Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 530 Harvest No.

Shortly after sending off the dwarves and elves, Harvey received the long-awaited "Magic Network Express Package".

This was a batch of rare seeds that he had ordered from the United Import and Export Company in advance before the Life Stone manufacturing plan.

When Harvey and his personal guards arrived at the botanical garden, Egno had already led the elf apprentices and researchers and began busy moving the seed bags that had just arrived.

The Life Stone is currently named "Harvest No. 1" and is permanently placed in the pharmacy laboratory of the botanical garden. Its magical growth-promoting ability and controllable characteristics make Egno simply unable to stop. He relies on it almost day and night to complete many experimental projects that have been blocked before. Now that he has the two major magical experimental artifacts of "catalysis" and "reduction" in his hands, he can finally give full play to his talents and ambitions in magical botany and biology like Chris.

Seeing Harvey appear, Egno immediately put down what he was doing, stepped forward and saluted, saying, "Your Majesty, the seeds have all been delivered. We compared them one by one with the list we gave them earlier, and basically nothing was missed."

The seed list was compiled in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture; Harvey had no involvement initially. "Oh? They actually managed to find all the seeds? What seeds did they send?"

Egno lacked the common obsession with cleanliness that elves often have. Rubbing his hands together, he squatted down, untied the sack of seeds, and pulled out a handful of bright yellow grains. He smiled and said, "Your Majesty, look! This is a specialty crop that only grows in Hill's Breath. The dwarves call it barley."

Harvey nodded, and with a complicated expression, he picked up a seed from his hand and sighed inwardly... Isn't this the corn he was most familiar with in his previous life...

The yield of corn should have been much higher than that of wheat, but the dwarves obviously did not know how to fertilize and breed, so the corn kernels did not look big and full enough, and even looked a little shriveled due to improper storage. Harvey could even imagine the scene of sparse growth of grains on the corn cob. No wonder it has not been successfully popularized in the human kingdom.

But now that they have the Stone of Life, things are different. As long as the corn seeds can be successfully transformed into cold-resistant crops, combined with its original advantages of fast growth and low soil requirements, it may soon replace the enchanted wheat seeds and become the main food crop in the northern border area.

Seeing Harvey lost in thought, Egno quickly untied another sack and pulled out a fist-sized, oval root vegetable. "Your Majesty, this should look familiar to you. The wild cassava you find everywhere in the wilderness is from the same family, but it's called a sweet potato."

Harvey hummed and raised his hand to take it... It was a combination of sweet potato and taro, but the size was really small, and each one looked as if it was malnourished. It was a very common wild plant on the southern coast, but people would only choose to pick, dig and eat them during famine and war.

After all, compared to mature potatoes, this thing is slightly inferior in taste and satiety... But its advantages are equally remarkable. It is not picky about soil, is drought-resistant and cold-resistant, and can be used as a supplementary option for crop planting in mountainous areas. It does not have any special economic value.

Before Egno could continue to introduce the products to him, Harvey suddenly spotted an opened sack filled with round grains. He rushed over and grabbed a handful, saying in surprise, "They got soybeans too?"

Egno nodded, "Your Majesty actually knows its name, but people in the West prefer to call it wheat beans. Not many people grow it... This stuff can't be ground into powder and roasted like wheat. Eating too much will cause diarrhea or even poisoning..." Harvey shook his head with a wry smile, thinking that it was because soybeans contain saponins. It seems that people in this world really cannot enjoy this high-protein high-quality crop. All food crops are judged by whether they can be ground into powder and roasted. No wonder serious famine will break out when there is a natural disaster or war.

Soybeans can not only be grown on a large scale as an oil crop, but they are also a high-quality food ingredient rich in plant protein. Various processed soy products that do not require fermentation, such as tofu, bean sprouts, soy milk, etc., have very high nutritional value. After fermentation, they can also be made into various delicious condiments such as sauces and soy sauce.

The soybean meal left after oil extraction is also a high-quality livestock feed and can be widely used in livestock breeding. Compared with the past practice of feeding livestock with stored wheat, the cost is saved many times more.

Of course, this wild bean seed also needs to undergo catalytic transformation by the Stone of Life to turn it into a highly cold-resistant food crop like wheat and cassava.

The crop seeds brought back from the southern border, just the corn and soybeans, are enough to satisfy Harvey. These can be transformed and quickly put into the land for large-scale planting, and they will yield considerable results by next autumn at the latest.

"Are there any other crop seeds?" Harvey said with a wry smile as he watched Egnoton rummaging through the sacks. "If it's not a high-yield crop that can be grown on a large scale like corn and soybeans, there's no need to invest too much effort in refining it. Just keep a few random samples in the botanical garden."

Harvey even saw the elf apprentices digging out a bundle of wild grape vines, and even some naturally light brown cotton fruits, a new variety of tobacco leaves that were a specialty of the Western Territory... and something that looked similar to the peppers in his previous life. When he took a bite with surprise, he found that it had the same flavor and texture as tomatoes, so Harvey tearfully named it chili pepper.

"Have the researchers and apprentices quickly record and organize the planting methods and growth characteristics of each crop."

"We're mainly dealing with corn and soybeans. We'll continue to have the United Import and Export Company send us the seeds they've collected, and then quickly transform them into cold-resistant varieties. We'll have the Ministry of Agriculture allocate a separate experimental plot, sow the seeds, and see how they perform."

Egno held the booklet in his hand and personally wrote down Harvey's instructions. He asked doubtfully, "Your Majesty, is the Stone of Life... only used to catalyze and transform grains? Is it possible..."

Wouldn't it be a bit of a waste? If such a magical growth-promoting device is used to catalyze the rapid growth of those rare potion plants, not only the territory's medical hospital and potion research institute, but also high-end research departments such as the Academy of Magical Sciences and the Alchemy Laboratory will benefit greatly.

Harvey, of course, understood Egno's intentions. He sighed and patted his shoulder. "I intend to use the first Life Stone only to catalyze ordinary crops. After all, food is the foundation of our development... But don't be discouraged. The elves and dwarves now know that we have mastered the technology to control Life Stones. If they want to trade this technology from us... then they must continuously provide us with the raw materials for making Life Stones—golden tree hearts and earth crystal cores."

As long as the core technology is in his own hands, Harvey is not worried at all that the development of the research department will be restricted.

(End of this chapter)