There was not a single veteran in the sericulture profession in the entire Senate. Wu Nanhai was very worried about Li Yao'er, an agricultural technician who had become a monk by the way, so he experimentally raised autumn silkworms in Lingao, allowing Li Yao'er to completely Follow the instructions in the book, and the final result proves that agricultural technical books and scientific and educational films are indeed very accurate guidance materials. [No pop-up novel website] Every time a problem occurs, just follow the instructions in the picture and deal with it, and there will be no disadvantages.
The silkworm house has been completed, and Li Yao'er established a sericulture production team in the villa. Since the current slaves in the villa basically have work to do, most of the members of the production team are refugees from the shantang - sericulture households are given priority. These dozens of families have been specially resettled in a residential area. Men are responsible for clearing land and growing mulberry trees, while women are responsible for raising silkworms. A dozen people were selected from the villa's kindergarten as students in the sericulture training class.
One of the main tasks of the sericulture production team is to open mulberry gardens and plant mulberry trees. Further expand the mulberry planting area. Although the leaves of the mulberry trees planted last year and this year cannot be harvested, they will be of great use in the future. In the Jiangnan plan of the Committee of Agriculture, the future Phoenix Villa will be the location of the agricultural professional school. It will definitely not help to lay more foundations. deficit. Such a massive investment is not surprising.
Mulberry trees have strong adaptability and can grow in barren or fertile land, dry or humid areas. They are simple to plant and manage, have few pests and diseases, and have high economic benefits, especially mulberry leaves. In the silk-producing areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, a load of mulberry trees can be grown The average price of the leaves could be sold for three taels of silver. The common average yield at that time was twelve dans of mulberry leaves per mu. Even if one did not raise silkworms and reel silk, one could earn three taels or six cents just from selling mulberry leaves. This is equivalent to the income from a good paddy field that can yield three stones of rice per acre.
However, there are very few good paddy fields that can yield three kilos of rice. Whether you can harvest so much rice every year also depends on luck. Mulberry planting can be done on slopes and corners, and the leaf yield is generally stable. Additional income can be obtained from burning firewood and mulberries.
In the mulberry garden of the Committee of Agriculture in Lingao, modern mulberry planting technology is adopted. Planting mulberry trees that can be used for both fruit and leaves can achieve a yield of 1,000-2,000 kilograms of mulberries and 1,500 kilograms of mulberry leaves per mu under strict management.
Here in Hangzhou, it is impossible to have the same agricultural technology and agricultural input conditions as Lingao, and the water and heat conditions are also slightly inferior, so the estimated yield is much lower. The main types of planting are mulberry leaves, and only about ten acres of mulberry trees are planned to be planted with both fruit and leaves.
Li Yaoer visited members of the production team. I generally know that the local mulberry orchards are basically planted according to the standard of 240 plants per acre of "high-stem mulberry", with taller trunks. Leaf yield varies somewhat depending on the care of management and the amount of fertilizer applied. However, the average monthly yield of 800 to 1,200 kilograms of mulberry leaves per mu can still be achieved.
With the introduction of high-yielding mulberry strips from the villa and scientific management, Li Yaoer is fully confident that he can achieve a yield of 1,000 kilograms per mu.
That's what I said, but it was a few years later. At present, the sericulture industry in Phoenix Villa has to rely on purchasing mulberry leaves from outside. Mulberry leaves cannot be picked in advance. You can only buy it in the market. Once the silkworms enter the third sleep, the price of mulberry leaves will skyrocket, and there may be a situation where there is no market for the price. Therefore, how to ensure the supply of mulberry leaves for the sericulture production team has become Zhao Yingong's most important task before.
The simplest way is to purchase a mulberry orchard or directly purchase mulberry leaves. Purchasing a mulberry orchard is naturally the safest, but it is not easy to buy a mulberry orchard in a suitable location for a while - the silkworm farm is in Phoenix Villa, and if the mulberry garden is If the distance is too long, the transportation cost will be too high. Moreover, the tax on mulberry gardens is very heavy. The mulberry gardens now opened in Phoenix Villa are all proceeds from land reclamation. As long as the yamen is a little organized, he can't afford to go to class. But it is much more difficult for registered mulberry gardens not to pay taxes. Zhao Yingong erred on the side of caution and decided not to buy a mulberry orchard for the time being - Li Yaoer's work this year was mainly breeding and experimental silk reeling, and the demand for mulberry leaves was limited, so he could just go with the market.
