"Good! Very good! Very good indeed! Send out the ssenger, and reward a year’s salary to every Divine Revelation Priest involved in the guano research! Then, select a few priests who perford excellently and promote them all to First Level! They must continue to research this significant topic of fertilization and increased production!"
The camp was warm, and the fire shone brightly. Xiulote drank a cup of flower tea to the bottom and exhaled a long breath of satisfaction. He looked at the docunt from the Divine Revelation Place he held, as if looking at farrs on the field, full of hope for a bountiful harvest.
"Food is the foundation of the Kingdom! All thods that can improve food production should be researched, promoted, and even popularized in the na of the Chief Divine! ...Ecatl, in the future, any docunts related to agricultural improvent, you must bring them to at the first opportunity!"
"Yes, Family Head! I will certainly do as you say!"
Guard Commander Ecatl bowed his head and stood by waiting. Xiulote nodded and took a booklet from the most important copper box. It was a small book he had personally summarized, "On Agricultural Reform". This booklet had a rough draft written, which would be sent to the Kingdom’s Divine Revelation Place for completion, and then included in the curriculum of Divine Power University, disseminated in the na of Divine Revelation.
Xiulote flipped through it, and the first Chapter was about the basic needs for crop growth: sunlight, moisture, nutrients, temperature, and hinted at the principle of photosynthesis, "Divine light falls from the sky, absorbed by greenery in a suitable environnt, turning the divine power of light and nutrients from the soil into tiny bits of vitality. The gathering of vitality becos food...".
In the next Chapter, actual factors affecting yield were listed in detail, including the seeds themselves, soil conditions, competition with weeds, water and nutrient supply at different growth stages, changes in outside temperature, pest and disease damage, and destruction by birds and beasts...
These are agricultural common knowledge of later generations, accumulated from centuries of agricultural developnt. Anyone who has spent so ti in the countryside, read related books, or grown flowers and plants themselves would have so understanding.
"A grain of sand from future generations, when placed in this era, becos a mountain of scientific accumulation, saving hundreds of years of detours! And spreading the science of future generations and leaving behind knowledge for the era is a duty that no transmigrator can forget!..."
In his spare ti during the siege, Xiulote focused all his attention on carefully searching through past mories, adding whatever ca to mind. He then proposed so thods for improvent and yield increase based on the various yield-affecting factors.
Therefore, the content of the third Chapter was the "breeding" that had been instructed to the Divine Revelation Place. For primary crops like corn, beans, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes... there was continuous generational change, purposefully selecting the best varieties among them. Like the groundbreaking hybrid rice, breeding requires a long ti and the summing up of scientific theories. It doesn’t have an imdiate effect on increasing crop yield but raises the upper limit of crop productivity!
Of course, His Highness of the Divine Revelation only pointed out a few words, indicating the related concepts. As for the tedious and complex actual breeding work, it naturally had to be left to experienced farrs and Divine Revelation priests. After all, breeding research is undertaken in units of ten years, requiring a true lifeti dedication!
The fourth Chapter is "Field Managent, Agricultural Tool Innovation, and Tillage Systems". Although it has such big titles, what was actually completed in the Chapters was only "Deep Plowing and Human-Powered Plows", "Irrigation and Waterwheels, Canals", "Weeding and Hoes", "Harvesting and Large Scythes"... Most of these are common scenes in the countryside of later generations, and their beginnings already existed in Central Arica at this ti.
Guard Commander Ecatl could understand these contents, but he beca sowhat confused with the so-called "Tillage Systems" that followed. Things like "Mixed Planting of Corn, Pumpkins, and Beans", "Chinampa Floating Fields and Fish Ponds of Lake Texcoco", even "Bison-tad Farming Pastures"....
Guard Commander Ecatl quickly glanced at it and then lowered his head. He found that His Highness seed unclear as well, having only listed so big headings. Under each big heading, only a few brief paragraphs were written, outlining the ideas and directions.
"Hmm, these divine revelation insights all have a direction. As for what exactly it looks like, what the principles are, and how to operate it... let’s leave it to the priests of the Divine Revelation Place to commit to the fields and research diligently!"
