The protagonist asked the worker ants to pick out the grass seeds that had sprouted and those that were soaked but not dried in the granaries. Even the sprouted grass seeds that had been thrown into the garbage dump were picked up.
Later, he commanded a large number of worker ants to reclaim a wasteland east of the "Dongyang City" fortress.
This wasteland is not large, only about a dozen square meters in area. The soil is fertile and there are large areas of lush weeds growing there. It is one of the important sources of grass seeds for the nest.
However, these weeds grew in a disorderly manner, with many inedible plants mixed in. Countless weeds crowded together, competing for space, sunlight and water. This vicious competition severely reduces grass seed yields.
The protagonist leads the worker ants to cut off the tall grass stems with their jaws. Some of the really tough grass stems were made using sharp glazed pottery fragments that were the by-products of previous failed pottery firings. These fragments acted as ax saws to cut through the grass stems that were difficult for ants' jaws to cut. And the grass stems, which even the pottery knife cannot do anything about, can be burned with fire.
The harvested plants are piled aside. After the sun dries them completely, a fire can be used to harvest a lot of natural plant ash.
The protagonist then directed the ants to level the land, lift away large and small gravels, and fill in the uneven ground.
Then, the ants neatly made small holes in the newly cultivated fields and carefully planted the grass seeds with buds. Finally, carefully cover the seeds with floating soil to expose the seedlings.
As for the seeds that have not germinated but have been soaked, they are thrown into the pits in groups of three or four to ensure the germination rate.
Since it had just rained heavily, there was enough moisture in the fields and no watering was needed. As for subsequent irrigation, we can only rely on the weather. It is unrealistic to expect the ants to carry water little by little to irrigate the ground.
Due to the actual ability of the ants, this land cannot be plowed deeply, and the rocks and roots in the deep soil cannot be removed, which will affect the root growth of the planted seedlings to a certain extent.
Another important function of deep plowing is to dig out the fertile soil at the bottom of the soil, which is not necessary. This field was overgrown with weeds for many years and had never been cultivated. It has a lot of humus, which is naturally fertile soil.
The plants that produce grass seeds are not crops that have been manually selected by humans for hundreds or thousands of years. The yield of grass seeds is not high, and the ability to absorb fertility is not that strong. At least for a few years, you don't need to worry about fertilizing.
After planting this batch of germinated seeds, this experimental field is considered to be sown.
All that's left is to take care of it until it's harvested. In the hot summer, these fast-growing weeds only take two to three months to bloom and produce seeds, and in autumn it is harvest season.
The protagonist designates a group of ants to participate in cultivating farmland, a total of one hundred worker ants, and they are responsible for managing the fields. The protagonist designated one of the worker ants who worked harder as the captain and named her "Shen Nong" so that it would be easier to remember.
The protagonist passes the instruction package to Shen Nong to take care of the fields. He is mainly responsible for driving away pests, digging drainage ditches to prevent heavy rains from drowning seedlings, etc. The protagonist himself doesn't understand farm work, so he can only ask Shen Nong to report promptly when he encounters new situations.
After completing these tasks, "Dongyang City" established an agricultural economy after the breeding industry. Although the results in farmland are much slower than raising mealworms, they are still of great significance. This can be described as an agricultural revolution for "Dongyang City".
Humanity's first agricultural revolution occurred during the Neolithic Age about 10,000 years ago.
Through long-term practice, people at that time gradually observed and became familiar with the growth patterns of certain plants, and gradually understood how to cultivate crops.
People in various regions of the world have accumulated experience and independently invented agriculture based on the collection economy.
Archaeological data show that there were three main early farming centers in the world, namely West Asia, East Asia (including South Asia), and Central and South America.
The emergence of agriculture was a huge revolution in human history. This revolution is known as the First Agricultural Revolution or the Neolithic Revolution.
The second agricultural revolution occurred in the Bronze Age about 4,000 years ago. Due to the use and popularization of bronze materials, humans could carry out hoeing.
The third agricultural revolution occurred in the Iron Age 1,400 years ago. Due to the use of iron materials and the domestication of animals, humans could plow.
After three agricultural revolutions, humans have transformed from food collectors to food producers, greatly increasing food production, broadening food sources, and improving agricultural technology.
This experimental planting of grass seed crops in "Dongyang City" is roughly equivalent to mankind's first agricultural revolution.
If the development goes well, it will at least promote the development of "Dongyang City" in the following aspects.
First, after having both agriculture and animal husbandry economies, the food source of "Dongyang City" changed from gathering and hunting to agriculture and animal husbandry. Ants transform from food gatherers to food producers.
This change in the way they obtain food will change the relationship between ants and nature.
The emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry marked a leap in ants' understanding of the natural world, and marked a shift from relying more on and adapting to nature to utilizing and transforming nature in the production of living materials.
All production activities in agriculture and animal husbandry will require ants to understand and transform the natural world more, and use natural resources to serve the ants' lives and economy.
On the basis of agricultural production, ants need to gradually begin to observe the activities of the sun, moon and stars, the characteristics of water and soil, and climate phenomena, and accumulate experience (such as summarizing the twenty-four solar terms), thereby producing preliminary astronomy, geography and mathematics. Knowledge pushes ants’ understanding of the objective world to a new level.
Second, the agricultural revolution will create the material foundation for a series of social changes in the future.
In a hunter-gatherer economy, it is difficult for ants to obtain more food than they need to maintain their lives. Even if they obtain it in a short period of time, they cannot store it for a long time.
For example, the grain reserves accumulated by "Dongyang City" in spring, summer and autumn every year are basically used up after winter. Even if there is a surplus, it still needs to be allocated to the main nest to support the annual war of recapture against the Pavement Ant Barbarian Army.
After engaging in farming and animal husbandry, one can obtain a relatively stable source of abundant food, and for the first time it is possible to produce and store more food than is needed to sustain life.
This allows the ant population to grow significantly, and allows some ants to engage in activities other than subsistence (such as making pottery full-time), thus creating a new social division of labor and exchange of goods, and the accumulation of wealth.
This is exactly what the protagonist needs. Today's ants are still more or less ignorant and ignorant. If you want to promote knowledge and promote the development of "Dongyang City", it is not enough to rely solely on the protagonist himself for ideological enlightenment. Only with an objective social and economic foundation can we promote ideological revolution.
The agricultural revolution will lay this foundation.
