Wild North America 1846

Chapter 287 Food is the most important thing
Half sea water, half flame.

After inspecting the northern and southern border provinces, King Richard of the Tang Dynasty returned to Chang’an City (San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco) in a special train in early June, ending the longest inspection tour that lasted for more than half a year.

In the following two months, His Majesty the King did not convene a meeting of military officials, and devoted all his energy to legislation and economic construction, and pushed the parliament to pass the "City Management Law" and "Civil Law Amendment" ", "Property Law", "Kingdom Election Law", "Import and Export Customs Tax Rules" and other important bills have further improved the kingdom's rule of law construction system.

During this period
His Majesty the King has also visited the University of California, Chang'an University, Royal San Francisco Institute of Technology and other institutions of higher learning many times to visit professors and students, and come to the laboratory to discuss cutting-edge technology research and development with researchers.

In the world's leading diesel-powered machinery laboratory, His Majesty the King expressed high appreciation for the R&D personnel, and awarded the leader of the laboratory technology, Professor Antoine Gordon, the title of Baron of the Kingdom (a lifelong baron, not hereditary), and awarded the title of Baron in the suburb of Chang'an. One manor, four concubines.

After successively developing and putting into production 6-horsepower and 12-horsepower diesel engines, the laboratory has successively overcome many material problems in recent years, launched a new 20-horsepower diesel engine, and mass-produced it rapidly.

The 30-horsepower and 55-horsepower diesel engines under development have also made significant progress, and the 80-horsepower and 120-horsepower diesel engines have been approved. It is the top laboratory with the highest level of diesel power machinery technology and a high reputation.

With a wave of his hand, Li Cha doubled the experimental scientific research funding to an astonishing level of 18 yuan per year, which is unmatched in the world's scientific and technological circles.

In addition, His Majesty the King is also very concerned about the Nutritional Chemistry Research Laboratory involving agriculture, and has increased funding for the laboratory's key scientific research projects centered on potash fertilizers, encouraging professors to work harder and contribute to the Kingdom's agricultural production.

The research on agricultural chemical fertilizers belongs to the frontier field in the world today, and has a history of several decades. However, no impressive scientific and technological breakthroughs have been made, and the research level in the world is generally low.

19 century

European scholar Liebig carefully studied the law of plant growth and development, and came to the conclusion that plant growth needs nitrogen, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and other components, pointing out a clear way for the development of the chemical fertilizer industry.

In 1842, the British took the lead in building a phosphate fertilizer factory, mainly applying bone meal-based phosphate fertilizer in the acidic soil in the UK to increase production.

In order to collect a large number of human and animal bones, the British even went to the battlefield of the Battle of Waterloo to mobilize local farmers to dig up the bones of fallen soldiers and use them to make phosphorus bone meal.

The most efficient fertilizer in the world today is guano, and its efficacy has been widely known. Chile and Venezuela are the beneficiaries of the guano trade, with an annual export value of up to 2500 million pounds, becoming a wealthy country in South America that everyone envies.

Due to the acidic soil conditions, the British chose phosphate fertilizer as the main direction of attack. Due to the limited level of the chemical industry, no significant progress has been made in the research in the past 20 years.

The North American agricultural area is dominated by loam soil. Loam soil is a soil with good properties. Its permeability, storage capacity, and potential nutrient content are between sandy soil and clay soil. It is suitable for the growth of various crops and has a good effect of applying potassium fertilizer.

Therefore, in the plant breeding and agricultural laboratories of the Tang Kingdom, potash fertilizers are often used as the main goal of scientific and technological research, which is determined by the innate conditions of the soil and shifted by human will.

Professor Liebig's research results have shown that plants need potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen and calcium fertilizers. Today, due to the limited level of technology, nitrogen fertilizers are basically clueless. Human and animal bones are rich in phosphorus and calcium, so they are used by the British as the main raw materials.

But this thing is very difficult to do, the source of raw materials is very limited, and it is impossible to expand production.

After the discovery of potassium ore, potash fertilizer was quickly promoted to a key scientific research project, striving to make a breakthrough.

In Lee County, New Mexico, the mineral resource surveyors of the Datang Kingdom discovered the world's purest potassium ore, with a purity of more than 80%, which is simply a treasure bestowed by God.

This kind of purity basically reaches the pure quality obtained by calcining methine in a reverberatory furnace or kiln. It is called "pearl gray". The white color is slightly gray, which is a symbol of high quality.

Potassium was widely used in the industrialization of Britain at the end of the 18th century. It was usually extracted from potash pits and used to make fertilizer or prepare wool for yarn production. .

As early as 1767, Canadians obtained potash from wood ash, and Paradise Island also obtained a large amount of potash from burning wasteland. After collection, it was mostly used for local soap making.

In 1857, the Canadian colonies exported 43958 barrels of potash and pearl ash to Britain. In the same year, the Germans began large-scale production of potash from mineral salt, which is an important raw material for the production of potash fertilizers.

However, due to the relatively high cost, it is mostly used in industrial production, and its agricultural application is limited to experimental fields. The input-output ratio is not cost-effective, and it requires a large amount of burning forests to obtain potash, which is not sustainable.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Canadian potash production provided much-needed cash to settlers who cleared woodlands, most easily by burning wood or wood not needed for construction.

Ashes from hardwood trees can be used to make lye, which is used to make soap, and can also be boiled down to produce valuable potash.

