In autumn, more than 3,200 Ugrams of rye on Texel ripen. Leaving aside the church’s 200 Ugrams of land, the 1,000 Ugrams under Marin’s name and the 2,000 Ugrams of his men’s land were all plowed with curved plows and manure was applied.
Not only that, but when he was free, Marin also urged the serfs to go to the ground to pull out weeds by hand, so as not to endanger the growth of rye.
Moreover, the sowing of rye on Texel Island is also hole-sowed, not the sowing commonly used by European farmers in the Middle Ages. Sowing is indeed easy, but the seed distribution is uneven and the sowing is shallow. Because, the seeds scattered by human hands may sometimes get together, and sometimes some parts may be missed. If they are piled together, when the seedlings are growing, they will rush for fertilizer. As a result, none of the several seedlings that get together can grow well. And where the seeds are not sprinkled, it is easy to cause waste.
However, hole sowing is different. When sowing, the rows have already been divided, leaving a suitable growth space for the seeds. Before sowing, Marin also directed the serfs to use the salt water seed selection method to select good seeds with full grains. At the same time, the depth of hole sowing is deeper than that of sowing, which is more conducive to seed development. Therefore, this kind of sowing method has good effect and good yield.
When the harvest began, Malin specially sent Kohler to sit in the town to count the output. As the bundles of wheat straw with ears were sent to the threshing floor, the serfs separated their hands and began to separate the grains.
Everyone has a clear division of labor. Women use iron sickles to cut down the wheat and stalks in the field and place them neatly in the field. Some of the men went to the field to tie up the straw with simple straw ropes woven from weeds. Let some of the stronger ones carry bundles of straw to the side of the road.
On the side of the road, there was a row of carriages parked. Some men were responsible for throwing bundles of straw onto the carriage. The horse-drawn carts then transport the piles of straw to the threshing floor.
When they arrived at the threshing ground, the straw with the ears of wheat was thrown down and piled up. Then, another group of people started to untie the wheat straw, held the straw part, put the wheat ear part on the stone and beat it, so that the wheat grain was separated from the husk and the straw.
After separation, because of the inclusion of a large number of shells. The farmers used wooden tools and started turning. For mature ears of wheat, the husk and grain are not firmly bonded together. Under the agitation of external force, they are squeezed against each other, and soon the wheat grain and the outer shell are separated.
Then, the farmers used tools to lift the mixture of wheat grains and husks down from a height against the wind. The wheat grains are dense and heavy, and when they fall from top to bottom, they fall directly to the ground with little deviation. The wheat shell is light and has low density. When it is blown by the wind, it will float to the lower tuyere, and the deviation will be large. After repeated wind blowing, the wheat husks and debris were gradually separated, leaving only the wheat grains...
Of course, this is not the end. After separating the wheat grains and chaff, the wheat grains should be spread out on the threshing floor and exposed to the sun until the wheat grains are dry...
After a month of hard work, the wheat fields on the island were harvested and processed. At the same time, Malin's 200 Yugram soybeans were basically harvested.
According to the statistics of Kohler and others, the 2,800 Ugram rye fields of Marin and his men on the island can produce an average of 3,000 pounds of rye per Ugram, which is equivalent to 250 pounds of rye per acre...
250 pounds, which is only equivalent to 227 catties, which is really low for Marin, who is used to yielding thousands of catties per mu in later generations. But for the Europeans in the Middle Ages, it was extremely productive...
Because, these days, the yield of rye per mu in Europe is generally around 150 pounds. Only fertile Italy can weigh more than 200 pounds...
So, the whole island boiled...
"As for it? Each yogurt only produces 3,000 pounds, which is also called a good harvest?" Marin was speechless. In modern times, more than one mu of land can produce so much, let alone 12 mu of land
However, Marin's men felt even more speechless when they heard Marin's words...
"Master, you don't know much about agriculture. In our German region, the yield of yogurt rye can reach 1,800 pounds, which is considered a good harvest. Now the yield is as high as 3,000 pounds, an increase of up to two-thirds, everyone Can you be unhappy?" Kohler said speechlessly. The other people around agreed with Kohler's words and nodded together.
"Tch, so happy with such a little achievement? It's really useless. My teacher told me that in the East, it is very common to produce 300 pounds per mu." Marin has no love for this data, and has no feeling at all. In later generations, if his family's wheat yield per mu is less than 1,000 catties, his father and mother will feel very unlucky. Therefore, his vision is also very high.
"Okay, boss, your teacher is awesome, and you are also awesome..." Schwartz on the side was speechless.
The newly joined Frundsberg has been on the sidelines of Sparta for a long time. His family is a knight family, also led by a little knight, with several hundred yogurts of cultivated land. He was shocked by the high yield of rye on the island. As for Marin's other younger brothers, because they are used to the miracles created by Marin, they are already somewhat immune. Only Frundsberg, seeing the "Miracle Martens" for the first time, was so shocked that he was a little speechless.
