The first month is the most leisure time of the year for the country people, even Zhou Zhoulang, who has been busy weaving bamboo baskets, stopped what he was doing, except for the few days of the Lantern Festival, he took the eldest and third children to the county town to set up a stall Outside of selling bamboo baskets, it's almost not very busy.
Man Bao took the opportunity to propose to the elder sister to open up wasteland.
Before Zhou Xi had time to refuse, Zhou Dalang quickly cleaned up the rice in the bowl, and said, "That's fine, let's go together after the breakfast is finished. I went to see the land that Man Bao chose. It's not very big. There aren’t even any trees, so it’s easy to bloom.”
Qian looked at the eldest daughter who was about to refuse, nodded and said: "Well, I will listen to Man Bao on this matter."
Then he said to Zhou Xi: "That piece of land is yours, and you will keep the future of the land yourself."
Zhou Xi felt a little uneasy, and lowered his head in response.
After dinner, the whole family went to the field, and even the old Zhou Tou followed with his hands behind his back to have a look. Mrs. Qian called Zhou Xi to stop, and said: "Since studying, your sister has become more and more intelligent. We don't understand many things. Since she told you to plant ginger, then you should plant one carefully. Anyway, it will take a lot of money." Strength comes from the land, and what our family lacks most is people.”
Zhou Xi has been home for more than ten days, and she has also noticed the difference. In her impression, Man Bao is a weak young girl, but this time after returning home for a long stay, she found that the family still loves her as much as before. But there are many differences.
For example, when choosing grain seeds two days ago, old Zhou Tou called Man Bao to him and asked her to calculate how many catties of grain seeds the family planted.
For another example, during the Lantern Festival a few days ago, the second child was going to sell bamboo baskets in the county town, and asked Manbao specifically if he would go.
Man Bao disliked that it was too cold, and the homework assigned by her husband was not good enough, so she didn't go, but let the fourth, fifth and sixth children go, and after returning home, the second child gave all the money to Man Baoshu , How much is handed over to the public, and how much he has left, Man Bao can calculate it clearly.
Zhou Xi looked at it with a calm expression on his face, but he was shocked in his heart. At night, he couldn't help thinking, is it true that daughters are like fathers, and fathers are smart, but daughters are so smart
Now that her mother mentioned this, she couldn't help but sit beside her and asked, "Mother, Man Bao is so smart, what should I do in the future?"
Qian's sewing hands paused slightly, and then said: "It's a good thing for a child to be smart, what should I do?"
Zhou Xi wanted to say more, Qian said: "You should also go to the field to have a look, it is your land after all, you can't just make your brothers and sisters-in-law tired."
Zhou Xi responded, got up and chased Zhou Dalang and the others.
Man Bao, Datou Daya and other children rushed to the front, screaming and plunging into the weeds.
Zhou Dalang couldn't help yelling at them, he stabbed back carefully.
Man Bao, no, it should be said that the piece of land that Keke chose for Zhou Xi is next to Zhou Zhoulang's, but there is a stone in the middle.
Lao Zhou took a look and found that the land was very small, only about two centimeters, but there were a lot of weeds growing in the field. Because the weeds had just passed the winter, the long weeds were withered and yellow, but at this time some grass sprouts were sprouting on the ground.
He hoeed a hoe and found that the soil was okay, and there were no big trees or large stones in this area. Although it was a bit small, two points was enough.
Old Zhou gave the hoe to Da Lang, nodded and said, "Okay, let's just cut the grass first."
Then he went to talk to Zhou Zhoulang, "Look at you, and look at your sister, what kind of land did you choose? There are trees and stones, and it took two months to open up wasteland."
Zhou Zhoulang said unconvinced: "My big one!"
Old Zhou Tou snorted, "What's the use of being big, the land is not fertile, can you grow something?"
Speaking of this, Lao Zhou got angry and said: "In the future, you are not allowed to get fertilizer from home. If you want fertilizer, you can retting it yourself. Look at how much fertilizer you picked up in the field a while ago? You don't want to farm at home in spring?"
This is Zhou Zhoulang's guilty conscience, he lowered his head.
Man Bao, who was happily picking up stones and throwing them out, listened and ran away, because she asked the fourth brother to pick those fats.
Little Qian obviously knew that it was her idea, seeing her running over quickly, he stretched out his finger and tapped her forehead.
If there are more people, it will be quicker to open up wasteland, not to mention that Zhou Dalang Zhou Erlang and Zhou Zhoulang are both good at work, much better than the three younger brothers, and there are Xiaoqian and the others mowing grass and picking stones.
Each of them took a corner and hoeed it directly, and dug up the land in one day.
Of course, it’s not enough to dig it out. Tomorrow, we have to knock out the grass roots, etc., smash the mud, and turn it over again. It’s best to spread a layer of fertilizer to raise it.
But old Zhoutou is very stingy now, and no one is allowed to touch the family's fat. In his opinion, nothing is more important than spring planting, which is the family's ration for a year, and it cannot be neglected.
So Zhou Dalang planned to go to the mountains to dig a layer of mud for Zhou Xi to cover.
But they obviously didn't choose a good place. The dug up soil was covered with a lot of unrotten leaves. Man Bao looked at it with disgust and said, "How can we cultivate the land like this?"
Zhou Dalang asked Man Bao with a smile, "Then what do you say?"
Man Bao squatted on the ground and asked, "Couldn't it be retting like we do at home?"
"It's not fat." Zhou Dalang said. The manure at home is made of manure mixed with wheat straw, straw and river mud.
Manbao started digging the soil with leaves from the mountains, but Zhou Dalang is a good farmer. He has seen that the layer of soil dug out is indeed a little fatter than the soil obtained from land reclamation.
That's why he was willing to do it.
Man Bao didn't have his solidified ideas. She felt that since Keke said that fallen leaves can fatten trees, it means that fallen leaves are also fertile.
Didn’t Keke just say that the layer of black soil under the tree is the fertility of the soil after years of decay by fallen leaves, and the reason why the vegetation in the forest can grow so well without anyone fertilizing it The reason is that fallen leaves and flowers will add fertility to it.
In this case, they should use them to fertilize, because isn't fertilization just to speed up the process of decay
Of course, she doesn't know how to fertilize, so this kind of thing should be left to the eldest brother and the others.
Zhou Dalang asked her, "Is it written in the book? How did it become fat?"
"I don't know," Man Bao said, "I haven't seen such a book yet, but brother, don't worry, I'll take a look when I get back. Now you can retch like the one at home, and we don't need to add fertilizer water. Just water the river, and sprinkle more leaves into it."
Zhou Dalang: ...
This is the first time I heard that retting does not require fertilizer and water, but leaves are scattered instead.
He didn't trust Man Bao very much, but she was really annoying, so he had no choice but to take his brothers and dig a big hole for them beside the ground, and pour all the soil mixed with the leaves dug from the mountain into it.