Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 44: If you want enough food, you have to make shit

"A flourishing crop depends on manure!"

On June 6, in a lush green vegetable garden near the Shixingbao camp, Zhang Lifeng was directing several Spaniards to use long-handled wooden ladles to water the vegetable fields with manure water.

Although several people pulled a piece of cloth to cover their mouths and noses, the temperature at the end of June had already risen. Under the direct sunlight of the scorching sun, several buckets of sewage emitted a strong stench that made people feel nauseous.

If there had not been Chinese people supervising them, these Spaniards would probably have thrown away the wooden ladles in their hands, kicked over the wooden barrels containing manure, and fled back to the camp.

This is so excruciating!

In traditional European culture, there are many taboos and negative concepts related to excrement, and countless people regard it as unclean.

After all, this thing can't be holy!
Therefore, in Europe, people generally believe that human excrement has almost no value or meaning, and they do not accept using feces as fertilizer for farmland or orchards.

In China, manure can be sold for money, in Japan, manure can also be paid as rent, but in Europe, people have to pay others to clean up.

In addition, Europe's urban planning and sanitation standards are relatively low compared to those in the East. Feces can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys, and urban sanitation conditions are very poor.

Excreta disposal in cities is not effective or standardized, which has made it very difficult to collect, store and transport urban feces to farmland for use as fertilizer.

Therefore, the disgusting hygiene problems caused by excrement also led Europeans to generally reject the use of feces as fertilizer.

They may not be able to imagine that in the ancient Eastern continent, many "dung tyrants" would be born in a city, and they could accumulate a fortune by buying, selling and trading dung.

Throughout the thousands of years of European history, crop yields have always been relatively low. In terms of per-mu yield, the Chinese mainland can far surpass all European countries.

The key point is that Europeans will never "make shit"!
Well, it seems that it wasn't until 2023 in the future that, after extremely detailed research and demonstration, several scientists published an article titled "Recovering waste from human excrement has high nitrogen fertilizer value and can also reduce the absorption of compounds", thus proving that feces can increase crop yields!
Wow, this is amazing, what a great discovery!

You should know that using manure as fertilizer to fertilize crops has been popular in China for thousands of years, and even now it is still used in some areas.

During the reign of Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty, more than 3,000 years ago, there was a record in the oracle inscriptions: "Divination on Gengchen day, and defecation in Xidan field on the day of Zhenyi and Guiwei day."

What do you mean?

It is the day of Guiwei that is suitable for applying manure to the fields in Xidan.

Mencius and Xunzi of the Warring States Period also said: "In bad years, it is not enough to fertilize the fields" and "Fertilizing the fields with plenty of manure is the job of farmers and common people." All of this proves that the use of manure in China has a long history.

Farmers from every generation pass on their agricultural experience and knowledge to the next generation, including experience in agricultural technology and fertilizer application.

For example, ancient agricultural books such as "The Book of Si Sheng", "Essential Techniques for the People of Qi", and "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" all systematically summarized and recorded the application of fertilizers in agricultural production.

However, Europeans are very disgusted with excrement. They even throw feces out in the streets. Of course, they would not think of and are even less willing to transport feces for fertilizer. Instead, they try to hide as far away from it as possible.

This habit made the living environment of Europeans generally very poor. Because the sewers were blocked, residents threw feces and urine on the streets, often causing various infectious diseases.

When the feces accumulated to a certain level, they would usually try their best to discard them collectively outside the city walls or drain them into the canals. This habit lasted for thousands of years.

Therefore, the Spaniards who had just arrived at Shixing Fort were surprised to see the Chinese carefully transporting the feces from the dry toilets to an open space outside the camp, and then mixing it with weeds, leaves, domestic garbage, etc., adding an appropriate amount of feces and water, and piling it up layer by layer until the pile was more than one meter high. They were all very puzzled.

Of course, even if they didn't understand, after being taught several times by the Chinese, these things became part of their job duties. After the manure pile was formed, it was required to be sealed with wet mud. Once the mud dried slightly, the wooden sticks that had been inserted into it were removed to create several ventilation ducts.

I used to think that Chinese people had some unexplainable special "hobby" and would only "play with shit" when they had nothing to do.

But what they never expected was that during the growing season of crops, the Chinese actually instructed them to pour manure on the fields, saying that it would promote nutrient absorption by crops.

Oh, God, although due to the lack of manure, only less than twenty acres of wheat and corn fields were irrigated, it still made Spain feel nauseous.

Is this still edible?
However, Spain's "terror" is far from over.

Now, the Chinese people ask them to pour manure on the vegetables they eat daily!

They claim that manure helps improve the yield and quality of vegetables during their maturity period.

The Spanish are quite clear about the meaning of increasing production, which simply means increasing the supply of vegetables.

But what does it mean to improve their quality?
Could it be that these vegetables will taste better if they are covered in feces?!

You know, even Rafa Mir, who has the most agricultural experience in Shixing Fort, didn't know that manure can increase the yield and quality of crops.

Do these Chinese people understand agricultural production better than him?
"What a bunch of ignorant people!" Zhang Lifeng looked at the Spaniards who were afraid to touch the dirt when pouring the manure water. Everyone had a look of disapproval on their face, and he couldn't help but spit.

These Spaniards worked and lived in such harsh conditions on the ship, but they did not show any disgust.

He also went up to visit the captured Spanish galleon "St. Louis", and the environment there was extremely terrible.

With the shipbuilding technology of this era, it is impossible to make the cabin floor completely seamless.

This means that when the ship is sailing on the sea, seawater will continuously penetrate into the cabin from the bottom of the ship, soaking wood, garbage, food, cargo and other things and making them stink. When various unpleasant odors such as moisture, body odor, and mildew are mixed together, the sour smell is simply unbearable for ordinary people.

Hey, now these Spaniards just watered the vegetables with manure water, and they became pretentious and learned to pay attention to personal hygiene.

This vegetable field of more than 20 acres has never been burned because it is close to the camp, so it lacks the necessary fertilizer - wood ash.

Therefore, in order to meet the vegetable needs of the entire Shixing Fort, the limited manure was applied to it, just to ensure that everyone could have enough vegetables to enjoy.

At this time, it was June, and seasonal vegetables such as pumpkins, eggplants, bell peppers (green peppers), tomatoes, peas, green beans (string beans), and chayote (loofah) in the vegetable fields had matured one after another, finally allowing the residents of Shixing Fort to get rid of the situation of relying mainly on wild vegetables and salted fish for side dishes and live a normal life.

In fact, with a population of only a few hundred in Shixing Fort, planting ten acres of vegetables can fully meet the demand.

However, considering the needs of the winter for several months, it is necessary to stockpile corresponding winter vegetables and make a large amount of pickled vegetables, so twenty acres of vegetable fields were directly opened up to meet the needs.

In addition, according to information leaked from the decision-making committee, after the autumn harvest this year, Shixing Fort may have to sail out to Mexico to try to dispose of the cargo on the captured Spanish galleon.

If the goods can be handled smoothly and enough gold and silver can be obtained, it is not ruled out that he will try to go to Ming Dynasty and bring back some people.

So, from now on, whether it is necessary food supplies or corresponding non-staple food products, we need to prepare for the future and stockpile them in advance.

(End of this chapter)