Schwartz seemed to see Frundsberg's shock. He patted Frundsberg on the shoulder and said meaningfully:
"Okay, brother, don't be surprised. Our boss is so fond of creating miracles. I have been with the boss for a long time, and I have seen more miracles than I have seen in the past twenty years combined..."
…
Marin was also very dissatisfied with the output of oatmeal. Because the yield of oats per mu is only 120 pounds, which is 108 catties per mu. However, oat grass from oats is also a good feed. Although the harvest of seeds is low, it is not unacceptable. Moreover, the yield of oat seeds in later generations is only three to four hundred catties, which is about the same as that of soybeans.
200 yogurts are equivalent to 2,400 mu of land, with an yield of 120 pounds per mu, and a total output of 288,000 pounds. At present, the price of European oats is very high, reaching 3 pfennigs per pound, which is equivalent to the daily salary of a craftsman. And oatmeal is also very useful, because horses need to eat it often.
There are more than a thousand horses on Texel, and the consumption of oats is naturally great. And Marin didn't plan to make money by selling oats, but planned to feed the horses. Even, because the amount of 288,000 pounds of oats is too large, Marin plans to expand the number of horses and breed more horses.
And these horses did not live up to Marin's expectations. In spring, many stallions are lured by mares to commit "original sin" on the green pastures. Come fall, many mares have big bellies...
Ma Lin has counted that there are more than 200 pregnant mares, and by the beginning of next year, more than 200 foals will be born. Marin was very happy, and planned to hire a high-level horse breeder to train those foals well, hoping that they would produce a considerable number of war horses...
Under the strong suggestion of his subordinates, Marin organized a grand harvest celebration. All the subordinates, as well as the serfs, were celebrating the harvest.
You know, the 800 Yugram rye fields under Marin's name produced 2.4 million pounds of rye. And the other soldiers, each 5 yog wheat field, also produced an average of 15,000 pounds of rye.
15,000 pounds of rye, worth 15,000 pfennigs, equal to 93.75 marks, or 250 ducats. It may be nothing for a big local tyrant like Marin, but for these poor mercenaries, it is definitely a huge sum of money. You know, they work hard as soldiers, and their daily salary is only 2 pfennigs, and after a year, their salary is only 12 gold coins. 250 gold coins, even if there is only a profit of 150 gold coins, it is considered a huge sum of money to them...
Of course, these lands were treated as the "fief" of 400 soldiers in disguise. Therefore, Marin no longer needs to pay them additional salaries. In this way, these 400 big-headed soldiers are somewhat similar to the government soldiers of the Tang Dynasty.
Not to mention those ordinary mercenaries, even Schwartz and Frundsberg are also very jealous. Marin has promised to give Schwartz 100 Ugrams of land, and the serfs have already cultivated the land, and they can plant it only in the spring of next year.
Even, Frundsberg, Marin promised him 50 Ugrams of land. You know, 5 yogurts of rye field can make each of those mercenaries earn 250 gold coins (although the net income is only 150 gold coins, because costs, daily expenses, tithes and other taxes have to be taken into account), 100 gold coins Isn't the annual income of yogurt land 5,000 gold coins? 50 yogurts, and 2,500 gold coins... You know, a war horse is only worth 100 gold coins...
Both Schwartz and Frundsberg could already imagine the scene where they counted gold coins until their hands cramped...
"By the way, Schwartz, George (Frundsberg), you two, remember, don't disclose our advanced agricultural technology to the outside easily. Otherwise, everyone will learn it, and the yield will be high, and the price of wheat will drop. If it plummets, we won't have so much income... "
"But, boss, what about my family estate?" Frundsberg asked.
"Don't worry about it for now, your land on the island is enough for you to make a fortune. If you perform well, I'll give you another 50 yogurts of land to see how you perform..."
"Boss, what if our agricultural technology is peeped by outsiders? There are many foreign businessmen on the island. Moreover, we can't control the church on the island..." Schwartz asked worriedly.
"Don't worry about the church. How do those priests know how to farm? Moreover, they don't even bother to go to the fields, they just stay in the church. Farming is done by serfs and has nothing to do with the priests. As for those Foreign merchants..." Marin thought for a while, then said:
"Well, in the future, those merchants from outside the island will only be allowed to stay in the port of Tejorenche for trade. They must be approved and are not allowed to go deep into the interior. Tejorenche is a port, and there is no farmland nearby, so they can't see anything... "
"Good idea, I'll do it right away..." Schwartz, who is also the island's sheriff, knows what to do...
In fact, Marin himself knows that manure application and the use of oriental farm tools are not advanced technologies, and they are easy to be learned. The Venetians kept the glass mirrors so strict that they were finally stolen by the French. Marin didn't think this secret could be kept for a long time. However, it would be good to keep it secret for a longer time. At least, let everyone earn more money and improve the family's financial situation first...