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Chapter 642: Chapter 632: Agriculture Class
"Brother Li, do you have any thoughts on this?" Shen Yunfang had a plan in mind, but she still couldn’t help asking.
"Hehe, I heard from Hongjun that you’re a university graduate from the Agricultural University, so why are you asking me?" Li Dabao said with a grin.
"Ah, don’t listen to his nonsense. I might be a university graduate, but I’m only book-smart. When it comes to actual farming, I’m far behind the experienced farmers. Brother Li, just tell me what do you think we should plant? Let’s discuss it," she urged.
"Well, I won’t consider myself an outsider, so I’ll speak my mind. At this time of year, many crops can’t be planted anymore. If it were up to me, I would plant beans—they’re easy to grow and fertilize the soil for next year’s harvest," Li Dabao spoke confidently.
"Mm, I think that’s a good idea. Back home, we would also plant soybeans around this time, but the yield isn’t great—just a hundred or so pounds per acre," Zheng Hao, who had also been farming these past few years, knew his stuff about agriculture.
"What kind of land is your family’s? It can’t compare to ours here. Look at this soil, it’s so dark and rich—it’s invigorating just to look at it," Zhang Weizhong interjected.
"That’s true," Zheng Hao didn’t get angry, as they had discussed this topic during their evening chats. The land here was indeed more fertile than the soil back in their hometown. They often speculated that with such land, growing wheat or rice would surely result in abundant harvests every year.
"Brother Li, you and I are on the same page. I was also thinking of planting soybeans on all the land we can manage this year. No matter what the final harvest is, as long as it fertilizes the soil without waste, that’s good enough," Shen Yunfang said. "I see you’ve already plowed the field once. In the next few days, when we have a moment, we should till it deeply once more. Then we can have two or three people from each group start ridging. Once I bring over the seeds, we can begin planting."
"Alright, the sun’s been strong, and all the grass roots we picked out the other days have dried up. This afternoon, we can burn the dried grass in the field and then plow deeply again to work the wood ash into the soil as fertilizer," Zhao Xuebing, another small expert in farming, quickly analyzed and laid out the most beneficial course of action.
And so, it was settled.
In the afternoon, they worked together to scatter the dried grass across the field and, after creating a firebreak, they struck a match and set the grass ablaze.
They left two people to keep an eye on the fire, while the rest continued with other work.
Since they had already decided to take advantage of the timing to sow the soybeans, they didn’t start up the tractors in the afternoon. Instead, everyone got down to picking grass roots from the field. There weren’t enough rakes to go around, so they took turns using them. Those who weren’t raking sat on the ground, pulling out grass roots bit by bit.
The next morning, Shen Yunfang brought over the soybean seeds.
These soybeans were collected by Uncle Ye when she was in the Capital, and later, when she had free time, she picked out all the shriveled ones, leaving behind only the plump seeds, which she treated specially.
She wasn’t sure whether it would make a difference, but she had used up an Essence of Life pellet to mix into a basin of water, where she soaked the seeds for several hours, hoping to increase the yield.
Of course, she didn’t waste the water she used to soak the seeds. In the evening, she had Li Hongjun carry it in buckets to water their vegetable patch.
Once Chen Jing and the others had prepared a few acres of land, they began sowing.
Many of them were farmers back at home, and upon grabbing a handful of bean seeds to examine, they all nodded in agreement, the seeds being of excellent quality—large, plump, and delightfully round; it was evident they were select top-quality seeds.
Before proceeding with the planting, Shen Yunfang specially trained the group of men, briefly explaining the selection, treatment, and sowing methods of the seeds.
"...Before sowing, choosing good seeds is quite important, as the quality of the seeds directly affects the uniformity, vigor, and completeness of the soybean seedlings...even the best seeds need to be properly treated. They should be air-dried after soaking, then coated with agents that contain insecticides, fungicides, and trace elements, or agents with a good film-forming property...As for sowing, I’m thinking of implementing the ’Ridge Three’ cultivation method. Have you heard of ’Ridge Three’? Let me explain it briefly to you, it’s like this..."
Shen Yunfang felt that she had merely gone over some basic knowledge, but to this group of burly men, it was as if she had spoken about something completely arcane, resulting in a series of baffled reactions from them.
After speaking for a while, Shen Yunfang realized that these rough men didn’t seem to understand what she was saying at all.
What to do now?
"I think just talking about it doesn’t seem to help much. How about I give everyone a practical demonstration? You watch me do it, and then you follow what I do, okay?" Shen Yunfang asked uncertainly.
This time everyone responded, all nodding. They really didn’t understand; although they felt that Sister-in-law (Yunfang) was fussing over nothing—after all, who hasn’t grown soybeans back home?—but since she was the boss and a university graduate, they, as mere workers, still had to satisfy the boss, didn’t they?
So that afternoon, Shen Yunfang personally went down to the field, attempting to explain what "Ridge Three" cultivation method was. Seeing that most people were hearing but not understanding, she no longer bothered to clarify and began to demonstrate directly.
"See here, the ridges should not be too far apart, just at this distance. For this plot of land, that’s it, just be mindful of the distance between the ridges when you’re ridge-backing... After digging the hole, put two or three seeds in each hole, no need to use too many. Putting in more is just a waste. Then, space each hole about eighteen to twenty centimeters apart. If you can’t measure it, just use your hand as a guide, about one hand’s length is about right," Shen Yunfang explained while demonstrating. Liu Zhiyuan stretched out his large palm, akin to a giant fan, and she said with a hint of defeat, "Your hand is too big. Maybe you shouldn’t spread it out, just place it directly. One palm’s length should be about right." It was the first time she felt giving a lesson could be so exhausting.
She decided to just teach these men how to sow for the time being. As for field management and other matters, she could continue teaching them when the time came.
After the instruction, she let them practice fieldwork on the ridges of the one-acre land. Being in close proximity allowed her to keep an eye on things and promptly correct any mistakes or uncertainties they might have.
Fortunately, everyone had experience with farming. Even if they barely grasped Sister-in-law’s (Yunfang’s) broader principles, farming was still familar territory; they just had to manage the spacing between holes.
Thus, the afternoon of hands-on teaching ultimately proved very effective.
Once the acre was sown, Shen Yunfang dismissed the group and instructed them to go back to their teams to adjust the ridge width before sowing.
She mentioned that there was a bonus for sowing: for every acre of seeds planted, they would receive a one-yuan bonus, which was separate from the payment for clearing the land. This meant that after clearing the land and planting soybeans, each group could earn a two-yuan bonus.
Although they all agreed not to take too much pay from Sister-in-law (Yunfang), the situation now dangled a carrot in front of them, enticing these highly competitive former soldiers to roll up their sleeves and work hard, all vying to be the first.