Originally, he didn't care much about the supply of mulberry leaves. Things that burdened the common people were just a drop in the bucket to him.
But since he wanted to set up a sericulture cooperative, control sericulture farmers through the cooperative, and then control silkworm cocoons, he had a new idea: Judging from various information collected from various aspects, the sericulture industry in Jiangnan is the same as the sugar industry in Leizhou. Very dependent on loans.
In this kind of industry, whoever controls the loans gets the biggest share of the market.
Controlling farmers through loans is a common method of Tiandihui. In Leizhou, this was also used to gradually establish the Leizhou Sugar Industry Association. Therefore, he had already started preparing his own small loan plan, and also asked Delong's Hangzhou branch to Several plans were worked out.
Moreover, last autumn, there was a severe drought in the northern Zhejiang and Hangjiahu areas. From August to October, there was no rain for 70 consecutive years, and the countryside was extremely devastated. Although the south of the Yangtze River is rich in products and has not led to large-scale refugee riots like those in the north, sericulture households will have an even more urgent need for loans in order to resume production.
But he soon discovered that his plan was too idealistic. This is not Hainan, where the Senate has taken power, nor is it Leizhou, which is controlled by the Leizhou Sugar Company, a trust backed by violence. He has neither a political base for violence nor an economic monopoly here. To promote a new thing like cooperatives, we are faced with a situation where no one trusts us.
Originally, Zhao Yingong planned to ask Delong to set up agency offices in several nearby towns where the silk cocoon trade was developed to provide loans to sericulture households. However, he soon discovered that rural microfinance in this time and space was almost entirely controlled by local landlords and In the hands of middle peasants and rich peasants, Silk Cocoon Store and Qingye Store also played a part in it. The common feature is that there are many lenders involved, but each lender's lending scope is very small - they are basically local.
In an era when most farmers' activities do not exceed fifty miles from their homes, and they cannot enter the county town a few times in their lifetime, trying to set up a bank to allow farmers to take the initiative for loans is a fool's errand. Moreover, farmers are very suspicious, and they would rather believe it. The local loan sharks in this hometown will not believe in the sudden appearance of banks - let alone any cooperatives.
Silkworm farmers have been operating like this for thousands of years, and they will never easily join a "cooperative" that suddenly pops up. Sericulture farmers should be allowed to join cooperatives and receive technical guidance on modern sericulture. There must be a sample to demonstrate the benefits of joining a cooperative.
During the Republic of China, Suzhou Sericulture College promoted sericulture improvement locally and set up a promotion center specifically in Kaixiangong Village. Through continuous promotion and publicity, we can continue to improve sericulture step by step. Had it not been for the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, it would have been entirely possible for the first Chinese sericulture agricultural cooperative organization to be established locally - in fact, there was already a vague trend in Kaixiangong Village and some nearby villages at that time.
If you just stay in Fenghuang Villa and engage in closed small-scale production, you will never be able to build a cooperative. The four words "going deep into the grassroots" are not said for nothing. Even Japan's rural cooperative cooperative organization, which was the most successful in promoting rural cooperative medical care, spent a lot of energy in persuading and mobilizing farmers to join the union at the beginning.
Floods and droughts have been quite frequent in Zhejiang in recent years. Although the consequences of these disasters were not as severe as those in the northern Central Plains at that time, the entire rural economy was still greatly damaged. There were many victims without food and clothing. Since he had already contacted Jin Shen to set up a charity hall to take in the refugees sent out. Then this rural cooperative organization can also do it under the brand of "a place to deal with the aftermath."
In the name of organizing production and self-rescue for refugees, a one-stop demonstration society for sericulture and silk reeling was established in the name of Cixintang. Working with refugee women. There is the brand of charity, a group of Catholic gentry, and the friendship of restoring society. There will probably be no problems if you start a sericulture group yourself.
He immediately called Li Yao'er. Said his own thoughts. Li Yaoer had nothing to disagree with. I just feel that I have just started taking care of students, and if the scale expands, I may not be able to take care of them.
"It doesn't matter," Zhao Yingong comforted her. "Many of the refugees who have been admitted have experience in raising silkworms. As long as you strictly control the technical requirements, and we will provide improved seeds, it will not be a problem to get a good harvest."
"If this is the case, a silkworm farm would have to be set up at the foot of the mountain." Li Yao'er said. "There are too many people in the shantang, so I'm afraid it's not suitable for raising silkworms."
