The Daily Life of a Rich Peasant's Boy in the Imperial Examination

When Sun Shan arrived at the guano experimental base, Sun Dali, along with Sun Caogen and Sun Heitan, had already harvested the vegetables from one of the three experimental plots.

Sun Dali pointed at the green vegetables and said, "Master, look, this one has no fertilizer, this one has ordinary fertilizer, and this one has bird droppings fertilizer."

A pile of green vegetables are neatly arranged, and you can tell at a glance which pile has more and which pile has less.

It's clear at a glance.

Sun Heitan sighed and said, "Master, there are many more vegetables grown with guano than without fertilizer. Oh, you can't see it with the naked eye, but when you compare them after harvesting, you will know that there are far more vegetables grown with guano as fertilizer."

Sun Caogen said in surprise, "Master, there's so much bird droppings in the hills behind Da Niao Village. If we use it to farm, wouldn't we be able to harvest a lot more grain?"

Everyone was excited at the thought of the endless amount of bird droppings in Big Bird Village.

The bird droppings fermented in Sunshan can be used as fertilizer and do not burn the seedlings as the village chief of Da Niao Village said.

If it is used to grow rice, the yield will be much higher.

Sun Shan didn't say anything. He just asked Sun Dali to weigh the weight and asked Sun Dingnan to continue recording.

We also arranged for people to harvest vegetables from five mu of land and one mu of land, so that we could record and compare the data.

Sun Shan has always liked to speak with data. Relying on estimates and imagination will not work.

Sun Dalang asked doubtfully, "Master, if we harvest so much, we won't be able to eat it all."

One acre of land is not enough for people to eat, but it can be fed to pigs. During the harvest, even the pigs can't eat it.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter now. If the vegetables are left overnight, they will turn yellow and become inedible.

Sun Shan waved his hand without explaining, but said directly: "It's okay, just do as I ask."

After Sun Dali finished weighing the vegetables, he came up immediately and patted Sun Dalang gently.

He scolded: "Just do what the master tells you to do. Why bother asking why? If you can figure it out, you will be the master."

After a pause, he continued to scold: "Humph, our master is the top Jinshi in Zhangzhou Prefecture, and he is also the smartest person in our Sunjia Village for a hundred years. His ideas are different from ordinary people. You won't understand even if I tell you. Anyway, do as the master asks, and don't think too much. How can you think clearly?"

Sun Dalang felt a little aggrieved when Sun Dali said this.

But what he said was true. If he knew why, he would be the first Jinshi in Sunjia Village.

Sun Shan quickly consoled him, "Some things can only be explained after they've been done. Just listen to what I ask and do it first, then ask why."

Sun Dali nodded repeatedly in agreement and said, "Master is right."

The look was so flattering that Sun Shan's mouth twitched.

Sun Dalang was much more normal. He scratched his head and said honestly, "Master, I understand. If I still don't understand after I finish the work, I will ask again. Let's finish the work first, and then we can talk about it."

Sun Shan nodded and smiled: "Okay, you guys start working first."

So the men harvested one acre of land, weighed it, and recorded it according to Sun Shan's request.

Harvest another five mu of land, weigh it, and record it.

Finally, harvest one acre of land, weigh it, and record it.

Sun Shan sat in the vegetable garden, watching the men busy at work, thinking that when the summer planting came, he would use rice for experiments.

The method is the same as that of growing vegetables. Three groups of experimental fields are compared to see whether the rice yield increases after using bird droppings.

In fact, according to Sun Shan's knowledge, using bird droppings will definitely increase production, but he has never done any experiments and is not at all confident. He is afraid that the bird droppings will cause problems and be incompatible with rice.

To be on the safe side, it is still necessary to conduct experiments and proceed with caution.

Seeing Sun Shan's frown, Gui Ge'er asked worriedly, "Brother Shan, what's wrong? You seem unhappy?"

It is obvious that vegetables grown with bird droppings have higher yields than those grown using conventional methods. This should be a good thing. Why is Brother Shan still not smiling?

Sun Shan shook his head and said, "It just seems like the increase in production from using guano isn't that much, alas."

I looked at the data recorded by Sun Dingnan.

The yield from using bird droppings was not significantly improved compared to conventional planting methods, which was far from what one would have expected.

When Gui Ge'er heard this, he immediately got angry and said disapprovingly, "Brother Shan, isn't this a high yield? It's one-third higher than the ordinary method, Brother Shan, it's already much higher. Especially for the green vegetables that don't use any fertilizer, the yield is more than double. Brother Shan, let's not be too greedy."

Gui Ge'er righteously pointed out that Sun Shan's idea was wrong. The output was obviously much higher, so how could it be said that it was not much?

In Sun Shan's opinion, the current yield of vegetables and millet is too low.

The correct output should be several times greater than the current one.

Now it is only one third more, which is too little in Sun Shan's eyes.

But Gui Ge'er is right. Under limited conditions, it is already very rare to increase production.

Sun Shan smiled and said, "Gui Ge'er, you're right. I was asking too much."

Seeing that Sun Shan agreed with him, Gui Ge'er said with a smile, "Brother Shan, you're different from us, so you have higher standards. Haha, but being able to increase production by so much is already very impressive."

Brother Shan, don't ask for too much. Even if you do ask for too much, you can ask for it later. Grandma said that you should eat your meal one bite at a time. You can't eat hot tofu in a hurry.

After saying this, he considerately offered Sun Shan some water and fanned him, looking like a typical servant.

Sun Shan took a sip of water. It was a hot day and it was easy to sweat.

Looking at the man harvesting vegetables, I felt that being a farmer was really hard.

Looking back on my childhood, I was weak and didn’t want to farm, so I studied hard. After going around in circles, I ended up having to work around the land and eventually became a farmer.

Sun Shan smiled and said, "The rice in Yuanlu County is almost ready for harvest, and the rice in Huangyang County is almost ready as well."

Although the two places are quite far apart in walking distance, the climate for growing rice is actually quite similar.

He was talking about Huangyang County, but it was actually Sunjia Village. Gui Ge'er thought of Xiao Heimei and Li Jinhua.

Then he said, "Brother Shan, don't worry, the villagers are watching over our family, and the millet in the field will definitely be harvested in time."

Gui Ge'er's wages were not given to Li Jinhua, but to Su.

Let Su help him buy land.

However, Huangyang County has many mountains and few paddy fields, so it is extremely difficult to buy paddy fields. In the end, Su could only buy wasteland for Gui Ge'er.

As for what to plant on the wasteland, Gui Ge'er didn't know and left it all to Su.

His main task was to serve Sun Shan well, and everything else was put aside.

Sun Shan sat in the shade of a tree to enjoy the cool breeze. Sun Dali and others quickly harvested the vegetables and weighed them one by one. Sun Dingnan recorded them one by one.

Sun Dingnan said in surprise: "Master, please open it quickly. The yield of vegetables grown with guano is much higher than that without guano. Thank God, this guano is really useful."

Sun Shan compared the yields of one mu of land, five mu of land, and one acre of land. The three sets of data all concluded that the yield would increase by one third after using bird droppings.

These outputs seemed small in Sun Shan's eyes, but full of surprise in Sun Dingnan's eyes.

They are easier to satisfy than Sun Shan.