On the Atlantic Ocean, a Kirk sailboat was shaking the waves. This was a ship that returned from Grenada. Since Marin collected all the warships and had to use Kirk sailboats when they were in contact with the colonies. Fortunately, there were no pirates making trouble in the Americas in this era. Because the gold and silver in the Americas have not been developed yet.
The boat was loaded with rice and ginger, and there were 5 bags of rice and a bag of ginger, each weighing 100 pounds. This autumn, Grenada also had a good harvest... No, there is no seasonal difference between Grenada, and it can be harvested all seasons. However, there happened to be a good harvest in autumn.
Although sugarcane was also harvested, all sugarcane was used to cultivate new sugarcane seedlings. Therefore, no sugarcane was transported back this time, let alone sugar sugar sugarcane planting area was expanded from the initial two acres of land to 200 acres through seedling cultivation. It can be imagined that next year will definitely be a bumper harvest year.
The only problem is that there are few colonies and not enough feces...
Yes, there is not enough feces. If there is less people, there will be less excrement, and there will be less raw materials for making manure. At that time, there will be insufficient fertilizer. So, Old George scratched his head a little. In order to obtain enough feces, Old George also took the initiative and enthusiastic help to build many toilets in the large yard where the Bucas lived. Every few days, he would send people to the Bucas yard to collect feces and transport them to the fertilizer factory.
But this is not enough, because the farming area has expanded, but the population has not increased much. Therefore, Old George asked the ship transporting the ox to return to Europe and asked Marin to give advice. Because Old George believed that Marin, who had been guided by the great sage, must have a way...
The captain Bald Aben led the Kirk sailboat to dock in Emden and immediately landed on the shore, and went to Orich with 5 bags of rice and a bag of ginger.
Seeing Aben coming, Marin was very happy and hurriedly pulled him to ask about the situation in Grenada.
"Sir, the situation on Grenada is very good at present. The cultivated land has expanded a lot and the wood has accumulated into mountains and cannot be used. Moreover, over the past year, Governor George has led his soldiers to repel five Caribbean attacks and captured 100 slaves. However, Governor George lacks shackles and asks me to send another 500 pairs of shackles when I come back."
In the face of a population shortage, Old George also had an idea and thought of a way to catch prisoners. The Caribbean soldiers who cannibalized Caribbean soldiers were also captured by Old George. However, there were no shackles to restrict them. At present, Old George locked them up and kept them. Why did they keep them? Collect feces... Because these Caribbean prisoners of war are fierce in nature, Old George dared not let them go out to work for the time being. He had to wait until they were putting shackles on them before he could drive them. After all, they were all stolen goods...
"Is there anything missing over there?" Marin asked with concern.
"Mr. George said something inexplicable to me..." Aben touched his bare head, indicating that he could not understand.
"He said... the most scarce thing on Grenada is feces..." Aben was a fisherman and did not know the effect of feces on agriculture. In addition, Marin deliberately blocked the news, so he didn't understand and was confused.
"What? Feces shortage?" Marin was initially confused, but soon reacted.
He understood that a lot of arable land must have been reclaimed on the island, but the amount of manure is limited. Because the number of immigrants is limited, everyone pulls only a little bit every day, so there is not enough fertilizer. Unlike the local area, Marin has brought a lot of immigrants to obtain enough manure. Even those tens of thousands of Polish cows produce a large amount of cow dung every day...
"Yes, cows..., horses and sheep..., no, and pigs... are all good men who pull manure..."
Marin thought of a countermeasure in a blink of an eye...
There is not enough feces produced by humans, right? Let’s develop animal husbandry at the same time! Raise more livestock and let the livestock pull together, will there be enough feces?
Marin began to think about raising cattle, but the cattle raising cycle was too long and the cattle herd grew too slowly. The fewer cattle, the less feces it produced. Finally, Marin thought about raising pigs...
On Grenada, the island of Grenada is like summer, and there is no shortage of green plants. Therefore, pigs are raised there, and tender pig grass can be fed all year round, which is better than in temperate areas. Of course, this is the food condition. The only problem is that it is too hot there to prevent the pig from dying from heat. Fortunately, there are no poisonous insects in Grenada and will not bite the pigs to death...
Moreover, pigs grow fast and reproduce quickly. If you eat more every day, you will naturally have more pig manure. At that time, pig manure will also be a good fertilizer...
Malin remembers that when he was a child, the farmers in the village had not yet set off a craze for work. At that time, the villagers served several acres of land at home all day long. At that time, almost every family raised pigs. They would often build a large pool with a rain-proof ceiling to preserve pig manure and human manure scooped out from the toilet. Before planting crops, they would use a chariot to dig out the mixed fermented manure from the pond and put it into the field as base fertilizer, and then start to cultivate the land. Because they eat too much, the feces produced by the two pigs are definitely no less than those of a family of five.
Therefore, raising pigs more can definitely solve the problem of insufficient feces. But the premise is that the grain must be produced well. Otherwise, what should be used to make it into chaff and feed it to pigs? There was no problem in ancient China, but it was not possible in ancient Europe. In ancient Europe, the grain yield was too low, and wheat bran was eaten by people and not taken out as pig feed. Of course, there was no problem in Grenada, where there were green grass all year round, and pigs could eat pig grass.
After making up his mind, Marin pulled Aben and ordered:
"Let's do this, Aben, after you have a rest, you will go to Grenada and send 300 pigs to you. Of course, it's the piglets..." If you send 300 fat pigs, the feed consumed every day is amazing, and you may not bring enough on the boat. But sending 300 pigs is different. The piglet is small in size and eats less. After sailing for a few months, although it will grow up, it will eat much less than taking the big pigs to you.
These piglets are not castrated, but are used to breed. Therefore, there are more sows and fewer boars. When they arrive at the ground, they will be used to reproduce on a large scale, which can produce pig manure and provide pork.
To this end, Marin wrote a letter on the spot. In the letter, Marin told the West that George must build a separate pigpen and that the pigs should not be allowed to fight each other together to waste their energy. Moreover, pigpens should be careful to prevent high temperatures and try to build them under the shade of trees to prevent the pigs from being killed by heat.
However, Malin remembered the Taihu pig raised in his previous family again...
In this period, the European local pigs were small in size and had few cubs per baby, only five or six. Unlike Taihu pigs, which gave birth to more than a dozen in one baby, the population expanded very quickly. Moreover, the Taihu pigs were much larger than the European local pigs of this era, and naturally produced more meat...
But now Malin doesn’t have any Taihu pigs in his hands, and even the Taihu pig breed has not been formed in the Ming Dynasty. But its source of the breed must be in the surrounding areas of Taihu Lake, otherwise it would not be called this name. However, if you want to obtain such a variety, you must first open the Ming Dynasty trade route...
As for raising sheep in Grenada, Marin never thought about it at all. Because the sheep are covered with thick wool. It’s okay in the temperate area, it’s easy to run to the tropical island of Grenada. It’s easy to get heatstroke... Just imagine, a person wearing a down jacket is warm and comfortable in Siberia, but when he runs to the equator in a down jacket, he will definitely faint from the heat...
The sheep are covered with thick wool, just like a person wearing a down jacket. It is difficult to adapt to the hot and wet island of Grenada. Therefore, it is better to raise pigs in a tropical and humid island like Grenada.
Chapter completed!