Xiulote focused intensely, thinking while reading, quickly flipping to the fifth Chapter. The fifth Chapter is "Water and Fertilizer Supply at Different Stages", firstly introducing an experiential concept: from seeding to fruition, the demands and absorption capacities on water and fertilizers for crops when they are small to when they are large are surely different.
As for how exactly they differ, and how much different crops each require, Xiulote left these completely unexplored. These tedious practical tasks, which take years to perform, would need to be grown by experienced farrs, recorded, and calculated by Divine Revelation priests, then entered into the books.
Xiulote paused briefly, then looked further back, specifically at water and fertilizer managent, which is a key promotion point in the Kingdom’s grand plan of developnt, pushed by the Divine Revelation Place.
"Water" is straightforward, essentially building water facilities to regulate water volu, including canal construction, reservoir construction, and waterwheel construction. Easy to say, but the actual work requires mobilizing substantial human and material resources! One of the grand plans for the Kingdom’s developnt is to dredge southern rivers, construct a series of water facilities, improve irrigation for two southern counties, and regulate floods.
As for "fertilizer", the Kingdom is currently promoting "composting", encouraging "river silt dredging", experinting with "bison livestock", and most importantly, advancing natural fertilizers like "guano rock"!
Xiulote picked up his pen and wrote down the newly received report in the section for "Guano Rock".
"Under the protection of the Chief Divine! 1 ton of crushed guano rock spread into the fields will continuously release fertility for a long term. In the first year, it can increase yield by at least 4 tons of food. The second year is still unknown... These rock fertilizers are truly real equivalents of food! The coastal trade route to the Northern Continent must be expanded quickly, to bring back more guano rock!"
As for the final sixth Chapter, it is "Other Factors Affecting Yield". Xiulote has listed temperature, pests, diseases, and animal damage, but in fact, few improvents can be made by the Kingdom on these factors.
In this era, crops are usually rugged and do not have the high yield yet fragile nature of future generations, and have considerable disease resistance. Regarding pests, before European fleets arrived, Arica had no records of locust infestations, and the slightly troubleso red imported fire ants obediently stayed around the Parana River basin in South Arica, around what will be known as Paraguay in later tis. As for animal damage, villagers would stay in the fields during the autumn harvest, scaring off birds and beasts. This is about all that can be done. As for mobilizing and exterminating pests and animal harm, that remains very much a "fantasy story" unimaginable for this era!
Therefore, the only subject Xiulote wrote is "Agricultural Responses to Northern Continent Cold Waves". This topic will be key for the Kingdom’s future farming and expansion in the North Arican continent. Xiulote proposed to the Divine Revelation priests that they start from a single direction: cultivating cold-resistant crops, with a priority on potatoes, but sweet potatoes are also worth a try.
"Alas... the voyage to the Inca has never been opened. The current potato varieties in the Kingdom still co from hundreds of years ago, brought back by the Mayans from the Chibcha... For truly cold-resistant high-yield potato crops, it is still necessary to go to the South Arican continent, to the Andes Mountains!"
Xiulote mused for a mont, looking towards the south. He had already arranged new exploration voyages heading in both northern and southern directions. But given the Kingdom’s navigation capabilities, all this exploration needs to be thought of in terms of years, and cannot be rushed.
"Seed breeding, promoting new agricultural tools, improving field managent, building water facilities, promoting composting and silt dredging, and applying guano rock fertilizers... these six items are the vital tasks in the Kingdom’s large-scale agricultural reform, able to significantly enhance the Kingdom’s food production!"
Thinking of this, a confident smile appeared on Xiulote’s face. Then, that smile turned into anticipation, accompanied by so unease, and finally beca resolute and fearless!
"Of course, there is still much left to fill in agricultural reforms. But the most crucial and urgent among these is dosticated large livestock from the Old Continent! Cattle, sheep, pigs, horses..."
"In just two more months, it will be the year 1490... Soon, soon, they will arrive! I have also waited too long... Waiting for to personally lead the soldiers to pacify the Totonac people of Golden Bay City, the sea route to Cuba will then be opened! And the great troop of the Kingdom’s Warriors can head to Cuba... waiting for them to arrive!
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