Chapter 545: What are the prospects for Da-melon seeds?

First of all, these Da-melon seeds are what some people call black melon seeds, the kind with thick skin, distinct from sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds also come in many varieties; for example, the black ones used for oil extraction are called oil sunflowers, and the ones usually roasted are called flower sunflowers, which have less oil and are suitable for roasting.

There are also white, slender ones, which are the current horse-tooth melon seeds, generally used for boiling five-spice melon seeds, about the same size as flower sunflowers.

This is an aside, let's not dwell on it.

The person looking for Liang Dacheng was Xu Jianjun. He didn't get to weave the carrying poles this year and had some resentment toward Li Long, but there was nothing he could do. Who told him to cause so much trouble last year?

Of course, Xu Jianjun didn't think this was his own reason; he just felt Li Long didn't like him. Later, after the carrying pole weaving was over, those people each received more than three hundred yuan, which made him envious.

More than three hundred yuan! At that time, several bicycles were added to the team. This was true envy!

But envy was envy, and there was nothing he could do if they didn't want him.

Later, when tying large brooms, Zhang Qiang caused trouble, so Xu Jianjun sent the large brooms he tied to Zhang Qiang. Anyway, earning the same money, sending them there could also disgust Li Long, so why not do it?

Unfortunately, that kid Zhang Qiang didn't hold on, and in the end, he had to take the large brooms and go to Shicheng to set up a stall to sell them early and late, tiring himself half to death, yet he didn't dare to have any resentment toward his father-in-law, Wang Tiansheng.

He was also a coward.

He tied large brooms and earned more than a hundred yuan. With his pockets bulging, he thought about whether he could borrow some money to buy a bicycle.

More and more people in the village had bicycles, and he was jealous too.

As a result, he heard that the Liang brothers were following Li Long to deal with Da-melons.

Although Xu Jianjun had opinions about Li Long, he knew Li Long's style: if he asked people to work, he would definitely pay them. Originally, this work would definitely have had a share for Tao Dayong, but now everyone in the village knew Tao Dayong was accompanying his wife to prepare for childbirth, so he was excluded.

Li Long had saved Liang Shuang Cheng's life, and it was normal to have a good relationship with the Liang brothers. Xu Jianjun came over to ask how much labor money Li Long gave them.

"Jianjun is here." Although Liang Dacheng didn't like this guy, since he came and wasn't a sworn enemy, he had to greet him.

Fortunately, most families in the village didn't eat dinner tonight, and there was no need to offer food. Their family conditions were slightly better than in previous years, and it was estimated that they would just drink some sweet soup and gnaw on some steamed cake later.

"I heard you went to Li's Da-melon field to work today?" Xu Jianjun stood in the courtyard and chatted with Liang Dacheng.

"Hmm, squeezing Da-melon seeds," Liang Dacheng said casually. "What, you want to go too?"

"That's impossible. Even if I wanted to go, I couldn't. Besides, I just finished tying large brooms, I don't have the leisure to work again. Isn't it comfortable staying at home?" Xu Jianjun said this on purpose.

"That's true." Liang Dacheng didn't argue. If he talked about such things with such people, he wouldn't be able to say anything that wouldn't be distorted and spread out.

"How much money does Li Long give for a day's work?" Xu Jianjun asked directly when he saw Liang Dacheng didn't take the bait.

"Ten yuan."

"Ten yuan? So little?" Xu Jianjun pretended to be surprised. "Tying brooms for a day is ten or twenty yuan. Isn't it tiring to deal with Da-melons for a day?"

"Little?" Liang Dacheng laughed. "Jianjun, find me a job that pays ten yuan a day now, let alone ten yuan, eight yuan is fine. As long as you can find it, I'll do it every day, even in winter!"

Xu Jianjun didn't speak. He couldn't say it!

Why would he think ten yuan a day was little? Wasn't it because Li Long had organized three big jobs for the team in one year: weaving carrying poles, tying large brooms, and making reed bundles.

Weaving carrying poles was for a few people to earn money, let's not mention it. Tying large brooms and tying reed bundles were things the whole village could participate in. These jobs allowed every family in the village to earn an average of several hundred yuan.

Once rich, some people started to look down on this ten yuan a day.

Of course, Li Long being able to offer ten yuan was also considering this point. He wasn't short of this little money, and he also wanted to find people from the village. Otherwise, if he found people from other villages, he could find people for five yuan a day, or even three yuan a day.

