Dragon God, immortal

To tell you why...

Such is the nature of oats.

As early as the cultivation period, Shushan knew that the main way oats spread was through birds, so he specially made a shell that was difficult for birds to digest, and a flavor that became more unpalatable the more you chew it, targeting herbivores...

It can be said that apart from the Earth Dragon God who can even eat tree bark with relish, no other creature on this island would like to eat this oatmeal...

However, the Watchers could eat it.

Maybe I'm used to eating it at Tegenkyu Island.

"No, this won't work. What about the cat people with damaged stomachs..." Shushan thought for a moment and called Heishong, the round-eared cat person who was cooking porridge, over. "Heishong, come here."

"Lord Shushan? Okay! I'll be right there!" Heisong quickly handed over his work to the cat-man beside him, and jumped in front of Shushan to wait.

Shushan asked Hesong to prepare some germinated oat seeds, mix them with steamed hulled oat grains, and throw them into a stone jar for fermentation...

Then wait one night...

Its daybreak.

The others all dispersed.

Only Shushan and Heisong were still in the open space, waiting for the things in the stone jar to change.

For Shushan, a mere half a day passed in the blink of an eye, and the product in the stone jar quickly completed the transformation.

Shushan opened the lid of the stone jar and said to Heisong, who looked curious, "Try it."

"Hmm? Sweet?" Heisong tasted the paste in the stone jar and his tail lifted up in surprise.

"Don't be surprised, this is maltose... It seems that the amount of malt used is a little less. It would be better to use two parts of malt to three parts of wheat seeds..." Shushan stretched out his paw, dipped a little and put it in his mouth. After tasting it, he came to the above conclusion.

"Oats can be turned into sugar? There is actually such a way to eat it! Lord Shushan is so powerful, is this magic?" Hei Song has been involved in the tribal production for many years and has been interacting with Juan Hua for many years. He has already understood how to transform knowledge into wisdom... Oats are not delicious, but maltose made from oats is delicious.

"Next, we need to filter the residue and wash out the residual sugar in the wheat residue. The juice can be boiled over low heat to make sugar cubes that can be stored for a long time. The wheat residue can also be used to feed cattle and sheep... I think cattle and sheep can accept oats in this state."

Make something unpalatable taste good!

It’s not magic, but it’s better than magic!

As for maltose, it will put much less pressure on the stomach and intestines than eating oats or oatmeal directly, and the sweet taste of maltose is also easier to absorb.

In this way, the enthusiasm of the cat-ear tribe in growing oats will increase a little. If planted densely, oats can barely catch up with corn!

Shushan watched Heisong frantically following his instructions, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.

After all, he is the ultimate beneficiary. Who doesn’t like sweet and fragrant maltose?

He loves to eat, too!

. . . . . .

A Brief History of the Cat's Paw Islands:

Thanks to the guidance of the Dragon God, from now on, the children and adults of the Cat-Eared Tribe all fell in love with the hard-to-swallow oats... Well, the children loved malt sugar, and the adults loved beer.

In addition, the insert includes the top ten evidences that drinking is harmful to your health.

"Who cares? I just love to drink! RUA! !" - The drunken father of farm tools, Kurosong.

"A little drinking can make you happy, but heavy drinking can harm your body." - The witch who controls the father of farm tools, Juan Hua.

Chapter 21: Thank you for the hard work of our agricultural predecessors

The thirty-sixth year of the Dragon God calendar, the vernal equinox.

This was the year with the fewest Watchmen in office.

A total of minus two watchers were added... Well, what this means is that two watchers quit their jobs and stayed on the Palm Ball Island to assist the tribe in production.

Shushan understood this very well. The salary of a watcher was high, but there were too few watchers. The salary alone could not support the tribe members. In the end, he had to farm with the tribe members to prevent more people from starving...

"Huh, it's time for me to get to work. Oats are good but not suitable for me. I still prefer corn, the stalks and seeds of which can be eaten... It's time to cultivate fungus-resistant No. 4 corn!" thought the vegetarian Long Shushan.

After returning to Tegenkū Island.

Shushan put the Watchers down.

Then I found the guarded kumquats and put down the souvenirs from the Sanhua tribe. Oh, the so-called souvenirs were fermenting maltose.

Since Hei Song learned how to make maltose, he directly called on all the cat-ear tribes in the production team to work hard, and finally processed half of the malt stock before the end of winter.

