After Sun Yan walked back and forth, several men jumped into the field and tied up the wheat on the ground. Soon, all the wheat in the field was tied, and only one person was left following Sun Yan, looking very relaxed.
Wang Guandao: "A child of six or seven years old is enough to follow behind and bind wheat."
Wang Xiaolie and Pan Zhenlin looked at each other, smiled and shook their heads.
In this era, there is no idea that children must go to school, especially those from the middle and lower classes. What is the use of a child knowing a few words? You can still pass the Jinshi examination.
In addition to facilitating transportation, the most important function of bundling wheat is to facilitate threshing. Moreover, the wheat ears after threshing can be used as feed for cattle and sheep. Since it is used as feed, it doesn't matter if the wheat grains on the ears of wheat cannot be removed cleanly.
Threshed wheat ears, millet straw, etc. are high-quality feeds that farmers can use to raise horses, and of course, cattle and sheep. For the Central Plains, these high-quality feeds are excellent pasture for raising livestock, which can make up for the lack of pasture.
There was no meal at noon, so everyone just stayed in the field and watched the harvester come and go.
By the afternoon, nearly ten acres of land had been harvested. Wang Xiaolie ordered people to bring the harvested wheat to the farm yard.
Wang Guan looked at the harvester that was still busy in the field, shook his head and sighed: "This machine is really powerful, one machine can hold up ten people. When I get rich, I will definitely buy one. With such a machine, You can grow dozens of acres of wheat.”
The courtyard is near Wang Guan's residence and has been leveled long ago. The surrounding big trees had been cut down, making it look particularly empty.
There were already threshing machines and winnowing machines brought by the Agriculture and Forestry Institute there, and a few donkeys were tied nearby. The donkey is the power of the machine. There are no engines in this era, and these donkeys and cows are the best agricultural machinery power.
When they arrived at the wheat field, several soldiers came over with a guillotine and guillotined the ears of wheat from the sheaves. Several more people came forward, picked apart the wheat ears, and exposed them to the sun. Because it is spread thinly, the wheat ears will be extremely dry in the sun in a short time.
Wang Xiaolie stepped forward to take a look, and said to Pan Zhenlin beside him: "It's a really nice day today. It won't take long for them to all be dried."
Pan Zhenlin nodded: "The summer sun is extremely hot and unbearable. Just dry the wheat for a while. If you are a farmer, the wheat will be sun-dried for one day and threshed at noon the next day. We are too pressed for time and have to wait for the second day." Oh my god."
After speaking, he directed his men to harness the donkey and prepare to start threshing.
Compared to later generations, this threshing machine was very crude. The first stage is to use kneading to remove the wheat grains. There is a sieve at the bottom, after the wheat chaff is sifted out, the wheat grains are collected. The wheat chaff that cannot be removed will go to the next stage. The structures of the machines are almost the same, and the latter part is just a retrieval.
Pan Zhenlin directed several people to use wooden forks to put the chopped and dried wheat ears into the feed port and into the machine. The donkey pulled the roller and kneaded the grains of wheat. At the same time, the sieve is driven to separate the wheat bran and wheat grains. The grains of wheat fall below and are collected. The wheat bran goes all the way backward and into the next machine.
This sieve looks simple, but is actually extremely troublesome. Wang Xiaolie had an impression of how the threshing machine's sieve worked, but he didn't know the specific structure. In order to create a sieve with such an action, everyone spent countless efforts.
Wang Xiaolie stepped forward to look at the wheat after threshing. Seeing that she was still dirty inside, she couldn't help but shook her head.
Pan Zhenlin directed the machine to stop and adjust the gap of the drum. After the commander adjusted it for a while, the wheat grains were considered clean. However, in this case, you cannot feed too many ears of wheat each time, otherwise the donkey will not be able to pull it.
Wang Xiaolie said: "This speed is a bit slow. It takes more than half an hour to thresh an acre of wheat."
Pan Zhenlin said: "Xuanfu, this speed is enough. Twenty or thirty acres of wheat can be threshed out in two or three days. How could you dare to think about it before? Furthermore, when farmers thresh the wheat ears, they will inevitably dry out even more." , and it’s easy to get laid off.”
Wang Xiaolie nodded: "Maybe. One donkey is still a little weak. I can think of a way on the machine to use two donkeys."
Pan Zhenlin said: "That's okay. The current machines are not that bad."
The wheat is removed from the kernels and transported to the winnowing machine nearby.
Wheat is relatively clean after threshing, and the winnowing machine does not need to be very fast to make it clean. A donkey drives the machine, and after being accelerated by gears, the blades rotate rapidly. The strong wind blows out broken wheat ears and other debris.
Watching the clean wheat being collected, Wang Xiaolie said to Pan Zhenlin: "With these machines, farmers can save a lot of effort in growing wheat. If you save effort in growing wheat, you can use your energy on other things. In time, we will be able to Let farmers get rich from this.”
Pan Zhenlin said: "If you want to get rich, you have to do other things. Otherwise, the energy saved on wheat will be useless."
Wang Xiaolie nodded.
Yes, farmers must be given other things to do in order to truly become rich. Otherwise, planting wheat saves energy, but there is nothing else to do. You can only sit in the field and chat about the world. What's the use? Just selling agricultural machinery does not have much effect.