But there was no need for that. He was in the county most of the time, but his brother, including his parents' family, were all in the team, so he had to leave some human favors.

Moreover, the Liang brothers had a good relationship with Li Long, and Li Long was willing to let them earn the money.

Xu Jianjun also came to his senses. Yes, when did he start thinking that a job paying ten yuan a day shouldn't be done? Ten yuan! Two years ago, before the land was divided, some people didn't even have ten yuan left after a whole year!

Of course, he came over with the intention of sowing discord, but Liang Dacheng was very clear-headed.

Xu Jianjun figured out the situation and saw that Liang Dacheng's will was also very firm, so he had the intention to leave, but finally said:

"Ten yuan is fine for us. But for Li Long, it's a small matter, right? Let alone ten yuan, you three brothers have a good relationship with him, twenty yuan should be fine, right? He has so much money..."

"He has so much money because he earned it, what does it have to do with us?" Liang Dacheng shook his head. "People have the ability, that's their business. I envy it, but I don't have the ability to earn it, and I didn't think about dividing other people's money. I earn what I can earn, as for the rest, that's not what I think about."

Seeing that the sowing of discord failed, Xu Jianjun laughed dryly a few times and left.

He didn't lose anything either. If he couldn't stir up Liang Dacheng, couldn't he stir up others?

Everyone came from that era, was it difficult to cause some trouble?

The next day, Li Long drove the tractor from the county back to his brother's house, pulled his brother up, put the pots in place, and drove toward the Da-melon field.

The two sisters-in-law and his father and mother in the courtyard had already started working.

When they arrived at the field, the Liang brothers had already come over and were piling the Da-melons together. There were also other people from the village watching and talking nearby.

Hearing the tractor sound, some people left, and some were still there. It was cool in the morning, no one was eating Da-melons, but everyone was curious.

Through the spread of the matter, everyone already knew that Da-melons were to be used for seeds, and how to get the seeds out was still a problem. The Li family's use of such an indigenous method made everyone quite novel, and everyone wanted to see it. Of course, it was not ruled out that they wanted to learn.

After all, growing grain could fill the stomach, but it was a bit difficult to get rich.

The Li family's growing of Da-melons could be considered pioneering. Economic crops were usually more valuable than grain crops. If the Li family really made money growing this, many people in the village would follow suit.

It had been like this for forty years. In rural areas, it was difficult to talk about science when growing land, but it was too easy to follow the trend.

So it was not easy to really get rich. Farmers themselves were at the very end of the information chain. Usually, it was only when others made a fortune that they knew this information, and by the time they followed, they had already become leeks, and others had already made enough money and withdrawn from the market.

For example, "Garlic You Fierce," "Bean You Play," "Ginger You Army," and so on.

And there were also things like snow chrysanthemum and black goji berry that had happened here. Capital games never included farmers.

Of course, the Li family's case was different; this started from the village, so this could be followed.

The Liang brothers watched the tractor drive into the field and quickly came over to help unload the large pots and set them in place. Li Long found that Liang Lao Da and the others had already dug a pit in the front position, so the large pot was more stable after being seated.

After setting up the boards, Liang Lao Da and Liang Lao Er immediately started pressing the Da-melons.

Li Long and Li Jianguo were also pressing, and someone nearby asked.

Similar to whether it could be pressed clean, how many kilograms one mu could harvest, where to sell it, and so on.

Li Jianguo occasionally said a word or two, and basically, Li Long was answering. Anyway, he was young, but he knew how to earn money, so everyone was convinced by him.

But if he really said something wrong, others couldn't find fault either. After all, "no hair on the mouth, things are not firm," you, a forty or fifty-year-old person, couldn't criticize a twenty-year-old person for being rigorous and powerful.

"One mu of land harvests one hundred to two hundred kilograms, and now only roasted snack factories and seed companies can collect them," Li Long didn't hide it, and said everything that should be said. As for which roasted snack factory and which seed company, that was another matter.

In fact, these people thought that since Li Long grew them, the seeds should be easy to get. But in fact, if they grew them next year, there was a high possibility that others would go to the seed company to buy seeds, and they would be buying the melon seeds grown by the Li family.

After all, there were not many people growing Da-melons in this day and age, but there were few.

"How much money can one kilogram sell for?" This was the question everyone cared about most.

"A little over a yuan?" Li Long gave a vague answer. He didn't want to say more than three yuan, after all, that number was a bit scary.