When Hei Song gave the gift to Shu Shan, he was impressed by how fast the maltose fermented...

Then Shushan said that it was not fermentation, but hydrolysis, which is to use malt to break down complex polysaccharides into simple sugars...

He was a little dumbfounded when he heard this. Hydrolysis and fermentation, aren't these two the same thing? Shushan nodded in affirmation. The former only breaks down complex sugars into sweeter sugars, while the latter requires the participation of microorganisms.

Heisong was immediately filled with questions.

I don't understand, it looks so amazing.

"Although it was successful, I don't really understand the principle behind it. I just summarized the experience of my predecessors..." Shushan sighed, opened a wooden barrel and took a sip.

"Oh, this smell! So fragrant and sweet, is this really made of that kind of oatmeal?" Kumquat also took a bite, the sweet taste even made her tail tremble!

"The method of making it is very simple. After you finish eating it, let other watchers learn to make it." Shushan finished eating the maltose as big as the tip of his claw with satisfaction, and also chewed and ate the wooden barrel... Well, vegetarian Dragon Jimao can eat everything.

Kumquat nodded, and couldn't agree more. Thanks to the extremely fertile soil on Shougenqiu Island, the yield of oatmeal grains is 10% higher than that of corn grains. When he thought about how those unpalatable oats could be turned into such delicious food, Kumquat's inner motivation instantly surged!

After eating and drinking, Kumquat got up and left.

Well, you are truly a model watcher.

Working really hard!

But when she left, it seemed like she left something behind... Well, it can’t be said to be left behind, it was just that it was greedy and left it behind... It was a chinchilla.

"Chinobo, are there any orange varieties?" Shushan squinted his eyes and looked at the little elf that was smaller than a fist, who was picking up the leftover maltose blocks.

The orange chinchilla was not afraid of Shushan at all. It ate the candy contentedly. After it had eaten its fill, it jumped and disappeared from Shushan's sight... If I was not mistaken, it should have returned to Kumquat's head.

Most fairies are naturally born individuals. For fairies, there is no concept of reproduction; all fairies are brothers and sisters.

And that orange chinchilla just now...

It should be a newly born fairy...

And its birthplace is here, the Tegenkyu Island, which has obvious traceable magic.

"Is it a fairy born because of the leakage of my divine power? According to the customs of fairies, this kind of newly born young fairy should learn from older parents... Didn't the senior Totoro discover it before? Or did it choose Kumquat as its parent?" Shushan didn't know the customs of fairies. He pondered for a moment and couldn't guess the answer.

The birth of fairies is a good thing, which means that the fertile land of Tegenqiu Island has reached a balance, and the fairies born here will help him maintain this peace... such as guiding the magic power in the soil, which fairies are good at.

Well, so, should we thank nature for this gift?

Shushan smiled and shook his head, then walked towards the experimental field...

. . . . . .

"I! I'm dying, dying, dying!"

'Help, family!'

"There are no more seeds... not even one... left..."

'Oh my god I can't die!'

Shushan silently listened to the voices of the corns. All the diseased corns in the experimental field had already bloomed, and some had already borne fruit, but the current situation... was not optimistic.

The rust fungus is a magical creature. Things with magic are always more magical than those without magic, so it is quite normal for the rust fungus's spores to survive by dehydration in a dry and nutrient-free place...

It is a fact that all corn is infected with corn rust. The spores of corn rust fungus are everywhere, even in unattended wild areas.

But there is nothing we can do about this.

The survival ability of the rust fungus is too strong!

"In conclusion, the rust fungus was born in highly fertile soil and is not adapted to poor soil... Therefore, reducing the fertility of the corn field and reducing the probability of infection by the rust fungus is a necessary sacrifice," Shushan thought.

When humans grow crops, they wish the land was as fertile as possible, but in fact, the more fertile the better... The activity of soil microorganisms will generate heat, and many crops cannot withstand the root temperature and suffer root burn.

Although No. 3 corn has adapted to high-fertility soil, the problem of root burn still exists. The roots are occasionally damaged and cannot penetrate deeper into the soil. This is one of the reasons why No. 3 corn is "soft".

Shushan tried planting No. 3 corn into poorer fields.

The effect is not ideal. The probability of rust disease has decreased, but the yield has also dropped significantly.

However, the rush is not to increase yields, but to give corn fungus resistance traits... To this end, Shushan has cultivated several rounds of corn here.

Finally, corn with fungus-resistant traits!

