Lannett couldn't make a decision by himself, so he sent three of his men back to Cliff City non-stop, asking John II for instructions. Soon, John II came to reply-agreeing to the transaction. As a result, Marin obtained 22 middle-level officers with good disciples, while John II obtained a large number of craftsmen, which can be said to be a win-win situation. Even, on the surface, John II made some money.
When the personnel exchange started, it had already entered March, and the spring plowing in East Frisia officially kicked off...
Using the new-style curved plow, pulled by a single horse, many serfs were not used to it for a few days. But after a few days, everyone got used to this labor-saving and easy-to-use Quyuanli.
It's just that, in order to serve these uncle horses, Marin imported a lot of oats and eggs, so that these horses who work hard can supplement nutrition in time. Even, because pulling the plow will sweat a lot, the horse needs to add salt. Therefore, some salt should be added to the horse feed.
Just for the thousands of draft horses across the country, Marin will organize the import of baskets of eggs, and Marin is planning to plan a chicken breeding business. Of course, this has to wait until the end of the spring plowing.
In this era, the poultry farming business is not easy to scale, because feed supply is difficult. Commoner chickens are usually free-range, and the chickens are allowed to find worms to eat. Want to eat food? It's too extravagant, and there are not enough people to eat. In this era, only China, where agriculture is developed and food is very cheap, dares to feed chickens with food.
In this era in Europe, not only chickens are free-range, but even pigs are free-range. It's not that Europeans don't know that pigs in captivity are better for fattening up, but that pigs in captivity need to be fed with food! Grain in Europe is very expensive, and the black bread that people eat is mixed with a lot of wild vegetables, sawdust, and even stones. How can there be extra grain to feed pigs? Even wheat bran is mixed in the black bread eaten by ordinary people. Only the black bread eaten by the nobles separated the wheat bran.
However, the farmland under Marin's name, because of the use of new fertilizers, can increase the yield dramatically, and it is possible to take out some shriveled grains to feed sheep, chickens, ducks and pigs. However, doing so will definitely lose money. You know, how high is the price of wheat? How high is the price of meat? Feeding grain to pigs and chickens will definitely lose money.
Therefore, it is better to feed pigs with nutrient-rich alfalfa grass. As for raising chickens, Marin wondered, should he raise chickens with maggots? According to the online novels I read in my previous life, maggots are quite nutritious, but they need carrion as a culture medium. But this is not a problem. The price of meat in Europe is relatively cheaper than that in China. It is more cost-effective to grow maggots and raise chickens in Europe...
Of course, raising maggots is not that simple. First of all, maggots are the larvae of flies. They need to be controlled well. Before the maggots grow into flies, they must be eaten by chickens, so as not to turn into flies and endanger the environment.
In addition, because maggots use carrion, it is easy to produce a variety of germs. Therefore, those who are responsible for feeding maggots must be fully armed, preferably wearing a mask, and they should also pay attention to disinfection with lime. Otherwise, it would be a lot of fun to raise maggots to breed diseases.
Of course, none of these issues are currently considered by Marin. What he is most concerned about now is the issue of spring plowing.
Because there are so many horses in the country that need to be raised, Malinte specially planned 5,000 Ugrams of arable land to grow oats to supply domestic horse feed needs.
Although 5,000 Ugrams are equivalent to 60,000 mu of land, tens of millions of catties of oats can be harvested. However, these horses are all European heavy horses!
The local horses are mostly tall horses with a shoulder height of more than 1.6 meters, and they are the ancestors of the later famous Frisian horses and Oldenburg horses. The body is tall and the horse is big, and the appetite is naturally large. A day's feed for horses will reach dozens of catties. If Ma Dun was allowed to eat oats like some extravagant nobles, a horse would consume tens of thousands of jin of oats every year. More than 10 million catties, only enough to raise a thousand horses.
Of course, for ordinary people to raise horses, the proportion of oats in feed is very small. Especially the draft horses are only a minority. It is only when plowing the fields that the physical exertion is heavy, so more oats are fed.
Even for knights' war horses, although oats are often fed, they are also mixed with a lot of other cheap feeds, as well as a lot of tender grass. Otherwise, an ordinary knight family would simply not be able to afford whole oatmeal.
