Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1207 The cotton pickers are buying cotton; this year's situation is quite interesting.

After many years, Li Long was quite moved to enter the cotton field full of blooming flowers again.

In the previous life, the final cotton harvest involved manually picking the cotton at the edge of the field, and then machine harvesting the rest. To ensure that all the cotton was harvested in one go, a flowering agent was applied before harvesting to make all the cotton bolls bloom.

So when you went into the cotton field at that time, you could hardly see any leaves on the cotton stalks; they were all open cotton plants.

But things are different now. When picking by hand, the cotton plants need to be picked a first, second, or even third time. So when the picking begins, the cotton plants may still be green. Although most of the bolls have opened, there will still be a few that haven't opened or haven't fully opened.

Li Long came to the field not to pick cotton, as he didn't want to suffer that hardship. He came to check on things—once the cotton blooms, families with small plots pick it themselves, but families like the Li's, with a hundred acres, can't possibly pick it all, even with the help of others from their hometown.

So Li Jianguo and Li Junfeng drove their van to the temporary labor market before dawn, bringing ten people with them to pick cotton.

The current market price for picking cotton is 40 cents per kilogram. The county cotton and linen company sets the purchase price for cotton at around 1.8 to 2.2 yuan.

The main issue is that the cotton needs to be inspected to remove impurities. Different impurities result in different lint content and therefore different prices.

The lint percentage is actually the proportion of fibers in the whole cotton that can be used as lint for further processing after the cotton is picked.

To test the cotton's lint content, you take a certain amount of cotton, such as one kilogram (usually it's 100 grams or less, but one kilogram is easier to calculate here), and remove the impurities, which are mainly things like leaves and stems stuck on.

After removing these impurities, the seeds inside the cotton are threshed out, and the remaining fiber is called lint. For example, if the remaining lint weighs 350 grams, then the net lint percentage is 35%, which is considered below average. Good cotton can have a net lint percentage of 38 to 42%.

I don't know if cotton and linen companies test garment composition now, but they at least test for impurities. Too many impurities are unacceptable.

Of course, there is a very unstable factor in having these casual laborers pick cotton: either there are too many impurities, or the cotton is not picked cleanly from the field.

There are honest day laborers who pick cotton very cleanly, leaving the field and cotton bags clean.

But there were also some dishonest ones. Their cotton bags were full of leaves. They would grab cotton from the cotton plants and stuff it into their bags without picking up the leaves. They would walk forward without picking all the cotton off the cotton stalks, leaving behind only the tufts of cotton left behind.

The most annoying thing is that once the Zero-type hairs are picked, it's not worth it for the owner to redo them. The hairs are very light, but redoing them is like picking them all over again. If you don't redo them, it's a pity to see that white hairs all over the place.

So, the reason Li Longtou brought Li Junfeng and the others here today was to demonstrate the landlord's authority and to give those odd jobs a good talking-to, so that they would pick the cotton properly.

The majority of migrant workers in northern Xinjiang come from Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Henan provinces. Although many cities along the Tianshan Mountains in northern Xinjiang are predominantly inhabited by people with Henan accents, the majority of migrant workers are not actually from Henan.

Some people become more wicked when picking cotton, the better and more tolerant the host is.

Some even grabbed mud and cotton bolls and stuffed them into cotton bags, since you couldn't possibly empty them all out for inspection.

Li Jianguo was going to plow the fields with his tractor—most of the crops, except for cotton, had already been harvested, and it was time to plow. Chen Qianjin was plowing the fields with his high-powered tractor, and Li Jianguo wanted to do the same, mainly because some of the older farmers didn't trust Chen Qianjin's skills and were worried that he would drive too fast and leave some uncultivated furrows.

Therefore, Li Jianguo had to get involved.

Liang Yuemei and Dong Xiaojuan stayed home to cook. They hired odd jobs to come and pick cotton, and they were provided with lunch. The Li family was well-off, so they used better ingredients when cooking.

Lunch is usually steamed buns and stir-fried vegetables. While other families typically have one dish, the Li family has two, and they're quite oily, with some diced meat in them.

The day laborers were very satisfied with this. They had seen quite a few employers, and it was rare to see a family like the Lis who were so generous with their food, using plenty of oil and meat.

Even if Li Junfeng and his team were stricter, they would accept it because of the decent lunch.

