60s: I have a store

Chapter 197: Thresher

"Sixteenth brother, what did you build?"

The village carpenter was a little confused. A few days ago, Zhou Yimin asked him to build this thing. The cabinet did not look like a cabinet. It seemed incomplete and there were other parts that needed to be installed, so he could not tell what it was used for.

"This is a thresher." Zhou Yimin told him.

As for some other parts, he has already asked the steel plant to help make them.

Actually, it is a wheat thresher.

Thresher is nothing new abroad. In fact, as early as the 18s, the Scots invented the most primitive thresher, which consisted of a series of flail structures driven by water power and had a capacity equivalent to that of 40 laborers.

The success of the British thresher lasted for 19 years, beginning in the 40s. At the height of demand, British-made threshers became a popular choice in many countries.

Nowadays, combine harvesters have appeared overseas.

In China, the way of harvesting wheat is still very primitive, especially in rural areas, where it is almost still harvested by hand.

The farmers cut the wheat with sickles, carried it back to the threshing ground, spread the wheat on the ground, and then used animals and rollers to thresh it. They threshed one field a day, and it took each team about ten days to finish threshing in good weather.

The old branch secretary was in a hurry to buy a donkey for the wheat harvest. He believed that with more donkeys, the wheat threshing work would be faster.

"Thresher?" The carpenter was stunned.

Zhoujiazhuang has never had mechanical harvesting, so it is naturally relatively unfamiliar.

"Yes! Just put the harvested wheat into it and it will be threshed. There is no need to use a stone roller. It is more convenient, quick, and saves time and effort." Zhou Yimin explained.

The carpenter looked at the "big guy" in front of him in disbelief.

This thing can thresh wheat without the need for animals to pull the roller around.

"Is there something missing?" he asked again.

Zhou Yimin nodded: "It's almost a critical part. We can get it over tomorrow and install it."

A wheat thresher is actually similar to a thresher, with only minor differences.

The current one does not use electricity or oil, so it can only be driven by manpower. But even if it is driven by manpower, the threshing speed and effect are better than using a stone roller.

It is no exaggeration to say that the use of threshers was a reform in agriculture. It greatly liberated labor and improved efficiency.

Before long, everyone in the village knew that what the carpenter had been building was a thresher, and they all came to watch.

Even the old branch secretaries and team leaders are no exception.

"How do you thresh wheat? I don't quite understand."

The old Party Secretary glanced at the fellow and said, "It's right that you don't understand."

There was a burst of laughter at the scene.

The famous "great smart guy" in the village really doesn't need to be understood.

The carpenter explained: "It's not complete yet! Yimin said that there are still parts at the steel plant. Once they are installed, you can come and see them."

To be honest, he himself is looking forward to it.

After all, he also participated in the manufacturing of this thing.

If he can really thresh efficiently, he will gain some fame, which makes him excited just thinking about it.

"Secretary, when will we slaughter the pig?" Some people were thinking about eating meat.

According to custom, a pig must be slaughtered before the harvest to give everyone a taste of meat.

"The day after tomorrow morning! Get up early."

There are 10 pigs in the village, and they have only recently been fattened up. Before, the pigs could only eat pig grass, so it was strange that they could get fat. But there was nothing we could do. If people had nothing to eat, who would care about the pigs?

In the planned economy era, since private sale of pigs was not allowed, they had to be handed over to the state for distribution. Therefore, people were not very enthusiastic about raising pigs.

At this time, there is a saying of mission pigs. If the mission pigs are too thin, they will be criticized. The weight of the pigs cannot be less than 90 kilograms.

Out of the 10 pigs in Zhoujiazhuang, 8 need to be handed over to the state.

When the old branch secretary said this, some villagers cheered.

Some people can't help drooling at the thought of slaughtering pigs and eating meat.

The next day, Zhou Yimin brought back the key parts of the thresher, accompanied by a leader of the steel plant, Director Ding.

When the steel plant learned that Zhou Yimin was building something new, it immediately took it seriously.

Although Zhou Yimin told them that it was just a wheat thresher, which had long been available abroad and could not be exported, the leaders immediately realized the importance of threshers in China and wanted to understand the performance of the thresher.

"Director Ding, the crops grown over there are basically purchased by our steel plant." Zhou Yimin pointed to the riverbed, which was covered with plastic film and was very conspicuous.

"Okay, great!" Director Ding was delighted.

As the director of logistics, he certainly hopes that there will be multiple and stable channels for food supply!

Cooperating with Zhoujiazhuang is undoubtedly a very clever move.

"Let the villagers grow more. Our steel plant can handle it. Don't worry," he said.

Then he looked towards the wheat field.

What a pity! These wheats must be handed over uniformly, even their steel mills cannot purchase from Zhoujiazhuang without authorization.

Zhou Yimin installed the parts made by the steel plant and soon built a classic manual thresher.

They manufactured three threshers of this type in total.

"Is that all?" Director Ding asked.

Although he had never used this kind of thresher, he had been involved in production and he himself was born into a peasant family. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he got close to his father-in-law and was able to sit in his current position.

"You'll know if you try it." Zhou Yimin said.

"Hurry up, go and harvest some wheat." Director Ding shouted.

Some people rushed towards the wheat field, curious about how the "machine" threshed the wheat.

At this time, the villagers began to sharpen their sickles, waiting to "start the harvest".

Bluestone is often used to sharpen sickles. The stone surface is smooth and soft, and the blade sharpened is more resilient.

The old Party secretary ordered that everyone should start harvesting today. Someone from the commune came to see the wheat in the wheat field and saw that it was ready to be harvested, so they immediately asked Zhoujiazhuang to start harvesting.

I don't want to wait even a moment.

You may not know that the national grain supply is very tight right now, so we have to start "urging for harvest". Don't wait until the wheat is ripe. The sooner the wheat is stored in the warehouse, the sooner we can alleviate the current food crisis.

At this time, even schools began to close for holidays.

The teacher led the students to the harvested wheat field to pick up wheat ears. The role of the children was limited to this.

Wheat is the first crop to mature and is also a fine grain, so it must be especially cherished. Every grain must be stored in the warehouse, and not a single ear of wheat should be wasted.

"Start harvesting!" the old party secretary shouted.

Although he was old, he still took the lead in such things. He stood in the front, gathering the wheat in his left hand and holding the sickle in his right hand. He gently waved the sickle and raised a bunch of wheat high in front of the people, like raising a flag.

Others also began to take action.

(End of this chapter)