This kind of thing is linked to each other. If any link is missing, it will be detrimental to social production. A large number of agricultural machinery are used in rural areas, so farmers must be able to use the time saved to do work and make money. If there is a surplus of rural labor, it will be detrimental to the sales of agricultural machinery and the development of society.
Looking at the endless wheat fields around him, Wang Xiaolie said: "I hope that every household in this country will have such a machine, so that farming can be done with the least effort. The master's time will be saved, there will be enough work, and he will be able to earn enough money." Ready money. When they return home, they can have half a catty of meat for every meal, eat enough food, and never go hungry again."
Gao Ying and Pan Zhenlin in the back nodded.
This ideal may sound unattainable, but it is actually not that difficult. Even if not everyone can do this, most people can still do this.
Returning to the Henan government office, Wang Xiaolie briefly spoke a few words and then returned to the official hall.
The sun was too hot today. Although Wang Xiaolie didn't do much work, it was still extremely hot. Lean back in the chair and close your eyes to rest.
In Taoyuan Fairyland, Wang Guan looked at the neatly stacked sacks in the yard and was speechless for a long time. In one day, more than twenty acres of wheat were delivered to the farm. Although there are many people working today, if you calculate carefully, if you work alone and as a family, two days will be enough.
Seeing his wife and children sorting out the chaff, Wang Guan shouted: "Don't do it anymore. Cover the wheat with straw and spread it out to dry tomorrow. You go back and kill a chicken, and I'll go catch a fish in the river tonight." I’ll drink, play, and enjoy a day of peace!”
After hearing this, the wife straightened up, looked at the red crown, smiled and shook her head. Take the child and go to the chicken coop to catch the chicken.
Wang Guan grabbed the fishing rod and waddled to the pond. The fish here are very stupid. I threw my fishing rod into the water and soon caught a big carp weighing five or six pounds.
In the evening, my wife set up the dining table in the yard and served the meal. Wang Guan pours a bowl of wine and is infinitely satisfied.
After three bowls of wine, Wang Guan said: "I didn't expect the machines of the Agriculture and Forestry Institute to be so powerful! More than twenty acres of wheat can be harvested in one day. If we also have such machines and can harvest more than twenty acres of wheat in one day, then it will be How nice!”
Hun's family said: "The wheat is busy and the wheat is busy. In this solar term, what can you do if you don't harvest the wheat?"
Wang Guan lowered his head and thought for a while, then said: "It seems that there is nothing to do. - No, there is nothing to do, you can find something to do!"
The Hun family asked: "What kind of work can we find? We are farmers, not idlers in the city, and we are not doing odd jobs, so naturally we should farm."
Wang Guan shook his head: "Man from heaven can naturally do anything, and he is not born to farm. I have a skill in willow and straw weaving. I will look around tomorrow to see if there are any willow branches that can be used to weave utensils. Sell."
After hearing this, the wife nodded and said: "If that's the case, it's feasible. I can make some utensils and exchange them for some money. The Taoyuan Fairyland Fair nearby is very lively, and they sell all kinds of utensils."
Wang Guandao: "Look, how can the hands of life be idle? And using a machine to harvest wheat is not only fast, but also labor-saving."
Hunjia said: "Yes, using the machine is really labor-saving. All you have to do is follow along, unlike before, where you almost risked half your life in the fields."
Wang Guan nodded repeatedly. After a while, he said: "These machines are not very expensive. I asked today and found that the wheat-cutting machine is only six-tenths of a millimetre. The other machines that remove material and spread it out are even cheaper. It only adds up to four full lengths."
Hunjia nodded: "One hundred foot bones is indeed not expensive."
Wang Guandao: "And this machine does not need to be bought by one family. You can set up a cooperative and buy it from two or three families together, and it will not delay the farming time. Even if it is bought by two families together, it is not expensive at 50 taels per family."
The wife nodded: "It's not expensive. If we buy it together, it won't delay the farming season."
The whole set of machines costs one hundred guan, which is certainly not expensive. But this is the ex-factory price. After deducting various costs, the agricultural machinery factory has a profit of 50 yuan. It costs about 100 guan to buy at the agricultural machinery market. As for buying it elsewhere, the price is hard to say.
The price of the machine is low, mainly because we want to promote it quickly.
The customers of agricultural machinery are farmers, so the price cannot be set too high. Roughly speaking, the selling price of large-scale equipment like this means of production should not exceed farmers' three-year savings. If it exceeds three years, there will be too many variables and farmers may not buy it.
Wang Guan is in the fairyland of Taoyuan, where there are few corvees and the income is naturally high. For them, a normal family's annual income is sixty or seventy guan, and 50 guan is indeed not expensive. You can buy it by yourself in two years, and it will be easy for two companies to form a partnership in one year.
In places like Luoyang, if rural productivity is brought into play, farmers will not be too poor. Backed by a big city, the land is fertile, and there is no secondary exploitation by wealthy landlords in the countryside. Most of the farmers should be well-off.
This is how normal society is. If you are born in a good place, you will naturally have a good life. Being born in a poor place, life will be a bit harder. If you are born in a good place but live a bad life, and if you are born in a poor place and are happy, there must be something wrong with society.
In Taoyuan Fairyland, living a well-off life is what you should do. If you have a hard life here, you either have encountered a major change, or you are lazy and stupid. Wang Xiaolie has removed all exploitation, and even the food tax is relatively low, so why is there any reason to live in poverty?
