Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

After the land was contracted out, spring arrived.

After the ice began to thaw, Wang An sent Huang Zhong back to Weizigou to hire the able-bodied men there, a large group of about forty or fifty.

The reason for hiring so many people is mainly to dig out the tree stumps, bushes, and tree knots that remain buried in the soil after the trees have been cut down, and to clean up stones and other debris in the field.

"Tree root" is the local name; in fact, tree root is just a tree root.

The main problem was that at that time, there were no excavators or machines specifically designed for digging up tree stumps in small places like county towns.

Bulldozers can uproot tree stumps, smaller trees, and shrubs, but they are powerless against large, buried tree stumps, mainly because the tracked vehicles don't have enough horsepower.

Therefore, these preliminary tasks for land reclamation had to be done by hiring people.

There's no way around it. It's a full 300 acres of land. If Wang Dazhu and his wife, along with Shen Wei and the others, were to work on it, they would never finish, even if they worked themselves to death.

After clearing these things away, Wang An asked Wang Dazhu to go to the county's agricultural machinery company and buy a large plow specifically for clearing land and turning over soil. Using a tracked vehicle, they turned over all 300 mu of newly cleared wasteland.

Of course, the main purpose of turning the soil is, on the one hand, to make the native soil loose and easier to cultivate.

On the other hand, it involves digging out all the haphazardly buried tree roots and other plant roots that are still buried in the soil.

Otherwise, given the local climate, rainfall, and plant growth conditions, these buried tree roots and tendrils will continue to grow into tree hairs and other plants, which will affect the growth of crops in the future.

When it was time to plant, Wang An asked Wu Dong and the others to use their connections to buy five small seed plows from the Beidahuang Farm. They could be driven by four-wheeled vehicles and hand tractors. Two were for his own family, one for Mu Xueli's family, one for Wang Li's family, and one for Feng Chengmin's family.

This type of seeder can simultaneously sow seeds and spread fertilizer, and it also drags an egg roller behind the seeding box.

When planting, you only need to put the seeds and fertilizer into their respective boxes, and then one person can cultivate the land by driving a four-wheeled vehicle or a hand tractor, which can save a lot of manpower and resources.

Wang An's actions synchronized his family's and his relatives' farming with that of the farm, instantly ushering them into a semi-mechanized era.

That's right, it's semi-mechanized. This method of farming using four-wheeled vehicles or hand tractors is usually defined as semi-mechanized, but what exactly constitutes full mechanization is unknown.

However, Wang Anjia's farming method was at least 15 years more advanced than that of most farmers at that time.

Because in rural areas, even in the late 90s, farmers in most regions still relied on mules, horses, and oxen to pull plows, manually sow seeds, manually spread fertilizer, manually smear manure, and finally, people led mules, horses, and donkeys to pull egg rollers to cultivate the land.

However, at that time, the small seeding plow that could both sow seeds and spread fertilizer was not yet perfect, because the outlets for seeds and fertilizers often got stuck, or too many seeds and fertilizers would fall off.

Fortunately, Wang An had spent half his previous life working as a fenceman, doing all sorts of physically and mentally demanding jobs, so he was extremely familiar with agricultural machinery with very simple structures, such as seed plows and rice transplanters.

Making improvements to these things is naturally a very simple matter.

So, under Wang An's guidance, Wang Dazhu, Wang Daliang, Feng Chengmin, Mu Hua, and others improved the seed plow. In the end, these relatives who bought hand tractors and seed plows all used four-wheeled vehicles or hand tractors for farming.

Of course, the same applies to transplanting rice seedlings; Wang Anjia still uses a rice transplanter to transplant the seedlings.

Anyway, because of the semi-mechanization, Wang Anjia's progress in both planting and transplanting rice seedlings is quite fast.

Everyone knows that Wang An's family planted a lot of rice last year, and this year all their land is planted with rice.

So this spring, a group of relatives and many villagers also started planting rice in large quantities.

After all, at that time, rice was both delicious and valuable, and thanks to the legendary Yuan Longping, the yield was quite high, making it much more economical than growing crops like corn and sorghum.

Although there are many benefits to growing rice, Wang Anjia has planted 290 mu of corn, 5 mu of soybeans, and 5 mu of various miscellaneous grains and beans on the 300 mu of new wasteland he contracted this year.

The 5 mu of soybeans are mainly used for oil extraction, and the miscellaneous grains and beans are mainly for our own consumption. As for the corn, its main purpose is to feed the family's livestock.

Unfortunately, while rice offers the best value for money and is the most profitable crop, it is well-known that growing rice requires far more time and effort than other crops.

Building dams, raising seedlings, transplanting rice seedlings, spreading fertilizer, injecting water, releasing water, and so on, all involve more work than planting other crops.

Therefore, when it comes to farming, it's not always about planting what's valuable, but rather about considering the actual circumstances.

Spring passed quickly and summer followed, and during the summer, a group of relatives began to set up greenhouses.

The reason for covering it at this time is that autumn in Heilongjiang Province is relatively short. Although it is still autumn according to the solar terms and seasons, it has already started to freeze in Heilongjiang Province.

Besides, we're all farmers, and we're busy with the autumn harvest. Who has time to build greenhouses?

And so, before the autumn harvest, a group of relatives and Wang Anjia built greenhouses according to their previous plan and planted vegetables with a long growth cycle inside.

Vegetables like cucumbers, persimmons, peppers, and celery are now grown in large greenhouses, unlike last year when several kinds of vegetables had to be grown in one greenhouse, and the selection of vegetables had to be carefully planned to ensure timely sales.

There's no way around it; with so many greenhouses, vegetable farming can be this extravagant.

Once winter arrives and the mountains are snowbound, many of the fresh vegetables in the greenhouses will be ready to be sold.

It has to be said that the timing is absolutely perfect, because this ensures that all kinds of vegetables from the greenhouses can be continuously sold throughout the winter, with absolutely no downtime.

The key is that the land inside the greenhouse can also be fully utilized to generate a continuous stream of profits.

(End of this chapter)