Chapter 128: Farming (2)
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling tried back and forth a few times. After plowing three lines, she finally mastered the technique. This made Mu Yangling very proud. “Father, perhaps I was born to farm.”
Mu Shi glanced at his daughter’s hand and thought of her strength. He said, “I’d believe it if you said that you’re a natural hunter. Back then, when I first brought you into the mountain, you already managed to catch a roe deer alive.”
But that was a skill from her previous life. Mu Yangling criticized silently, ‘Aren’t hunting skills similar to catching people?’
No matter what Mu Shi said, Mu Yangling was very smug.
The father and daughter worked together and soon covered a great distance. When Madam Ma-Liu saw that it was more than an acre, she waved her hand and said, “Alright, stop planting first. Otherwise, the soil will dry up later.”
The father and daughter walked to Madam Ma-Liu’s side. Madam Ma-Liu taught them how to plant the seeds step by step and said, “Scatter it in slowly like this. It has to be in the middle. Don’t go slanted. Also, it can’t be too much or too little.”
Mu Yangling asked curiously, “Who set the rule that it should be this density?”
Madam Ma-Liu was stunned for a moment before she said in amusement, “Who made the rules? For generations, we planted them like this. In the past, there were people who disobeyed that rule and thought that they could harvest more by planting more. Who knew that the wheat seedlings that grew turned out too dense? In the end, the wheat ears weren’t even as long as a finger. What a waste.”
When Madam Ma-Liu said that, Mu Shi became nervous. He squatted on the ground and carefully counted the number of wheat. Mu Yangling was speechless by the sight of this. “Father, when will you finish planting like this? Just an approximation will do.”
Mu Yangling stuffed the wheat seed into his hand. “Try it.”
Mu Shi grabbed a handful of wheat seeds and carefully tapped them down. Madam Ma-Liu frowned when she saw this. The wheat seeds in the gully were sometimes densely spaced and sometimes sparsely spaced. Exasperated, she turned to look at Little Bowen and the others.
The children had already walked far away.
Madam Ma-Liu went forward and taught Mu Shi again. After going back and forth three times, she gave up. “Rocky, planting is the simplest. Just leak a little between your fingers and the perfect amount of wheat will fall. Why can’t you do it?”
Mu Shi was in a difficult position. “Aunt, my palm is big and that wheat won’t listen to me. When I’m nervous, the amount dropped decreases. When I relax slightly, it will fall out of control…”
Madam Ma-Liu looked at her nephew speechlessly. After a while, she said, “Forget it. You’d better follow behind and cover the seeds with soil. You know how to do this, right? Use your feet to cover the seeds in the gully.”
Mu Shi nodded repeatedly. “I know how to do that.”
Madam Ma-Liu watched for a while and only went to the front to dibble in the seeds after confirming that there was indeed no problem. When she passed by where Mu Yangling was, she looked down and couldn’t help but nod to herself. Although her nephew was a little stupid, Ah Ling was indeed cut out for farming.
At the front, Little Bowen, Xiuhong and Xiulan were also holding a small bag of wheat and dibbling in the seeds. Because Mu Shi was covering the soil behind them, they didn’t have to turn around and thus progress wasn’t slow.
By noon, their family had finished planting two acres of land.
Madam Ma-Liu wanted to bring them back to eat, but Mu Yangling waved her hand and said, “Great-aunt, bring Bowen and the rest back. Get Xiuhong to bring us food later. You guys can rest for a while before coming back. My father and I will stay here to smooth the land.”
Madam Ma-Liu frowned. “We don’t need to rest for that long. We’ll come after eating.”
“That won’t do.” Mu Yangling hurriedly said, “The sun is shining brightly. Although my father and I don’t need to rest, you guys have to rest for a while. Otherwise, if you fall sick from exhaustion, you’ll have to buy medicine later.”
“It’s fine with me and Xiuhong. We’re used to doing this.”
Mu Yangling insisted, “Great-aunt, just listen to me. Even if you come, I won’t ask you to work. You might as well rest at home.”
Mu Yangling knew that this was the time for rush-planting and none of the farming families took a break at noon. However, she felt that there were many ways to earn money, but health was of the utmost importance. She did not want to waste her health now and rack her brains to nourish it later. Shu Wanniang and Little Bowen were examples of the fact that even with money and medicine, one wouldn’t necessarily gain health.
Knowing Mu Yangling’s temper, Madam Ma-Liu could only do as she said.
After they left, Mu Yangling squatted in front of the gully to take a look. Instead of burying it, she went to dig up the soil that her father had just covered. The corners of Mu Shi’s mouth twitched. “What are you playing with?”
Mu Yangling asked her father, “Father, since the malt breaks through the soil after it sprouts, should we cover a thin or thick layer over it? If it’s thinner, the malt will definitely break through the soil easily. But if the weather is colder, will the frost cause the malt to freeze to death? If it’s thicker, it will definitely keep it warm. But if the malt isn’t strong enough, won’t it die buried underneath the soil if it can’t break through it?”
Mu Shi: “…How would I know?” After a pause, he asked curiously, “How do you know all this?”
Wasn’t it common sense that soil could keep something warm?
The father and daughter stared at each other.
Mu Shi only thought that this was a child’s imagination and did not take it to heart. However, Mu Yangling kept asking herself this question in her heart: ‘Should the soil be deeper or thicker?’
Also, it took too much time to plow and bury seeds on so much land. Even if the 13 acres of high-grade land in the east could be irrigated to plant rice towards the end, the remaining 60 to 70 acres had to be planted as soon as possible.
Forget about the first two conditions. Without machinery, they could only rely on manual labor. But what about the work of covering the soil later?
With Mu Yangling’s limited knowledge of agriculture, she felt that there was something that could replace manual labor.
Mu Yangling was walking around in the gully when Mu Shi threw her a stick and shouted, “Alright, Ah Ling, stop thinking about it. Follow me to the canal to look for fish. Your mother has been craving fish lately and the ones in the cellar aren’t fresh enough…”
However, Mu Yangling couldn’t hear what Mu Shi was saying anymore. She jumped up and shouted, “I’ve got an idea!” Squatting down with the stick, she swiped it horizontally. The soil on the gully slowly slid into the gully to cover the seeds.
Mu Yangling looked at her father smugly. Mu Shi said in amusement, “That’s a good idea, but only the two of us can use this method because this will require a lot of strength.”
Mu Yangling said with a smile, “Father, that’s not the method I’m thinking of. Just wait and see. Anyone can use the method I’m thinking of.”
She remembered that when she went to the countryside to play in the past, she had seen farmers place a farming tool upside down to cover seeds with soil. Mu Yangling’s blurry memories gradually became clearer because she now had a clear goal.
She didn’t know what specific uses that farming tool had, but she was certain that she could draw it. Regardless, it was bound to be of some use and was much more advanced than the farming tools in this world. Mu Yangling wanted to try it out with her father when she was free.
“Father, let’s go cut trees.” Mu Yangling looked at her father with sparkling eyes.
Looking at his daughter, who was spouting nonsense, Mu Shi said with a straight face, “I want to catch fish. Ah Ling, you said it yourself that the depth of soil used to cover the seeds varies. Do you think the soil that slides down this way will be of suitable depth? Your great-aunt and the others have never tried this planting method.”