Tree Hill calls it Corn Number Four!

The root system of this type of corn is more developed, with roots similar to those of oats, which squeeze the growth area of ​​​​the mycelium of the rust fungus. As a result, the yield of corn kernels is greatly reduced.

Afterwards, Shushan asked the No. 4 corn to increase the inflorescence and endosperm nutrition, but... it failed. The No. 4 corn could not do it... they were species that had already specialized in corresponding traits and had already reached the current highest level of yield.

Shushan had anticipated this, so he found the ancestor of No. 4 corn - primitive teosinte - in the grassland north of Zhangqiu Island!

He required the original teosinte to evolve in the direction of lodging resistance and disease resistance, so that it could be hybridized with No. 4 corn.

During the hybridization operation, many problems were encountered, and the complexity gave Shushan a headache.

First of all, the hybridization of corn is slightly simpler than that of rice... Rice is a monoecious crop that can self-pollinate, while corn has two male and two female flowers on the same plant. As long as the operation is done properly, the inheritance of traits can be controlled without looking for male abortive plants.

"Mr. Yuan spent several years looking for a pure male rice plant." Shushan sighed and ordered the primitive teosinte to strengthen the male inflorescence and weaken the female inflorescence.

After several rounds of hybridization, he obtained corn of uneven quality, extremely unstable offspring traits, and a mixture of good and bad traits... So far, this was understandable.

For the Earth Dragon God, the characteristics of corns are easy to find.

Just ask them one by one and you will know.

With the [Command Plant Magic], Shushan can skip twenty or even thirty years of seed searching time and quickly lock onto the target seed resources.

After several rounds of hybridization, the No. 5 corn was born. It has the ability to resist fungi, resist lodging, has high yield, sweet stalks, deep roots, and is very popular with pests and birds.

Oh, that last trait is unavoidable.

The excellent taste of No. 5 corn is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

Now, all the harmful birds and animals know that No. 5 corn is delicious, so it has become a little more difficult to control them. Thank you for the hard work of the watchers.

However, No. 5 corn is not perfect. Because it integrates many traits, it requires a considerable amount of fertilizer or more fertile soil to fully realize its advantages.

Without sufficient fertility, the yield of No. 5 corn is not even higher than that of No. 1 and No. 2 corns. But if the fertility is increased...

This goes against the original intention of resisting rust fungus. After all, rust fungus has a very high special attack on corn in soil with a fertility higher than a certain level - corn is the best parasitic host of rust fungus - so the amount of fertilizer needs to be limited!

Reduce the amount of fertilizer used.

And we want them to increase their production.

This is an impossible thing. You want the horse to run but don't let it eat grass.

Fortunately, corn is an agricultural crop and will not unite to resist, otherwise Shushan would have exterminated corn by now.

Just when Shushan was troubled by this problem, the two little orange guys accidentally solved the problem...

Two orange guys, they are Kumquat and Golden Little Orange. Well, the latter’s name was given by Shushan. He is the chinchilla fairy who always stays by Kumquat’s side.

They are next to the experimental field.

Planted some wild soybeans.

Although it is wild soybean, it is actually just a certain kind of legume, or more than one kind, but multiple similar legumes that were brought back to Tegenkuro Island at the same time and spread.

The reason why Jinju planted these was very simple. The witch of the Palm Ball Island gave her and the watchers a dozen sheep and several cows. However, it was not long since the Palm Ball Island rose from the bottom of the sea. Grazing alone was not enough, and pasture grass needed to be planted to fatten the cattle and sheep.

Those wild soybeans are high-quality forage grass, and for some reason, these wild soybeans are not afraid of rust fungus and can grow safely even in soil attacked by rust fungus.

The No. 5 corn grown around wild soybeans is taller and stronger than other corns.

Well, No. 5 corn meets some of the fertility needs.

After a little thought, Shushan dug up some wild soybeans for observation and found that there were tumors on their rhizomes...

Rhizobium, that's the answer! Some kind of microorganism that lives in symbiosis with legumes! Naturally has antifungal defenses! Crops that can convert air into fertility!

Surprised, Shushan began to cultivate these legumes, selected five of them for planting, and then extracted the two highest-yielding ones through accelerated hybridization.

He named the bean pods which were very fat and big as "fei beans", which has two meanings: "beans from fertile fields" and "delicious taste".

The kind with very small pods was named alfalfa (pronounced the same as 'muxu') according to my impression in my previous life.