"The sericulture farm and silk reeling factory can be set up by the river. Just hang the sign of the charity. It is similar to the concept of a charity factory. Of course, it should be closer to the charity, so that workers do not have to spend too much time on the road when commuting to get off work."
"What to do about the problem of mulberry leaves?" Li Yao'er was a little worried, "Silkworm seeds are easy to find. A lot of them were shipped to us from Lingao. I breed some of them myself, but now the mulberry trees in the villa are all newly planted. It is enough for breeding." The field is not enough.”
"I'm going to 'buy tips'."
"Buy Shaoye?" Li Yaoer didn't understand the word and looked at him with confusion.
"This is a terminology." Zhao Yingong smiled, "You will be the head of the Sericulture Cooperative in the future. You must understand many local dialects in this time and space..."
"Wait a minute, I'm an agricultural technician. When will I become your boss?"
"I think you are just the right person." Zhao Yingong put on an expression that said, "Who else would I rather take on?" "You know technology, and you are a veteran and know how to organize people to work. There is no barrier to communication between you and me. And this Didn't you do a good job leading the sericulture production team for a few days? Just think of this cooperative as the production team ten times larger."
"But--"
"It doesn't matter." Zhao Yingong continued to encourage her, "You don't have to be afraid of this or that. These days, you should also understand our era. This is an era with no concept of human rights. The women in the sericulture production team are uncompromising. A slave who does not hold back. Even if you kill one of them, you will not be asked to pay with your life..."
"Stop talking, I'm scared just thinking about this." Li Yao'er frowned and said, "I always feel that I'm not suitable for this society - it's so different from Lingao. It's simply a hell on earth..." She He glared at Zhao Yingong and said, "I understand what you mean. There are no personnel arrangements here. There are issues such as labor protection to consider. We are slave owners who run factories. We treat slave workers with nothing more than carrots and sticks. As long as we teach them well, Just give them skills and let them work hard."
Zhao Yingong cursed in his heart: The literary youth and petty bourgeoisie are in a mood again! But he still had a pleasant look on his face. He had quite a lot of experience in dealing with women and knew that whatever they said when they were in a mood was wrong. It was better to let them vent their feelings before talking.
Unexpectedly, Li Yaoer became silent after saying these few words. She is a very rational woman, and she quickly realized the absurdity of what she said - you have to know that she had promised to buy a maid for her husband, and she had also secretly considered quite seriously how to "train" and "control" the maid once she was in place. "They, how can they show the majesty of "housewives", how should the maids be punished if they make mistakes... It is roughly a mixed imaginary version of various palace fighting novels and palace fighting dramas she has read before.
After all, I wholeheartedly like the feeling of being a slave master and the "superior". Those righteous words just now seemed like a slap in the face - he couldn't help but turn red.
"I understand. I accepted this task - serve the Senate!"
"Serve the Senate and the people!" Zhao Yingong corrected.
"Pull it down." Li Yao'er said, "Let's not talk about this for now. What does it mean to buy mulberry leaves? Is there a guarantee for the mulberry leaves? If we can't supply the mulberry leaves, we will have to abandon the silkworms. The loss will be too great."
"No problem." Zhao Yingong explained that buying "tip leaves" is actually a primitive futures transaction. The customer pays the mulberry owner in advance at a certain price, purchases the mulberry leaves, and then picks up the goods after picking. The transaction of buying "shooting leaves" was actually very similar to "buying young crops" at that time. They all take advantage of the fact that farmers are in urgent need of cash before and after the Chinese New Year to buy futures products at lower prices. Of course, if there is a bumper harvest of mulberry leaves, a significant reduction in sericulture households and other factors that cause the market to plummet, buyers will naturally lose money.
However, in most years, the price of raw silk is high, and buying "tip leaves" is profitable for merchants and silkworm farmers operating the leaf market. Many sericulture farmers who do not have mulberry orchards or whose mulberry leaf production is insufficient often borrow high-interest loans to buy "shooting leaves". As a result, a specialized Yaxingye business was born, which engaged in futures trading of mulberry leaves. The trading methods were also very flexible, including short buying and selling, and cash sales on credit.
"...If we don't consider speculation. Since we have abundant funds, it is quite reasonable to buy this kind of futures mulberry leaves. Although the current market must be bullish than before and after the Chinese New Year, it is now a time of drought. Last year, there was another drought, and the market The price of grain is high. When spring comes, farmers will have to carry out production activities and are in urgent need of funds. If you buy at this time, the price will definitely be quite favorable." (To be continued...)