Picking cotton takes until dark, which is usually not this late, but the Li family has a vehicle to take the day laborers to the county, so these people would rather pick more.

Another major reason is that the ground isn't as hot after sunset, so they can pick more cotton then. Don't underestimate this last little bit of time—from sunset until Li Junxian drives his tractor over to weigh the cotton—it's just a short while, but they can pick a few extra kilograms of cotton and earn an extra dollar or two.

When it came time to weigh the cotton, the Li family brought a large cloth bag. At that time, cotton was also sold in these large cloth bags, each capable of holding over a hundred kilograms of cotton.

The cloth bags were all sewn from white cloth that I tore off myself, just like the net bags I made for picking cotton.

After each person was weighed, Li Long would give them money, and then Li Junxian and the others would pour the cotton into a large cloth bag together with the cotton pickers.

This serves both as a way to transfer cotton and as a way to check whether the cotton has been stuffed with soil or water.

At this point, Li Long no longer believed in the inherent goodness of human nature. Having lived two lives, he knew these cotton pickers couldn't possibly cause any trouble; he had seen far too much of it.

The first day was pretty good, although two of the items were a bit dirty, but there weren't many big tech stocks.

Li Long immediately deducted two kilograms of impurities from any of the collected items that were too dirty, and stated explicitly:

"Your cotton is so dirty. Compared to others, I'm not trying to provoke hatred, but just look at other people's cotton. Is it as dirty as yours? You've crushed all the cotton leaves into the cotton."

This person initially wanted to offer an explanation, but after looking at the cotton illuminated by the flashlight and comparing it to the cotton from other people, they simply couldn't come up with one.

Li Long was powerful and his words carried weight, and since he was the one who paid them, these people didn't have much to say.

Before they left, they were given a naan bread. What more could these people ask for? They could even skip dinner.

After loading all the cotton onto the tractor, Li Long drove the people to the county, explicitly stating that he would come back the next day to pick up more people. Most of them smiled and said they would come back to pick up more cotton the next day.

"The landlord's food is so good, only a fool wouldn't come and get it. How often do we get to eat food like that?"

At this time, people also pay attention to whether the flour is 75% or 85% when eating noodles. The Li family eats 75% flour, and the steamed buns are white and look beautiful. Moreover, they are not the kind of steamed buns that can be squeezed into a small ball when you buy them in the county. This makes them very appetizing.

Because they needed to pick up more people the next day, Li Long drove his van to the courtyard early to rest and prepare for work the following day.

Gu Xiaoxia had already put Mingming and Haohao to sleep. Seeing that Li Long had returned so late, she asked if he had eaten.

Li Long shook his head, and Gu Xiaoxia hurriedly went to the kitchen to cook noodles for Li Long with Sister Yang.

Sister Yang was quick and efficient. While the water was still boiling, she stir-fried two more dishes. There wasn't time to stir-fry the steamed buns, but they weren't cold yet, so they could be eaten with the hot dishes.

There were also some naan breads left over from the trip.

While wolfing down his food, Li Long told Gu Xiaoxia about picking cotton that day.

"So you're going to go pick them up early tomorrow?"

"Yes, I'll need to do that for the next few days," Li Long said. "Once I pick them up and take them to the fields, I'll be free."

"You get up so early, pick people up and take them to the fields, then take a nap at home or in the car." Gu Xiaoxia felt a little sorry for her husband, as she felt he was rarely this busy.

"It's nothing," Li Long smiled. "It's nothing, just getting up a little earlier..."

“Then I’ll get up a little earlier tomorrow and make breakfast. You can go over after you’ve had breakfast,” said Sister Yang. “You can’t skip breakfast, and you can’t eat cold food either.”

"Then I'll have to trouble you to get up early, Sister Yang," Li Long said while eating.

"What's the trouble? It's just getting up a little earlier. Besides, Xiaofang also has to get up early to memorize English now, and I can't sleep at that time anyway." Sister Yang smiled and went to the kitchen to tidy up.

After dinner, Gu Xiaoxia and Sister Yang tidied up the kitchen together. When they returned to the house, Li Long had just finished soaking his feet and was drying them.