Think about it, at present, a good mu of wheat harvests two hundred kilograms, and a poor one harvests one hundred-plus kilograms.

How much does one kilogram of wheat sell for?

If handing over public grain, it was one jiao and two fen; different-priced grain was one jiao and eight fen; the average price was about one jiao and five fen. I don't know if it will rise this year, let's calculate based on the highest, two hundred kilograms per mu, then the gross income of one mu of land was thirty yuan.

One mu of Da-melon seeds harvests one hundred-plus kilograms, even if calculated at the lowest one hundred kilograms, at one yuan, the gross income was one hundred yuan.

It was three times that of growing wheat!

Of course, the investment would also be more, after all, seeds were expensive, labor investment was also more, and like now, pressing Da-melon seeds was a troublesome thing. If you dared to say that one kilogram of Da-melon seeds could sell for three yuan, then one mu of land would be three hundred yuan of gross income, even if you deducted one hundred yuan of cost, that would still be two hundred yuan of net income.

If everyone really knew this, they would go crazy!

This was much better than growing grain!

Why didn't anyone grow it on a large scale?

Because no one collected it on a large scale.

Otherwise, do you think there would be few people who could grow it?

Once grown on a large scale, this thing wouldn't be worth money. It might even not sell and be backlogged.

Unlike grain, grain itself was a consumable. Not to mention that grain was not enough now, even if it was enough, it could be used for other things, side food, feed, and even industry was using it.

But Da-melon seeds didn't have many uses.

Except for eating.

So Li Long tried to say as little as possible.

But he believed that as long as his family sold the Da-melon seeds this year and the price came out, there would definitely be a large group of people growing this next year, after all, it made more money than grain!

Fortunately, they were in the same village, so no matter how they grew it, the impact wouldn't be too big. After all, handing over public grain was a must, and there was nothing to say about this, so even if everyone grew it, it was tentative.

Some people asked from time to time, and some left after asking.

The two large pots here were always pressing. An hour later, Li Long called Liang Dacheng:

"Dacheng, rest for a while, move around, it's hot, eat a Da-melon to quench your thirst."

!.

They didn't bring water—think about it, working in a field of ripe Da-melons, if you still needed to bring water, you would be laughed at.

The only thing that was a bit uncomfortable was that after scooping out the Da-melon pulp with your hands, it was sticky and uncomfortable.

Five days later, all the Da-melons in the field had been harvested, and the three Liang brothers had earned a total of one hundred and forty yuan from Li Long.

Originally it should have been one hundred and fifty yuan, but they only worked half a day on the last day, so Liang Dacheng and the others only collected half the money, and Li Long forced a round number.

There were more than one thousand kilograms of Da-melon seeds that had been pressed flat and dried, and some that hadn't been dried yet, and the work of pressing flat was also continuing. The trouble was picking out the warped ones, which needed to be picked out one by one.

After picking them out, it was relatively simple. Take two boards that had been planed very flat, clamp these warped melon seeds well, and press iron plates or stones on top. It also needed to be pressed evenly, otherwise, some warped ones could be pressed flat, and some couldn't be pressed flat completely.

The Li family used a sieve to screen out about fifty kilograms of large melon seeds to save for seeds. In this day and age, there was no such thing as a patent for melon seeds, so no one would sue them because they grew second-generation seeds—forty years later, similar things happened.

At present, people from the village came to ask about the price of melon seeds, probably wanting to buy them for seeds, but Li Long said the price of the seeds they bought from Wucheng was relatively high, six yuan.

If people in the village bought them, give a discount, calculate it as three yuan.

Of course, this was said as a joke.

No one in the village bought them, and Li Jianguo left a way out, saying that because he didn't know how much the selling price would be this year, once the first batch of melon seeds was sold, whatever price was sold to others, that would be the price sold to people in the village.

For this kind of buying and selling, Li Jianguo didn't say he would leave human favors for people in the village, and everyone understood how much cheaper it would be.

After all, at present, he didn't know how many people wanted to buy. If there were really many, would it be cheaper to give this one a discount and that one a discount? If it was cheaper and more were bought, the Li family would be the one losing.

Why should people give a discount? They could clearly sell them at a high price to collectors like roasted snack factories, so why lose money to earn human favors?

No need.

It was like two years later, when someone in the village had a bumper harvest of wheat, and the yield per mu was particularly high, reaching three hundred kilograms, which made the newspaper.