The more than 10 million catties of oats produced by the 5,000 Yugram Oat Field, combined with alfalfa, can be considered very high-grade even if it is eaten by war horses. For this reason, Marin also decided that after the end of spring plowing, he would continue to plow some grassland with a horse to facilitate the planting of alfalfa.
Last fall, the Wadden Islands harvested a lot of alfalfa seed, which can be planted in a very large area. According to Marin's plan, a horse farm was specially planned in the open space near the city of Aurich, and alfalfa was planted in it as the main forage for horses.
The efficiency of the curved shaft plow is not covered. In the past, because the light plow was not effective, and the heavy Saxon plow required several horses to pull it together, the efficiency of spring plowing was very low. Often, spring plowing begins in early March and lasts until mid-to-late April.
But after using the Quyuan plow, the plow that originally required 5 horses can be pulled by one horse, and the farming effect is similar. As a result, the efficiency of arable land in manors that originally used Saxon heavy plows has increased several times.
Most of the noble manors in Lyle County that were confiscated by Marin used heavy Saxon plows, and the number of horses was relatively large. After using the Quyuan plow, the efficiency is greatly improved. Before the end of March, all the 60,000 Yugram cultivated land under Marin's name had finished spring plowing. The manors of other families have also basically ended or are coming to an end.
At the same time, good news came from the Wadden Islands. The arable land in Wanyugram on the island has also finished spring plowing. Of the thousands of horses captured by Marin from France, there are still many left on the Wadden Islands for use as pull power. However, in the autumn, when the large Polish cattle herd arrived in Silesia, Marin was going to buy thousands of cattle to replace the draft horses on a large scale. At that time, those high-quality French horses from the Wadden Islands will be arranged to come to the horse farm in Aurich to professionally breed excellent ponies...
After the plowing was over, Marin sent people to distribute the black fertilizer blocks produced by several fertilizer processing plants to various manors, and arranged for his own serfs to spread them in the fields.
As for what this strange-smelling black thing is, Marin didn't explain a word, and didn't want to explain. Moreover, those responsible for fertilizing are all processing factory employees sent by Marin to deliver fertilizer, and they are all serfs of Marin's own family. They have been trained in secrecy and will never talk nonsense.
Even in the manors under Marin, as well as the manors of the local nobles who surrendered to Marin, the manure was spread by people sent by Marin.
The employees of the fertilizer factory sent by Marin all wore masks and used engineer shovels to evenly scatter a cart (wheelbarrow) of fertilizer lumps into the plowed field, and then immediately returned from work without leaving behind. They ate in those manors and didn't say a word to those people.
This is a special request from Marin. If you don't speak, it is impossible to leak the secret. And eating too. If these people stay in those manors to eat and drink some wine...
Many people are normal before drinking, but talk a lot after drinking. It would be bad if the secret was accidentally revealed...
Therefore, Marin asked the employees of these fertilizer factories not to talk to outsiders, nor to stay and eat locally. After killing the fertilizer, I will go directly to the fertilizer factory for a working meal.
During the spring plowing period, because he knew that the employees of the fertilizer factory worked hard, Marin also gave extra meals. From time to time, I also cook a few pots of braised pork, which is better than staying in those manors.
You know, the black bread that the serfs in the manor ate could be used as a brick to hit people. However, the black bread eaten by the employees of the fertilizer factory is also adulterated, but it will never be mixed with non-food such as stones and sawdust, but only mixed with some wild vegetables and wheat bran, which can be regarded as normal food, and it is different from the black bread eaten by the wealthy households in the countryside. The bread is almost there.
Although, Marin raised 3,000 serfs in several fertilizer processing plants, which cost a lot. However, as long as the secret of the fertilizer is kept, what is this investment? The yield per mu has increased by several hundred catties, and the income should not increase too much...
As for Marin's practice of keeping the fertilizer secret, Schwartz, Frunzberg and other subordinates who knew it were also very much in favor of it, and consciously kept the secret. Because, by doing so, they can maintain the advantages of agricultural technology as much as possible.
You know, although they are far less wealthy than Marin, they still have more than a thousand Ugrams of arable land. Other people's rye yields more than 100 pounds per mu, and their own yields hundreds of pounds per mu. Don't feel too good about it...
When the last load of fertilizer was scattered on the ground by the employees of the fertilizer factory, Marin knew that his wedding should start...