Gu Xiaoxia habitually bent down to pick up the basin of water, went outside to empty it, then went back inside to close the door. After putting the basin away, she first went to check on Mingming and Haohao's sleeping situation. When she came back, she asked Li Long:

"How's the cotton this year? I went to check it out during the summer vacation, and it seemed to be growing quite well."

"So far, it's not bad," Li Long said. "Otherwise, my brother wouldn't have decided to cultivate another two hundred mu of wasteland—that saline-alkali wasteland east of the vegetable processing group, which is two hundred and eighty mu?" "What for? To plant cotton?" Gu Xiaoxia asked, somewhat surprised.

“Yes, we’re planting cotton,” Li Long said. “One of the cotton fields this year is saline-alkali land. Our method for draining the salinity is to flush it out with water, plus we’ll use Professor Luo’s soil testing and fertilization techniques. If we do this, we expect the cotton germination rate to be around 70-80%, which is pretty good.”

Li Long wasn't actually tired today, since he hadn't picked much cotton; he was mainly supervising others.

But after running around all day, I didn't feel like I was idle, so I quickly lost the desire to talk. I also had to get up early the next day, so I didn't bother with anything else.

The next morning, Sister Yang had already prepared breakfast: rice porridge, toasted bread slices, stir-fried potato shreds, and a spicy stir-fried egg.

Li Long quickly finished eating and then drove his van to the temporary worker market to pick up people.

When he arrived, there were quite a few people. Many had heard that a generous landlord was looking for people to pick cotton, so when the van came, many people gathered around.

Li Long stood in the car doorway and pointed out a few familiar faces from yesterday—those who had been picked up relatively well, of course. The one who had been picked up relatively dirty also pushed forward. Li Long deliberately ignored him, then pointed out a few more people, making a total of ten. He put them on the car, closed the door, and drove off.

The person tried to squeeze closer, but the car sped away in a flash.

When they arrived at the field, Li Junfeng and the others were already waiting there. They gave everyone bags and cloth sacks, and assigned each person two plastic sheets of cotton to pick.

It was just getting light at this time—the earlier you arrived, the easier it was to pick cotton. Firstly, the leaves were damp and less likely to break, secondly, the cotton husks weren't as prickly, and it wasn't hot either.

This is the most efficient time to pick cotton.

Li Junfeng and the others continued picking up trash as they went. Li Long was about to grab a bag to make do when he saw a GAZ truck drive by. He remembered the license plate number; it belonged to Xie Yundong.

After Xie Yundong got out of the car, he walked to Li Long's side, looked at the ten people lined up in a row, and sighed, "..."

"It's good to have more people. You should be able to finish harvesting your twenty acres of land today, right?"

“We can’t finish picking them all.” Li Long shook his head. “We picked over 600 kilograms yesterday, and we should pick about the same amount today. The seedlings sprouted evenly in this field, and the soil is good. All things considered, we should be able to average around 180 kilograms per field. Even if the first flush of flowers is a little less, we can still get around 150 kilograms.”

The total amount must be three tons. At most, we can collect one or two tons in the last two days, far from enough.

"That yield is really good." Xie Yundong nodded. "We've only just started picking over there, so we can't tell the yield yet."

Li Long nodded and continued, "This piece of land is good, and the yield is also good. There is another large piece of saline-alkali land to the east, and the yield there may be lower."

"Is that newly acquired land?" Xie Yundong thought for a moment and said, "There's no land fee, so everything harvested is ours. Even if it's only a hundred kilograms, we can still make a profit."

Li Long smiled but didn't respond. He and his older brother were taking special care of that piece of land; although it was unlikely to yield 180 to 200 kilograms like this cultivated land, getting 150 kilograms was still possible.

The main advantage is the more advanced management methods, unlike the past when cotton cultivation was purely a matter of trial and error. As a reborn individual, Li Long has ample experience in avoiding problems in cotton cultivation, nipping some issues in the bud before they even emerge.

Some unexpected things were discovered by him as soon as they appeared, thus avoiding many losses.

So although the cotton plants on his plots of land aren't the tallest, they have few missing seedlings and many bolls, so the yield is naturally high.

Even Li Jianguo, who had been somewhat worried, started to smile more and more after mid-September.

"These people are picking it up pretty quickly," Xie Yundong said. "My family's kids didn't seem to be that fast..."

