amaotonovel Chapter 289: Busy Farming Season
Chapter 289: Busy Farming Season
Xinxin and Nian Nian are one month old, and Yiyi is out of confinement. We still have family dinners even if it is a full month. Here, the hundred days are considered a big event. Babies who have just turned one month old are still small, and suddenly there are more guests coming and going, which will definitely disturb the children.
The main reason is that the rice planted in the village is fully mature, and the whole village has to devote itself to the task of harvesting grain. In the farming era, grain is more important than anything else. In their opinion, there are still variables before the grain is dried and stored in the warehouse. After all, in summer, the weather changes at any time, so everyone takes action to harvest while the weather is good, and the best way is to store every grain!
"Good boy, I will preside over the opening ceremony today and start harvesting the first handful of rice! Then I will go home. Today all the laborers in the village will go to the fields to harvest rice!" Ling Wuxin reported his movements to Yiyi early in the morning.
"Xinxin, Nian Nian, my dears! Stay at home with your mother and wait for your father to finish his work and come home!" Ling Wuxin turned around and gently instructed his two children. Even though Xinxin and Nian Nian responded by saying that they were soundly asleep, he was very satisfied and went out.
The village plans to be the first to harvest the rice in the lower reaches of the Hot Spring Valley. The rice here is the most mature. There are thirty acres of mature rice, and the rice ears are golden and heavy, presenting a pleasing harvest scene.
Hundreds of farmers stood in a row, keeping a certain distance between them. Each of them held a sickle in his hand, waiting for the order from the host to start harvesting the rice.
"Thanks to the land, spring ploughing and summer harvest, keep up the good work, good weather and good harvest! Start the sickle season!" Ling Wuxin raised the sickle high, spoke aloud with auspicious words of gratitude, and announced the start of the sickle season. Then he bent down and cut the first handful of rice, tied the first handful of rice ears with rice stalks, and held them in his arms. He was going to take them home and hang them under the eaves!
After the sickle-opening ceremony, the villagers began to work with joy of a good harvest, swinging sickles to harvest rice. The scene of hundreds of people harvesting rice was very shocking. They all bent down, swung sickles, and stood up again, and a large area of rice fell down, which vividly reflected the picture of strength in numbers!
Behind them, another group of people began to bundle the harvested rice, and they were very skillful in tying the rice into bundles of appropriate sizes.
Another group of people came, carrying sharpened sticks on their shoulders, which were just the right thickness for the palm to hold. They inserted the sticks into the bundles of rice, put them on their shoulders, and then turned around to transport them to the waiting carriage, filling the carriage in a blink of an eye.
Then it was transported to the drying yard by horse-drawn carriages, where people were waiting. They unloaded the rice from the carriages and spread it flat on the drying yard to dry. When the straw was dehydrated and wilted, the animal power could be used to drive the stone roller to roll over the fluffy straw to thresh the grains. In order to thresh the grains cleanly, people were arranged to follow and turn it over, so that all the grains fell to the bottom. The stone roller needed to roll over several rounds to completely thresh the grains. Now the threshed straw could be piled up on the edge of the drying yard by turning and shaking it with a fork to form a haystack. What remained on the drying yard were all grains. All that was needed was to sweep away the remaining straw leaves and then spread them all out to form a thin layer of grain. People needed to turn them over once in a while, which made it easier to dry. At the same time, people also needed to pay attention to the weather conditions. If there were dark clouds overhead, the grains had to be shoveled into piles quickly, and then covered with straw layer by layer to keep out the rain! When the weather cleared, they continued to spread and dry the grains until they were dried and could be stored in the warehouse.
This is the whole process of rice harvesting. Fortunately, there are many people in the village, and each link has a division of labor and cooperation, so everything goes smoothly! Thirty acres of rice fields were harvested in one day. The whole village added dishes for dinner to reward the hardworking people!
The next day, they continued to harvest other plots of land. It took five days to harvest the fields in the village, and then they moved to the farms outside. The sight of such a large group of people harvesting rice in the farms outside was particularly eye-catching, and many people came to inquire.
“Why does your rice mature so early?”
“What kind of early rice are you growing?”
"The grains of millet are so full, but what's the point?"
Questions like these are heard all the time, so the people in Bijianzhuang recommended Xiaojiu's Agricultural Research Institute to them, where they can find answers to all their questions.
"Agricultural Research Institute. I heard that there are people from our village working as researchers there. But their rice doesn't mature so early?" someone raised another question.
"Of course this is because our seedlings were grown early. Rice has a fixed growth cycle. If the seedlings are grown well and early, they can naturally be harvested early. Don't you think it makes sense? This is a problem that can only be solved by the Agricultural Research Institute!" The villagers immediately sent people to the research institute to make some contributions to the seed and seedling industry there!
"Oh, that's true. We've all been sowing and planting according to the experience left by our ancestors, but we didn't expect there would be flexibility." Someone spread his hands and said regretfully.
"Hahaha... Doesn't this encourage research?" Everyone laughed!
The rice in Yiyi, Bailu and Yanan's farm matured later than others, but it was nearly half a month earlier than others. The farm manager had already directed the regular farm workers to harvest. The three sisters were very happy to have a harvest in the first season. They reserved 30% of the rice and stored it in the farm, and asked the manager to bring the rest back, mainly because they wanted to taste the rice produced by their own farm. This kind of harvest joy will double the happiness!
In this regard, Yiyi thinks that they can consider planting some delicious varieties of food on their own farm, which have a good taste, are fragrant and soft, and are best suitable for stewing rice. However, they have to taste them before making a selection. After all, their own farm does not bear the responsibility of providing food for the people, and they only need to take care of themselves. In other words, in the eyes of their men, the output of their farm is dispensable!
After more than half a month, the rice that could be harvested was basically harvested. The granary in the village was full of new grain. The old grain was replaced. A large part was put into the winery for brewing, some was transported to the processing plant, and some was put on the market. Xiaojiu's reserve granary was also partially replaced, replacing last year's spring rice with this year's spring rice. Xiaojiu is now full of confidence, a typical example of having grain in the granary without panic!
The farming work has not yet been completed. The hardworking farmers have been burning the straw, plowing the fields, storing water and composting, waiting for the seedlings to grow to a suitable time for transplanting. During this period, the farmers also harvested the soybeans in the dry land and continued to cultivate the second season. As wheat has a longer growth cycle, it is not yet harvest season.
After harvesting and planting for about two months, the seasonal farming work was finally completed. Except for Yiyi, Bailu, Yanan and the three babies, everyone in the village was tanned. The three sisters once again lamented that the productivity was too low, and it was all done by manual labor. How much better would all the machines be! Even if they lamented, they were powerless with science wastes like them. They could only hope that intelligent humans would figure out and invent on their own.