After eating three unique breakfasts, Emperor Zhengde burped and asked:
"Master Ma, I have tasted three ways to eat sweet potatoes, which is indeed good. However, is the yield of a thousand kilograms per acre? Is it true or false? If it is true, it will be a blessing for the people of the Ming Dynasty!"
All the ministers nodded one after another. If it were as Marin said, who would still go hungry in the future? In the Ming Dynasty, the poorest families also had a few acres of thin land. According to Marin, even if the land was thin, the yield per mu would be more than a thousand kilograms. Wouldn't it take at least 5,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes? Even if half of it was used to pay the rent and tax, 2,500 kilograms were left, which was definitely enough for a family of five to eat.
What is most unbelievable is that Ma Lin actually said that the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi is also suitable for growing sweet potatoes. This is amazing. Northern Shaanxi is under the jurisdiction of the Trilateral Governor General and is one of the worst areas in the Ming Dynasty's agriculture.
To describe ancient northern Shaanxi in one sentence, it was "poor mountains and bad waters to produce troubled people." Because the loess was barren, there were basically no wheat planting there, but millet. The main reason was that it was difficult to irrigate there and it was difficult to plant wheat with large amounts of water.
However, millet yield per mu is low, and the loess is barren, so the yield per mu is only about 100 kilograms in northern Shaanxi. Even if the family has 20 acres of land, they are still very poor.
If sweet potatoes are really suitable for planting in the loess high slopes in northern Shaanxi, even if the yield per mu is 1,000 kilograms, 20 mu of dry land can produce 20,000 kilograms, which will definitely keep the locals away from hunger.
Therefore, not only Zhengde, others do not believe that sweet potatoes have such high yield per mu. Moreover, everyone doubts that Marin bragging...
...
Malin thought about it and found that it had just entered late June of the lunar calendar and was in summer. In later generations, sweet potatoes had a branch called autumn sweet potato (according to the harvest period), or summer sweet potato (according to the cultivation period). The autumn sweet potatoes were planted in July and harvested from October to November.
So Marin replied directly:
"Your Majesty, I can personally take charge of the planting and show you the results!"
"Planting now? Is it too late?" Zhengde hesitated. There is still a month before autumn, and it seems that there is not enough time.
"Not too late, the sweet potato grows for a short period of time, up to 4 months. It's just right now to plant it!"
Then, Malin found hundreds of kilograms of fresh sweet potatoes, washed them, put them in a humid and hot environment, and let them sprout...
When you see a piece of sweet potatoes begin to germinate, you cut them down and cultivate them as seeds of one plant...
Then, the various parts of the sprouted sweet potatoes were planted into the soil and fertilized...
The place where Marin planted sweet potatoes was arranged on the "one acre and three-point land" used by the emperor to show off his farming...
The so-called "one acre and three-part land" originally refers to the small piece of land that the emperor personally went to the fields to cultivate when he presided over the spring plowing ceremony near the Xiannongtan in the capital. Of course, the emperor's plowing land was only symbolic, so he went back and forth four times, and then he left it to full-time farmers to cultivate.
In order to express his importance to sweet potatoes, Emperor Zhengde asked the farmers who usually manage "one acre and three-point land" to free up three-point land to plant autumn sweet potatoes for Marin.
Then, Malin became a professional farmer, cultivating sweet potatoes to germinate while allowing people to cultivate the land so that the germination of sweet potato seeds can be put into the field...
After planting the ground, Marin did not relax, but was busy. In order to ensure the yield of sweet potatoes, the most basic manure is essential. There is also wood ash, which is also essential for soil potassium fertilizer.
The only thing that makes Marin trouble is that the phosphorus fertilizer is difficult to deal with, even if it is a native phosphorus fertilizer...
For a long time, agriculture in ancient China was very developed. The use of manure began to be popular during the Han Dynasty, resulting in high grain output. Later, it was discovered that wood ash containing potassium can also fertilize the fields.
Therefore, although Chinese farmers do not understand what "three fertilizers are" means, they have also learned to apply nitrogen fertilizer (manure fertilizer) and potassium fertilizer (wood ash), only phosphorus fertilizer is the only thing.
But phosphorus fertilizer is really rare. Apart from the phosphorus ores in nature, there is only bone powder and other things that carry a little phosphorus...
But the effect of phosphorus fertilizer is quite large, which can shorten the growth cycle of crops, increase crop yield, improve crop quality, etc.
But Malin didn't want to reveal the secret of phosphorus fertilizer to the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming officials couldn't hide things in their hearts. There was something good, so they must be in a hurry to show off and especially like to "disclose the world".
The Ming Dynasty people knew these secrets, Marin was not worried. After all, the Ming Dynasty's agriculture was already developed. However, if the Europeans knew these, it would be bad...
Marin's ability to become a top wealthy prince who can afford an army of 60,000 in Europe has a lot to do with his use of advanced agricultural technologies that other countries do not know about.
If he told the Ming Dynasty these tricks, if other countries accidentally obtained these technologies from the Ming Dynasty in the future, it would definitely trigger a revolution in European agriculture.
For example, the Netherlands in history did something called "agricultural revolution" in the 17th century. The reason why the Dutch carried out "agricultural revolution" in their local area was that after occupying Tainan, they learned a lot of oriental agricultural technology through the immigration of Han people in Tainan and promoted the great development of Dutch agriculture...
Of course, Taiwan is now home to Marin. As for the Dutch, it’s better to go wherever you are cool...
The Portuguese had conflicts with the Ming Dynasty, and the invasion of the capital of the Kingdom of Malacca, the younger brother of the Ming Dynasty, caused dissatisfaction among the Ming Dynasty and ministers, and they were unable to have good contact with the Ming Dynasty for a long time. This period of time is the most precious for Marin. As long as you spend this period of time, you will make enough money by then...
Moreover, the use of manure and wood ash in the Ming Dynasty was already very mature, so he couldn't say it was impossible. Instead, he should pay attention to the use of manure and wood ash.
But if phosphorus fertilizer is not applied, it will be exactly 4 months from July to early November. At that time, it was already early winter, which is very unfavorable to the growth and development of crops.
Therefore, in order to make the sweet potatoes bear fruit smoothly, Marin must seize it. The way to seize it is naturally to find a substitute for phosphorus fertilizer. Otherwise, if the growth is slow, it is estimated that all the monarchs and ministers of the dynasty will not be able to see the harvest of sweet potatoes.
Finally, Marin finally came up with a solution - to catch silt from the bottom of a river pond with a lot of fish...
In a river where fish live, after the fish dies, the bones of the corpse will definitely sink to the bottom of the river and merge with the silt. In this way, the silt at the bottom of the river with many fish will definitely have a good content of phosphorus. Although it is far less than normal phosphorus fertilizer, it will definitely be fine to catch more. After all, river mud is not like chemical fertilizers, and it will burn it if you use too much...
So, Malin began to ask Liu Jin to ask Jinyiwei for help inquire about which river in the capital. Then, he sent someone to dig river mud as the phosphate fertilizer of the sweet potatoes on the "one acre of three-point land". Although the phosphorus content is low, it is because the river mud has no side effects, so just pile it up...
Chapter completed!