Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 372

Wu Nanhai bought this piece of land from the county government at a very cheap price a few months ago without much trouble.As for why such a large piece of land close to the big river is so uncultivated, the Council of Agriculture thought it was due to the abundance of land and the lack of labor.However, when Wang Tian heard that the "chiefs" had bought the land, he rushed to tell Wu Nanhai: This deal is a loss!

In fact, this piece of land has always been reclaimed by shooters from Fujian, but they always abandoned the land after one or two years of planting.

"The yield is too low." Wang Tian said, "If you work hard to grow rice, you can harvest seventy to eighty catties per mu. If you don't take good care of it, you can't even reach this amount. You can only get less than that if you plant two crops. Two hundred catties of rice is not enough to fill one's stomach."

"Seven to eighty catties?" Wu Nanhai was almost shocked.Seventy to eighty catties are just dry grain, and after peeling, [-] to [-] percent will be lost.He knew that the level of agricultural production in ancient times was not high, but based on what he has learned so far, as long as the general rice fields on both sides of the Wenlan River can be irrigated, it is still possible to produce [-] catties per mu.

"My master doesn't know something," Wang Tian said. "It's not easy to farm locally: if it doesn't rain, there will be drought, and if it rains for three days in a row, it will be flooded immediately. But even if there is no drought or waterlogging in the United States and Taiwan, you can't harvest a lot of rice."

Wu Nanhai felt strange about this phenomenon, but because he couldn't develop it for a while, he didn't investigate further.In order to prevent a large area of ​​land from being abandoned, he asked the agricultural workers to extensively plant some leguminous crops and green manure for silage on this land. The exploration team found it.The result was quite dismal, with leguminous crops almost wiped out except for alfalfa which was barely yielding.

"Looks like the land is severely deficient in phosphorus. Soil improvement."

"So the low yield is likely to be due to a problem with the soil environment." After hearing his description, Fa Shilu said, "We have not carefully investigated the soil quality and moisture content in the United States, Taiwan and Oceania.

"Is it possible that the pH value of the soil is too high?"

Fa Shilu said: "It is possible. Since it is a high-yield and stable-yield field, it involves the issue of improving the soil."

He randomly picked up some soil on the ground: "If I remember correctly, the soil in Lingao should be the same as the main soil type in Jiangxi and Guangdong, mainly brick red soil. If this is the case, it is relatively easy to improve. Easier, lime will do the trick. If it's an alkaline soil, you'll have to look for gypsum."

He rubbed it a little: "This kind of red soil is developed from basalt, plus the sandy soil washed down from the upper reaches of the river over the years. Generally speaking, the sand is relatively heavy, but it is not a big problem for rice fields."

While talking, Chu Qing came back with a big basket full of bottled kvass and kombucha.

"The cafeteria is out of stock, so I'll go directly to the food factory to get it." Chu Qing said with a smile, "I'll soak it in water first to cool it down." As she spoke, she carried the basket to a stream downhill.

These two beverages have been officially mass-produced in food processing plants, filled semi-automatically and sealed by hand.The bottle is supplied by a glassworks and is sealed with a cork and wax.Because of the lack of preservatives, only sugar and citric acid can be used to preserve it, so the shelf life is very short.The taste wasn't great either.

But for those who are tired of drinking tea and boiled water, these two beverages came at the right time, and they immediately became popular items in the cafeteria.Many aborigines who bought a bottle out of curiosity also liked their taste - some people did it purely for the purpose of imitating the way of life of the crossing people.

Fa Shilu watched her soak the whole basket into the stream.There are many low hills scattered on the edge of this Tianyang, which is different from Tianyang with sparse vegetation. The vegetation on the hills is dense, and there are many ground streams between the hills, and the gurgling water flows among the green vegetation.Some of them converge into larger surface runoffs and flow into the Wenlan River, some of them converge into ponds among the hills, and some of them flow on the ground for a certain distance before sneaking into the ground.

"The water source is so rich!" Fa Shilu said to himself.

"Have you investigated the water source here?" He suddenly asked Yanquezhi.Yan Quezhi was staring at Chuqing's back before she came to her senses:

"No, geological matters are under the control of the remote exploration team. It's too late for me to help build houses in the construction company."

"Since you have a background in hydrology, you should understand a little bit. Is the surface runoff here spring water?"

"It's not considered mineral water, but the water quality is very good. The water quality is clear and the water temperature is low." Yan Quezhi said with confidence, "It should come out after the precipitation has accumulated in the ground."

"That's right." Fa Shilu nodded, and he greeted everyone, "Let's go down and investigate the soil conditions here."

Several people walked down the hillside together, and Wu Nanhai took his apprentice - Lu Jia who was selected from the school.Lu Jia's family is an official tenant, specializing in school fields.The burden of official tenants is very heavy, far more difficult than that of ordinary civilian tenants.In order to save a few mouths, Lu Jia's father sent two brothers, Lu Jia and Lu Yi, to the Crossing Group - purely for food.

