continued breeding work is required.We must know that it took Europeans more than 100 years to intermittently select and cultivate sugar beet seeds with high sugar content (that is to say, the sugar content of beet roots in this era is not high), so if you want to reach To the extent that sugar beets are promoted on a large scale in China, this kind of seed still needs to be further cultivated.

(End of this chapter)