Chapter 729: Detoxification

"Your Highness, could this be corn, this be chili pepper, and this be tomato..."

Cen Xi, the Director of the Agriculture Department, followed behind Zhao Xu. Every time he passed a bag, he would grab a handful of seeds from it to examine and identify them in his hand.

Zhao Xu revealed a satisfied smile and said to Cen Xi, "You guessed right. Do you know in which months these seeds should be sown, and how they should be planted?"

He was testing Cen Xi.

Although the Great Song did not have these plants, he had included both the crops the Great Song possessed and those it did not—modern agricultural crops—into the agricultural textbooks of the Government Academy.

Moreover, he had specifically drawn pictures for the corresponding crops, including the seeds of the crops and the appearance of the crop plants.

Naturally, the planting months, methods, and habits of the crops were also indispensable.

The Agriculture Department was specifically responsible for the agricultural development of the Great Song, so the agricultural portions of the textbooks were naturally the focus of their studies.

If an official of the Agriculture Department could not even recognize crops, let alone know how to cultivate them, he would not be fit to serve as an official of the Agriculture Department.

He certainly did not want people who could not distinguish the five grains to mingle among the current ranks of officials.

"In reply to Your Highness, corn can be planted in two seasons, namely spring and summer; spring in April, and summer in July..." Facing Zhao Xu's question, Cen Xi was not flustered in the slightest.

He spoke fluently as if reciting his own family treasures, causing Liu Fu and the other officials to nod repeatedly.

"Mm, worthy of being the one who took the top spot in the Agriculture Department's Official Examination." Zhao Xu gave Cen Xi a look of praise. "Since that is the case, this Prince can rest easy. It is currently July; summer corn and summer chili peppers can both be sown. As for potatoes and sweet potatoes, I need not say more."

After Zhou Yi first obtained potatoes and sweet potatoes from the Dongying warships, the officials of the Agriculture Department had begun to cultivate and raise seedlings according to his requirements.

Thinking of this, he had Cen Xi lead the way to inspect the seedling situation of the potatoes and sweet potatoes.

After all, there were only three months left before the next round of potato planting would begin.

Although it would be impossible to popularize potatoes throughout the entire Jiangbei in a short time.

He hoped to let potatoes satisfy the needs of the army as soon as possible.

In this way, it could at least alleviate a portion of the pressure on food supplies.

"Your Highness, please enter." Following Cen Xi, the group arrived before a long, rectangular building.

This was the seedling room built by the Official Manor.

The style was similar to contemporary vegetable greenhouses, but the main body was built of red brick, the roof was of red tile, and there were Glass windows at intervals on the roof.

Potatoes reproduce asexually; because they become infected with viruses in the soil, if one plants potatoes directly, the next generation of potatoes will inevitably suffer a reduction in yield.

Therefore, to maintain high potato yields, one way is to plant them in high-altitude, cold regions.

Another way is to perform virus-free treatment when cultivating potato seedlings.

The process of virus-free treatment is to bury the potatoes in Sha and let them sprout in a space with dim light.

Because the tender sprouts that grow out, especially the sprout tips, have the least amount of virus.

One only needs to dig the sprout stalks off the potato, peel them like bamboo shoots to leave only the sprout tips, and then wash them with bleaching powder.

Planting them will then complete the virus-free treatment.

In this way, a single potato has several sprout stalks; the sprout stalks grow into seedlings, which are then cut and planted as cuttings, allowing one potato to propagate over a hundred potato seedlings.

It is precisely because of this that the Official Manor has these long, rectangular buildings.

The existence of the Glass windows is to keep the seedling room in a state of faint light, without it being too bright.

As for bleaching powder, after Qu Sheng established the Three Acids and Two Alkalis industry, preparing it was no longer a problem.

In the contemporary ancient times, there was already the method of preparing bleaching powder using the earth-kiln method.

That is, to ferment hydrochloric acid and lime milk just like composting.

Currently, these two Chemistry items can both be industrially produced in Yanzhou.

Therefore, mass-producing bleaching powder is no longer a problem.

Originally, he had placed the main production area for potatoes in the Ningjin Dusi.

Now, due to the availability of virus-free technology conditions, planting potatoes throughout the entire Jiangbei will be no problem.

The most important thing is being able to maintain the yield.

"How many potato seedlings are in a seedling room like this?" Entering the seedling room, Zhao Xu looked toward the ground.

He saw potato seedlings the length of a finger, spreading from east to west, filling the entire seedling room with lush greenery.

Cen Xi said, "In reply to Your Highness, this seedling room has eighty thousand seedlings; larger seedling rooms can hold one hundred thousand seedlings."

Zhao Xu nodded. Generally, one mu of land only requires four thousand potato seedlings, so the seedlings from one seedling room can supply twenty mu of land.

Currently, the potatoes used to cultivate the seedlings were all those brought back by Zhou Yi last time, and quite a few had been harvested after one season of planting.

These harvested potatoes were not eaten, but were all taken to cultivate new seedlings.

Similar seedling rooms were distributed across the eight Official Manors around Yancheng, totaling forty-eight rooms.

He estimated that this autumn would be enough to plant eight or nine hundred mu.

If the large quantity of potatoes Dong An brought back this time could be sprouted in time, he estimated it could expand to about two thousand mu by October.

Potatoes have two seasons a year, so the potatoes available for planting next year will be quite considerable.

It was not in vain that he had been so reluctant to use even a bit of potato for stewing meat for the sake of the seedlings.

"Not bad, not bad. Although Yancheng's industry is booming now, agriculture is already the foundation of the country; you in the Agriculture Department must keep this in mind." Zhao Xu gave a word of instruction.

Only when food is abundant will there be surplus grain to feed livestock, promoting the great development of the animal husbandry industry.

Although he had the Agriculture Department set up ecological circular farms, allowing Yanzhou's animal husbandry to have initial development and making meat products on the market somewhat more abundant.

But to let every household afford to eat meat, drink milk, and eat eggs every day, one must rely on large-scale farming.

Pausing, he added, "Also, fields that have grown potatoes must be rotated with other crops, otherwise the soil fertility is easily exhausted."

"Yes, Your Highness." Cen Xi responded in the affirmative.

After inspecting the Official Manor, Zhao Xu led the officials away.

He believed that in a few years, crops like potatoes, sweet potatoes, chili peppers, and corn would be able to blossom everywhere in Jiangbei.

By then, with the support of industry, the material wealth of Jiangbei would be extremely abundant.

Parting ways with Liu Fu and the other ministers halfway, Zhao Xu went straight back to the Prince's Mansion.

Remembering one thing, he called Wang Chong to the study.

"This Prince needs a Workshop specializing in the production of agricultural machinery; for this period, you are to pull out a small team to be specifically responsible for this matter," Zhao Xu said.

To increase agricultural yield, besides relying on high-yield crops, what is also needed is agricultural machinery.

Currently, the Great Song has a sparse population and abundant land.

Especially in places like the Ningjin Dusi, Jinzhou, Qinzhou, and Yongzhou, one could say there are thousands of miles of wilderness.

This time is the perfect opportunity to promote a large-farm economy.

Some time ago, he had already pointed out the path of the Royal Reclamation Group to the Royal Clan.

That is for them to establish one large farm after another in the wilderness.

Next, he will also have the Ministry of Agriculture take action to establish Official Manors in these places.

It is just that to operate these large farms, one needs a massive amount of labor, or one must have agricultural machinery as a substitute.