Basically every household in Dahe Village has planted cotton. Cheng Wanwan's family planted it on a large area at first, and Li Zheng followed suit, so everyone followed suit. Some planted an acre, and some planted three or four acres, because they planted less. , weeding, fertilizing, and catching insects are not too tiring tasks. I just come back from work occasionally and can finish it in an hour and a half.
Without putting in too much labor, we harvested big flowers of cotton, and everyone in the village was beaming with joy.
This thing is soft and comfortable to touch. It is more suitable for winter clothes than catkins and reeds. It can also be tucked into a quilt to keep warm. In previous years, in order to accumulate catkins and reeds, the villagers helped each other. With cotton, this year there is no need to work hard to do this. Something happened.
"Fortunately, my family originally planted an acre of land. I heard Dashan Niang say that one acre of land can harvest four hundred kilograms of cotton."
"My family has planted half an acre and can harvest two hundred catties. By then, the whole family can make a quilt and cut a winter coat."
"But I have to ask Dashan Niang how to make this stuff into quilts and clothes. Also, I don't know how to do this seed saving thing."
"Yes, yes, you have to save the seeds. You have to plant them next year. Maybe you can sell them for money."
"..."
People in the village came to Cheng Wanwan's home to learn from the experience.
In the past, her house had a small courtyard, and the courtyard door was rarely closed. Villagers just came in and shouted.
But now, she lives in a big house. Although the door is not closed, there are two large stone lions at the door. Standing at the door, you can't see the bottom at a glance. The villagers don't dare to step in at all.
"Ladies and gentlemen, are you looking for An Ren?" Mrs. Qi walked out of the yard and said with a smile, "An Ren is reading in the flower hall. You can just go over there."
Generally, people who come to the village, such as aunts and uncles, can be admitted without notification. This is the conclusion that Mrs. Qi came to after observation.
But if the visitor is Mr. Wu, or some lady who comes to the village to enjoy the lotus, then you have to go and ask Anren for permission first.
Mrs. Qi led the way, and twenty or thirty women followed her in. It was not their first time here, but every time they came in, they did not dare to make any noise, nor did they whisper to each other. They followed very quietly. Go to the flower hall.
The flower hall here is very large, complete with tables and chairs, and can accommodate twenty or thirty people without any problem.
Ning Lan, who was waiting at the side, served the tea with a discerning eye, and also brought out the seasonal melons and plums, setting a large table full of them.
Seeing that everyone was very reserved, Cheng Wanwan closed the book and said with a smile: "Why are you so polite when you come to my place? There are too many melons in the field and I can't finish them. Please help me eat more and don't waste it. "
Shagenniang was the first to eat: "Can I take back some of these melon seeds? I will plant some next year too."
Cheng Wanwan nodded: "Of course. Speaking of saving seeds, I just want to tell you about cotton seeds. There is a hard cotton seed in the cotton. This is the seed. Store it after drying. It is waterproof and moisture-proof. You can plant it next year. If you go down, it will sprout.”
The village women asked: "Then how do you know whether it has been dried in the sun?"
"Bite it with your teeth. If it cracks, it means it is completely dry." Cheng Wanwan was reading a book on cotton just now, and she spoke eloquently.
Modern cotton seeds are purchased. Generally speaking, purchased cotton seeds cannot be kept for one's own use. Her cotton seedlings this time were carefully selected and can be kept as seeds. If planted in March or April next year, the germination rate can reach 100%. sixty.
"One more thing. When you are picking cotton, if you go to pick cotton before the sun comes out and there is dew, you can just pull off the whole peach that has been spun out, take it home and peel it out. If the sun comes out, you can just pull it out. I was pulling cotton wool in the ground, because the leaves were dried in the sun and shattered when touched. They stuck to the cotton wool and were difficult to remove..."
"After the cotton is recovered, you must remember to expose it to the sun, fully expose it, dry it thoroughly, and store it in a waterproof and moisture-proof place... After I finish the work, I will teach you how to make clothes and quilts from cotton..."
The peasant women carefully wrote down all the things that needed attention, and then told them to other peasant women who did not come.
Since each household doesn’t grow much cotton, it doesn’t take much trouble to spend a quarter of an hour every day pulling the cotton bolls back and letting the children peel them.
The busiest thing is Cheng Wanwan's home, which has a total of 160 acres of cotton land. Ten long-term workers have just collected and pulled it all in order. The earliest piece of land has been spun out again, and it is completely white.
All the cotton buds pulled back were piled up in the first courtyard of the house, accounting for one-third of the area. A large group of old ladies about sixty years old came over with a low bench each, and gathered around to peel the cotton. The wages are calculated based on the pound. These old ladies can still make money by having someone to talk to. The most important thing is that working in Dashanniang's house with unlimited supply of tea and snacks is really comfortable.
After the first batch of cotton was dried in the sun, Cheng Wanwan packed some and took it to the Cao family's workshop.
The place is now on the right track. There are more than 20 female sericulture workers, more than 10 female weavers, and more than 20 embroiderers. The entire workshop has more than 60 or 70 workers in total. The sound never stopped.
"Why are you here? It's hot outside. Come in and sit down." Kong Xiu Niang stood up and welcomed Cheng Wanwan in.
Cheng Wanwan saw the design draft drawn by Cao Yingying on the table. Kong Xiu Niang was splitting the process, separating each part separately, and then assigning it to different people.
"It's better to use An Ren's method. There are twenty embroiderers, each responsible for different parts, and finally they are sewn. The efficiency is increased by at least three times." Kong embroiderer said with a smile, "Now you don't have to worry about making clothes. The design drafts are not enough, and I can’t rely on the young lady alone. I plan to find some young tailors, and I think they should be able to draw some new clothes.”
Cheng Wanwan nodded. The most important thing for a ready-made clothing store is the designer. Design is the soul.
She poured out the cotton from her basket and said, "Kong Xiu Niang, can the loom in your workshop weave cotton into cloth?"
Although she knew that cotton could be used to make clothes, she really didn't know how to turn cotton into cloth. The books talked about modern technology. She couldn't figure out how to make it in ancient times. She couldn't figure out how to make a loom. not understand well.
Kong Xiu Niang carefully pulled the cotton batting, observed it for a while and then said: "The loom we have here is specially used to weave silk. The silk is very long, but the cotton batting is too short. You have to spin it first, and then use a loom to weave linen." Give it a try, it won’t be a big problem…”
After all, she is a professional. Kong Xiu Niang thought for a while and said, "This cotton batting is soft and highly absorbent. It should be easy to dye. It should be very good for making children's underwear..."
Cheng Wanwan nodded. Silk clothes are indeed comfortable to wear, but they also have their unavoidable disadvantages. Cotton clothes greatly make up for this shortcoming. Not to mention soft, the key is to absorb sweat, which is very suitable for children and the elderly. Yes, cotton is highly dyeable and can be dyed into more than a dozen reds between light red and water red. Changing it to silk is more difficult and requires a lot of manpower and material resources...