Based on experience;

Hardwoods produce ash at a rate of 60-100 bushels per acre during arson, a satisfactory rate of ash acquisition.

In 1790, in rural New York state, cremated ashes could fetch $3.25 to $6.25 an acre, the same price paid for a hired hand to clean them up, and to this day, cremated ashes are a good buy.

The primitive and crude potash industry followed the axes of American lumberjacks across vast forests. Obviously, this method of obtaining is not sustainable, and few people use it today.

The truly modern industrial production of potash fertilizer will have to wait almost 100 years later.

Li Cha obviously can't wait that long. The continuous immigrant boom in the Tang Kingdom has caused considerable pressure on food production, and the food in Paradise Island has to be transported by long sea routes, which is not economical in terms of cost.

Therefore, he had no choice but to open a golden finger, and exchanged a complete set of primary potash factory production process and equipment drawings from the prestige store. He had arranged for the special operations department to follow up the whole process, and implemented the whole process from production equipment research and development to plant construction and production.

Although there are equipment drawings, there is still a long way to go before the production of a complete set of potash fertilizer plant production equipment, and it is necessary to organize elite troops to overcome difficulties.

As for where the production process and equipment drawings come from, it can only be in the name of an agricultural laboratory in the north.

All the designers of the subsidized agricultural laboratory in this place were unfortunately hit by a shipwreck and sank when the passenger ship was going to Chang'an City to accept the royal commendation, and even the bodies were not found.

Although the civil war in North America is raging, King Richard still focuses his work on economic development. The potash fertilizer industry is a project he focuses on, and the whole process is fully funded by the royal family.

The investment fund under the Ministry of Internal Affairs established the Portland Potash Fertilizer Company. While developing the high-purity potassium deposit in Lixian County, it also issued orders to more than a dozen domestic machinery factories to develop special machinery and equipment for tackling key problems.

Portland is the city with the most concentrated heavy industry and machinery industry in the Tang Kingdom. It is close to a large river with abundant water and has excellent shipping conditions. It can import a large amount of sulfur ore, which is the main raw material for the production of potassium sulfate.

It is estimated that in about two years time, relevant chemical equipment such as reactors and pressure vessels will be put in place one after another, and the world's leading potash fertilizer production capacity will be established.

With a large piece of fertile land and potash fertilizers, which solved the bottleneck of food production and supply, Richard is confident that the population of the Datang Kingdom will increase to 6000 million or more by the end of this century, and an unprecedentedly prosperous Datang Empire will be established.

In his opinion
This is more important than the American Civil War. Now he is focusing on economic development, and strives for the total industrial and agricultural output value of the Tang Kingdom in 1858 to exceed that of the North of the United States, which is more than 15 billion US dollars.

If this goal can be achieved, the Datang Kingdom will become the second country in the world to fully industrialize, its national economy will rank fifth in the world, its economy and military will reach a new level, and it will proudly rank among the world's second-rate powers List.

Daming Palace, Qinzheng Palace

Li Cha reviewed some important memorials in the morning, then stretched happily, put down his pen, and said to Dong Jie, the head of the secretariat, who was also serving him with a warm expression, "Dong Aiqing, tomorrow is the weekend, what are your plans? "

"Returning to Your Majesty, the minister is also entertaining some guests in the manor. This weekend reception has been planned long ago, mainly for relatives and friends to walk around."

"Hehe... I walked a lot with me in the first half of the year, and traveled all over the border provinces. I guess you don't like to move anymore. It's good to spend more time with your family on weekends."

"My humble servant dares to ask His Majesty if he plans to travel on the weekend?"

"No, my tigers, bears, and leopards haven't been trained for a while, and I happened to teach these beast pets in my spare time. I heard that old Kahn was bitten by a brown bear at home. That's what happened. Bar?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Dong Jie didn't dare to hide the reason, and told the whole story, he replied with a subtle look on his face; "The two male bears raised by Earl Kahn's family have reached the estrus period, and they are quite emotional. Irritable, it is no longer suitable to play with. Earl Kahn drank some wine that day, and he was so drunk that he wanted to tease the male bear, so he was knocked down with a paw. Fortunately, the guards quickly shot and killed the mad brown bear. Saved a life."

"How's the injury?"

"Five ribs were broken, the left arm was also broken, and there was a serious scratch on the back. By the way, the bridge of the nose was also broken. Now I can only lie on the bed to recuperate."

"Hehehe...you go to express my condolences on my behalf, and get him some old ginseng antlers from the inner library. Alas, people love to play again, so you will suffer a lot!" Li Cha smiled and shook his head, carrying Leaving the Hall of Qinzheng briskly with both hands, he disappeared soon after.

The old ginseng in the inner library are all rare Northeast old mountain ginseng, sika velvet antler, the effect is many times better than the local American ginseng, and there is no comparison between the two.

If you really want to talk about it, the trend of the nobles of the Tang Kingdom raising wild beasts has to be traced back from His Majesty today. On the Mountain of Beasts in the Daming Palace, there are lions, tigers, brown bears, jaguars, wild wolves, lynxes, and bald eagles. Everything is available.

Wanshou Mountain is a homonym for Wanshou Mountain. It is a place that His Majesty likes to visit frequently. The scale of herds is unparalleled in the world. There are more than 270 wild animals of various kinds, and there are more than 110 wild wolves alone. It can be called the largest zoo in the world.

What is good at the top will be effective at the bottom!

(End of this chapter)