Lu Jia was older, knew how to do a lot of farm work, and was clever, so he was accepted by Wu Nanhai as an apprentice.

A group of people made several probes at intervals on the wasteland to sample and observe the soil.

"Old way! It's still brick red soil here. It's everywhere." Wu Nanhai said.

"That's right, this is the most common soil in southern China." Fa Shilu squatted by the pit, "The fertility of this soil should be good. If we say that we can only harvest less than a hundred catties of rice on such land , it’s strange.”

But further excavations soon revealed the mystery of low yields here.They began digging out large amounts of rusty paddy soil.This kind of soil is caused by long-term poor irrigation and drainage, water accumulation in the soil, a large amount of rust-red hydroxide in the soil, high acidity, low nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content, and poor soil fertility.

"Strange, this should be caused by long-term accumulation of water." Wu Nanhai said, "But this place is still far away from the highest water level of the Wenlan River during the rainy season."

"The groundwater level here is high." Fa Shilu pointed to the lower hilly area. "The water from the streams all sinks into the ground in the end. It looks like a plain. In fact, the bottom is like a sponge full of water, a typical waterlogging."

Yanquezhi erected the equipment and observed it: "Well, the terrain here can't be felt, it is actually lower than the surrounding areas, and the spring water in the hilly area is constantly replenished. The groundwater level is very high, so the formation of A long-term hidden waterlogging situation."

"That's right, otherwise there is no way to explain why there is such a wide range of rusty paddy fields." Fa Shilu said, "In the history of the United States and Taiwan, not only people have cultivated, but also paddy fields have been cultivated quite extensively. Finally, it is because of the soil. The problem will be abandoned and abandoned."

He said this because paddy field soil is essentially an artificial soil, developed from the annual irrigation water in the area where rice is grown.There is generally no such soil structure in nature.

"Master, we call this rusty paddy field here." Lu Jia interjected, "There is often a layer of oily red rust on the surface of the paddy field. In fact, there are some rotten wet fields here, all on the side of the small hill— "

"Rotten wet field?" Wu Nanhai became interested, "Has your family ever planted it?"

"No." Lu Jia shook his head, "It would be a loss to farm here. No one in the county would come here to farm except for Fu Lao who didn't know and came here rashly to open up wasteland."

"Let's go and have a look." Fa Shilu suggested.

Soon they came to a piece of underground hillside. At first glance, it was an ordinary wasteland, but if you look closely, it looks like it has been reclaimed, and the ridges of the fields can still be seen vaguely.

"There used to be Fukuo who planted here in the past, but the harvest failed." Lu Jia said, "Water came out of the fields that were in good condition, and the rice was flooded."

They called again.The situation here is worse than that over there. Water is produced almost as soon as it is dug, and springs will appear in some places.Due to long-term water accumulation, the soil moisture is oversaturated, the soil body is extremely scattered, the texture is sticky and mushy, it is difficult to cultivate, and the soil layer is not clear.

"The fertility of this soil will not be good." Wu Nanhai fiddled with the mud, and separated a lot of dead leaves and weeds from it. They were all intact and hardly rotted. "Basically, the organic matter does not decompose."

"Because it's too sticky." Fa Shilu said, "The air can't get in. It's like a closed environment, how can organic matter rot?" He shook his head, "This kind of field is even more difficult to manage."

Wu Nanhai seized this opportunity and taught Lu Jia what organic matter is and why organic matter decomposes for 5 minutes.What are the benefits to planting after organic matter decomposes.Regardless of whether he understands it or not, first pour the concept directly into it and then talk about it.

"The key is drainage." Fa Shilu made the final decision.

To change this situation, it is not enough to just improve the soil, but to solve the fundamental problem: waterlogging.

"To solve the waterlogging," Yanquezhi said, pointing to the survey map, "we have to expand the size of the drainage canal. The groundwater level is too high. It must drop by at least 1 to 1.2 meters before it is suitable for farming. If necessary, we need to add another one Dedicated water pumps. The five branch drainage canals currently planned may not be enough, and three more need to be added.”

"In this case, your river embankment project is not small."

"The embankment is part of the Wenlan River Basin Reconstruction Plan." Yan Quezhi said, "According to Ma Dugong's plan, the water level of the entire Wenlan River will be raised by 100 centimeters in the future to facilitate navigation. Currently, all along the The river facilities are all planned according to this plan.”

According to the plan, a dam along the river will be built first along the development zone to isolate the river water from the entire high-yielding and stable-yielding field area, preventing possible flooding during the rainy season.A gate for the canal is set on the embankment.In addition, a steam pumping station is installed to use steam engines as power for irrigation and drainage.

(End of this chapter)