Farmers from other places came to buy wheat as seeds, and people in the village also bought them, and the price was the same. Everyone was treated equally.

At most, people in the village could pick and choose.

Li Long and Li Jianguo discussed pulling a batch of Da-melon seeds to the Shicheng roasted snack factory to ask about the price first. If the price was okay, they would sell a batch first.

"How much to pull?" Li Jianguo asked.

"Pull one ton? If it's suitable, sell them all." Li Long meant that the seeds had already been saved, and although the rest hadn't been weighed, he felt there was almost a ton.

That is to say, this year's Da-melons were a bumper harvest, two hundred kilograms per mu.

That's a lot!

"How much is considered suitable?" Li Qing Xia asked from the side.

"I think, one point five is suitable." One mu of land harvests two hundred kilograms, Li Jianguo really didn't have much ambition, or rather, in his view, the weight harvested per mu was about the same as wheat, but this land was not good land with a yield of two hundred kilograms.

If it could sell for one point five, one mu of land would be three hundred yuan. Even if you deducted the seed, labor, machine plowing fee, water fee (sowing was also manual), these were calculated generously, calculated as one hundred yuan, the net income of one mu of land was two hundred, ten mu of land was two thousand, who would dare to think about this?

"That won't work, it has to be two point five." Li Long came from his previous life, and his thinking was different. Although there were few places collecting melon seeds, there were also few people growing melon seeds. Maybe his family's ten mu of land was the only one.

Since there were few grown, then they were rare goods, so could they talk about a higher price?

"Hey, if we can get two point five, wouldn't these ten mu of land harvest a tractor?" Li Qing Xia quickly calculated this income.

Li Jianguo also said:

"If people can really collect them for two point five, then after selling them, I will buy a tractor!"

Hey, Li Long laughed. Just for his brother's spirit, he had to talk about more than two point five, preferably three!

If it was three, ten mu of land could earn about six thousand yuan, and buying a tractor would really be possible.

After all, his brother should have some savings in his own hands, which was enough to deal with usual emergencies.

Moreover, there was still himself.

He knew his brother had strong self-esteem and didn't want to use his younger brother's money to buy a tractor, so he would try his best to use his silver-tongued eloquence to talk the price up!

That night, Li Long didn't return to the county, mainly to load the dried Da-melon seeds into the cargo bed. Li Qing Xia also wanted to follow, but he didn't go to bargain, but because he hadn't fished for these days, and his addiction was acting up.

Tao Dayong couldn't come, and Li Long didn't dare to let his old dad go set nets alone, so he accompanied him. Li Qing Xia got two basins this time, while Li Long sat on a tire and went to the center of the lake to set nets.

There were many people setting nets around, and the fish were no longer active nearby, so there weren't many fish that could be caught by each net.

Sitting on a tire to set nets in the depths of the lake was a good job, but not many people could set nets while sitting on a tire. First of all, the tire was not easy to find.

Li Long didn't care himself. With great skill comes great boldness, he felt where there were many fish, he would go there to set nets.

He hadn't set nets for a long time, and he was quite excited to come once in a while.

He was even more excited when taking the nets. There were still many fish!

There were quite a few big fish. He only collected two nets and caught two big carp over three kilograms, red-headed and red-tailed, looking very festive!

Hey, bumper harvest, good omen!

It didn't matter how much the fish sold for, was this a sign that today's trip to sell melon seeds would have a good result? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 546 =====

At this time, the others hadn't come over yet, and it was very quiet here by the lake. After Li Qing Xia took the basin to the shore, he listened to the clattering sounds coming from Li Long's side, which made him feel restless.

How many fish are there? Why is there such a big commotion?

When he and Tao Daqiang went to set the nets together, Tao Daqiang would sit on a tire to go out into the lake, but he didn't dare go too far. After all, he didn't have Li Long's skills, and if he went too far to set the nets, it wouldn't be easy to retrieve them.

Li Long himself didn't care; with great skill comes great boldness, so he would set his nets wherever he felt there were many fish.

He hadn't set nets for quite a long time, so he was quite excited to come and do it once in a while.

He was even more excited when retrieving the nets—there were actually still so many fish!

There were quite a few big fish, too. Just by pulling in two nets, he caught two large carp weighing over three kilograms each, with red heads and red tails—they looked truly festive!

Hey, a bumper harvest, a good omen!

He didn't care how much money the fish would sell for; could this be a sign that today's trip to sell melon seeds would have a good result? (End of chapter)