“There’s definitely a difference between long-term workers and casual laborers. But each has its advantages. If you don’t keep a close eye on casual laborers, the cotton bales they pick up later will definitely be dirty,” Li Long said. “They might even have something mixed in with the cotton. Long-term workers are different; they live at home, so they’re less likely to cause trouble.”

Xie Yundong nodded. He was surprised that although the Li family had hired helpers, they did not have them pick cotton, but instead had them do other miscellaneous tasks.

Of course, tractor drivers don't count.

Li Long didn't elaborate, as this kind of thing is not easy to say openly.

He was actually starting to consider keeping his nephews and nieces from his hometown. His elder brother's activities were becoming increasingly large, and the number of people needed was growing.

The people in the team all have their own agendas, and it's unlikely they'll work for the Li family anytime soon.

But people back home don't have this kind of mindset. What's the difference between doing any kind of work? Driving a tractor is a skilled job, and it pays well and isn't too tiring—if you do the math, you can earn more driving a big tractor than working in the south.

Those who are married are already thinking about whether they can bring their families over like Li Junfeng, while those who are not married are thinking about whether they can find a wife locally.

My hometown is also in the countryside, so how good can the conditions be? They're actually not as good as those in Team Four.

At least four teams also have two high-horsepower tractors and two Kangmaiyin (a type of tractor). Back in my hometown, not just in the village, but in the entire township, there probably aren't even one of those.

So, without realizing it, these young men from their hometowns had already decided to stay in northern Xinjiang, in Ma County, and in the Fourth Team.

Think about it, here you can eat meat every day and nobody says anything. Can the life you live back there compare to this? Even if you took all that money back, and you wanted to eat meat every day, how many people would want to benefit from that?

These are things I shouldn't think about; if I do, I might as well stay here.

However, they also know that it is very difficult to obtain residency at present. Li Junfeng has been here for two years and still has not obtained residency.

However, Li Junfeng has already said privately that after finishing the work, he plans to go back and bring the children over in the winter. As for the elderly, he will talk about it later.

"By the way, Xiaolong, have you inquired about cotton prices this year?" Xie Yundong asked again.

"I've inquired, and the cotton and linen company charges about two prices, depending on the impurities and the garment weight." Li Long explained the garment weight again, but he also said that it mainly depends on the impurities.

"I heard that there are cotton processing plants in Shicheng Corps and Kuitun. I don't know what the prices are like there."

"Pretty much." Li Long was too lazy to go. A hundred acres of land would only yield a maximum of twenty tons of cotton, maybe even less. It wasn't worth the long trip.

“Then let’s sell it in the county. I don’t have much land. If this year’s situation is better than growing watermelon seeds, then I’ll plant more next year.”

Some people are still planting watermelon seeds this year. The purchasing station has started collecting them, but Li Long told his father that they will only accept flattened seeds, not unflattened ones.

The main problem was that Liu Gaolou would send over a batch of hides every few days. Apart from helping Li Qingxia collect the goods, Liang Shuangcheng and Sun Jiaqiang mainly focused their energy on processing the hides.

Xie Yundong and the others in the team were busy with cotton and didn't have time to deal with the work of flattening and threshing melon seeds, so Li Long made this request.

Moreover, the price is not high, not exceeding one yuan.

This greatly disappointed those who were betting that harvesting melon seeds would increase the price.

Some people, upon hearing the price, tried to negotiate a lower price and left with their sunflower seeds. The buyers didn't care much; the most likely outcome for these people was that they would sell the sunflower seeds to a roasting factory.

There's one more roasted nut factory now, but to be honest, the amount of roasted melon seeds they can actually consume is limited, mainly because there aren't many people in northern Xinjiang who eat this stuff.

Therefore, most of the watermelon seeds, if not sold to Li Long, will most likely end up stuck in his hands.

It depends on yourself.

As the day passed and it was time to weigh the cotton that evening, a few cotton pickers suddenly suggested that they wanted to buy some cotton to make netting!

Hey, that's pretty novel!
P.S.: It's the weekend, and I was thinking of going to Meilianmei Supermarket to buy some fruit. I saw some yellow melons cut up and placed in a box, and I thought they were a new variety of watermelon, so I bought them to try. But when I got home and tasted them, they tasted like regular watermelon! I was tricked!

(End of this chapter)