jdhmnovel Chapter 306 Busy Spring Farming
Chapter 306 Busy Spring Farming
As for the farms of their two families, Gu Wenxuan mobilized her father and several of her cousins to take action separately and follow up on the spring farming matters with her.
Considering that new crops are always difficult to grow well, Gu Wenxuan entrusted the planting of common crops here to Gu Yongming and others for supervision, while she personally followed up on the planting of cotton and rice.
According to Bai Jingzhou's research and inference, in Xingzhou, rice needs to be sown and raised after Qingming and before Grain Rain (early April to late April), transplanted after Lixia and before Grain in Ear (early May to early June), and harvested after Mid-Autumn Festival (between September and November).
Gu Wenxuan didn't understand all this. Fortunately, they didn't decide to grow rice on a whim. On two of their farms, some of the fertile land near the water source had been converted into paddy fields by Bai Jingzhou and his men after the autumn harvest last year.
With the ready-made paddy fields, Gu Wenxuan only needed to watch the farmers follow the planting manual provided by Bai Jingzhou, which made the task much easier for her.
It is worth mentioning that Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou do not plan to plant too much rice. They just want to plant a moderate amount and save it for improving the food for themselves and their families in the future.
A lot of people are planting cotton this year. Bai Jingzhou went to the provincial capital, and Gu Wenxuan was too impatient to answer everyone's questions all the time, so she simply selected some elderly farmers who had fully mastered the theoretical knowledge and practical experience of cotton planting, and asked them to specialize in guiding the villagers of Baijia Village, Jiajia Village, and relatives of the Gu and Bai families living in other villages to plant cotton.
After the cotton and rice were planted, Gu Wenxuan went to check on the planting of other crops and found that her father and others were doing very well, so she simply became a hands-off manager.
However, Gu Wenxuan still followed up the whole process of developing new varieties of watermelon, cherry, yellow peach, strawberry, mulberry, etc.
The watermelon seeds were purchased in Beijing with the help of the Mu Hanzhi brothers, and the others were brought back from Haizhou last year.
Not long after the autumn harvest last year, she and Bai Jingzhou bought two new farms with small hills. This year they plan to plant cherries, yellow peaches, mulberry trees, etc. on the two small hills.
Mulberry tree is a very useful tree. Mulberries are edible and mulberry leaves can be used to raise silkworms. The grown silkworms can be used to make cocoons, reel silk and weave silk, thus forming a healthy industrial chain.
Of course, the mulberry trees they are currently using for silkworm breeding are not the ones they brought back from Haizhou, but rather ready-made mature mulberry trees they found in the surrounding mountains.
As for the ones they newly planted, they still need to wait patiently for a few years for them to grow slowly.
The strawberry seeds and seedlings that Gu Wenxuan carefully preserved were not many, and there was no need to open up a separate area for them, so Gu Wenxuan planted them in her own vegetable garden, Bai Jingzhou's garden, the Fang family, and Bai Jingshan's garden.
The Fang family and Bai Jingshan's family planted less, and if they didn't really want to plant, Gu Wenxuan could have planted all the few strawberry seeds and seedlings in her own and Bai Jingzhou's vegetable gardens.
It is worth mentioning that this year Gu Wenxuan and her family also raised more crabs in the ponds on the farm and next to the Gu family. In other words, the ponds under their name now not only grow lotus roots, but also raise fish, shrimps and crabs.
It was only after Bai Jingzhou told Gu Wenxuan that fish, shrimps and crabs could be raised together, but factors such as water quality and ecological habits needed to be considered, and problems such as disease and predation needed to be avoided.
According to Bai Jingzhou, in the process of mixed breeding of fish, shrimp and crabs, they need to pay attention to the following points:
1. Water quality adjustment: When integrating different species of aquatic products, the water quality must be adjusted to meet the growth and development requirements of fish, shrimp and crabs.
2. Creation of ecological environment: Different aquatic products have different ecological needs. Reasonable creation of basic environment, setting of bottom soil and stones can not only provide ecological environment, but also provide hiding and foraging places for them, which is conducive to the harmonious coexistence of different aquatic products.
3. Reasonable feeding: Feeding should be done in a fixed amount and at regular times, and regular and good feeding habits should be developed to avoid overfeeding. This can prevent water pollution and abnormal growth of fish, shrimp and crabs.
4. Prevent diseases and predation: Fish, shrimp and crabs may have problems such as viral infection and predation during their growth and development. It is necessary to regularly investigate the growth of fish, shrimp and crabs, and take targeted measures in a timely manner to avoid fierce competition and hunting among fish, shrimp and crabs.
Theoretical knowledge is rather vague when it comes to specific application. When it comes to practical application, Gu Wenxuan is unable to follow these four precautions in actual practice.
Fortunately, Bai Jingzhou had no intention of making things difficult for her and the others. He told her how many lotus roots to plant in which pond, how many fish, shrimps and crabs to raise, what operations to do and when, and what to pay attention to at each stage during the subsequent planting and breeding of lotus roots, fish, shrimps and crabs, what possible abnormalities might occur, and what responses should be made... Bai Jingzhou wrote down everything in detail, and Gu Wenxuan and the others only had to read out the instructions and follow them one by one.
Gu Wenxuan herself didn't think there was anything wrong with this, but the women from the Gu and Bai families admired and felt sorry for her because she went to the fields every day and worked for several days before coming back.
Ning Cuizhi even took the initiative to find Gu Wenxuan and persuaded her to leave all the dirty work to other people, "Our two families are living a better life now, you don't have to work so hard."
Her naughty son has some free time now, and everything is fine as long as he has a handful of books. But poor girl Wenxuan, it has only been such a short time, but she has lost no less than ten pounds visibly.
And this girl's skin was changing from light wheat color to dark wheat color. If it continued like this, when the day came when she and Bai Jingzhou got married, she would probably appear in front of everyone as a little black girl again.
Ning Cuizhi kept complaining about her son, completely forgetting that Bai Jingzhou returned to Qingshan County in mid-February.
He came back with Bai Jingshan, Gu Wenhai and Gu Wenche to take part in the county examination. The examination was held in the county government office. The county government office had prepared a temporary examination hall in advance. Only a small part of the examination hall was in the house, and the other large part was in the corridor and the yard.
The temperature in Qingshan County was still very low in mid-February. For the sake of their health, Bai Jingzhou and his friends wore clothes when they went to take the exam. All of them were made of soft, warm and thick fabrics made of cotton and rabbit hair that Gu Wenxuan had specially asked the textile workshop to weave.
Even if the clothes made of this fabric are not matched with cotton or fur inside, they only need to wear two or three layers to keep them warm, without being afraid of the cold wind and low temperature in late winter and early spring.