Chapter 603: Enrico’s Four-Plant Rotation
While the village head was eating meat and drinking wine, Ansel was still writing down what he had seen today in a dilapidated country church, stroke by stroke. .
Due to time constraints, the South Mound County perpetual leasehold and tax roll statistics are carried out simultaneously, so Ansel has not obtained the specific tax roll until now, and can only estimate based on Bryson's impression. .
There are about 70 households in the entire Adrian Manor, with an average of about 40 acres of cultivated land per household. Compared with the plain areas, the average cultivated land per household is actually 5-10 acres more.
But according to what two villagers learned today, their net wheat yield per mu is only about 60 pounds, that is, if you plant 20 pounds of wheat, you will get 80 pounds of wheat. The net yield of oats and barley per mu is about 80 pounds. .
It seems that when planting wheat, 20 acres of plain land and 30 acres of mountainous land will yield the same amount.
But the problem is that the plain land is fertile and has sufficient water resources, so it can be continuously cropped between seasons.
That is to say, wheat/rice nuts are planted in spring and summer, legumes/pastures can be planted in autumn for fertilization, and oats or radishes can even be planted again in winter.
Although both Mountain County and Pingyuan County adopt the three-field rotation system, the content is different, that is, there is no fallow land in Pingyuan County.
Even on fallow land, beans and barley are grown, which can be used to fertilize the land and to feed livestock and make wine.
However, mountainous counties can only grow one season per year, and must choose between wheat, oats and barley, and one of the three fields must be planted with pasture to supply the knight's war horses and plow horses.
Then they had to pay knights to rent plow horses to plow the land.
So every household raises pigs, but they rarely use them for meat. Instead, they go to Mound County to sell them in exchange for more food.
Forget it, Ansel also heard something even more outrageous from Bryson.
You must know that because the mountain wheat yield is low but firewood is abundant, the staple food of these farmers is oatmeal.
If 25 acres of the 35 acres are planted with oats, there will be an income of 2,000 pounds of grain every year. The land rent in the mountain manor is relatively low, and the tithe is only 10% to 20%.
The staple food of 1,600 pounds of oats every year, combined with the raised chickens, ducks and mountain pigs, plus relying on the timber trade and hunting output of the forest, not to mention food and clothing, at least they will not starve to death.
But the problem is that knights and priests in mountainous areas generally collect land rent in kind, and this "real thing" is actually wheat and barley!
Because wheat can be made into bread, and barley can be made into beer, but oats have a poor taste and require fuel for cooking, so they will not be sold at a high price as food.
Then the lord would order the public farmers to reduce the cultivation of staple foods and instead plant wheat and barley, which ultimately led to the spectacle of people starving to death in the harvest years.
The lame man Alan told Ansel during the day that his brother, wife and newborn son had starved to death in the harvest year.
In fact, Ansel discovered a huge problem at a casual glance in the square today, that is, the entire manor skewed young, with almost no one over forty years old.
Because once you get older, if you encounter famine or insufficient rations, the young people will be given priority. The old people will either go to the woods to starve to death, or they will wander down the mountains and become mercenaries.
Adrian Manor is considered wealthy, and some of the other surrounding manors even have less than 30 acres of arable land per household.
Now Ansel understood why the average cultivated land per household in mountainous counties was higher than that in plain counties, but there were frequent famines and people starved to death.
If the right to permanent lease can be implemented and the physical land rent is converted into divided monetary land rent, the burden on the mountain people will be much lighter.
Although we still don’t have enough food and clothing, at least we won’t starve to death.
The reason is also very simple.
The permanent lease is bound to the Baihu District. Once the permanent lease and the Baihu District are established, the knights no longer have the right to control agriculture, and the farmers also have the will to improve the land.
Farmers within the Baihu District can rely on agricultural cooperation to save part of their manpower and resources to build ditches, roads and improve land.
During this period, with the land under the perpetual lease as a mortgage, the Monastery of the Holy Scythe was able to provide loans and purchase seeds and agricultural tools on its behalf, and began to transform into the Enrico four-field rotation system.
Enrico's four-field rotation system is very suitable for mountainous counties. A 40-acre field is divided into four fields, of which 10 acres are considered.
In the first year, clover or alfalfa is planted and plowed into the ground to make green manure. In the second year, oats can be planted. With green manure, the yield of oats can be increased to 100 to 110 pounds per mu, and the yield of wheat can be increased to 100 to 110 pounds. It can be lifted to 80 pounds.
In the third year, plant radishes or cabbage. This is the most important step, because they have one of the most important characteristics, that is, they are biennial plants!
In other words, they will not freeze to death when it snows in winter. They will just stay in the ground and be pulled out when needed to feed livestock.
Due to the terrain of the mountainous county, it was possible to raise cows and horses on a large scale, but due to the inability to provide enough caloric feed in winter, the cows and horses would starve to death before the arrival of spring.
Even without livestock, it can still provide people with valuable winter heat reserves.
In the fourth year, barley is grown and used to brew beer. On the one hand, it can be used as a heat reserve (alcohol can be stored for a long time), and on the other hand, it can be sold to the outside world in exchange for other products.
This is not planting in four years, but alfalfa, oats, radish, and barley are planted on four pieces of land at the same time every year.
So every year there are 1,000 pounds of oats, 800 pounds of barley, 10,000 pounds of turnips or cabbage, 12,000 pounds of hay and feed.
Four years after the first cycle, each household should have at least one yong horse and one oxen to plow the fields, two cows to produce milk, five to six pigs, and even try to raise sheep to produce wool.
Given the mountainous terrain, it should be based on animal husbandry and supplemented by farming.
This kind of reform is now being implemented in Sechinger's manor. The results should be seen from May of this year to next year, just in time for the four-field crop rotation reform after the establishment of the 100-household district. After the European countries in Horn's hometown implemented this agricultural strategy, the output of just 30 acres of land could feed a group of up to ten people.
Not only can it be self-sufficient, but it can even be exported and traded.
Based on the generally stubborn personality of the mountain people, if such an improvement can be achieved, let alone the church army fighting back, even if the Holy Father comes, they will only support the Holy Sun.
However, the biggest problem now is that for unknown reasons, these mountain people are extremely resistant to Ansel and others.
While Ansel had a headache, a slight chill blew across the back of his neck.
The night wind squeezed in through the open door, shaking the weak flame of the oil lamp, and suddenly a long and blurry shadow appeared on the wall.
Ansel turned around and saw Bryson coming in carefully holding an oil lamp.
"What did Adrian Knight say?"
"Adrian Knight will punish the dealer in public tomorrow and clarify the facts." Bryson paused, as if he was considering his words, "But he can't do it Too much, because Henderson is his uncle. The best he can do is to ask Henderson not to go too far. The rest is up to us."
"This knight can still be ridden by Zhuangtou. It's on your neck?" Ansel was even more surprised.
But Bryson shook his head: "You don't understand, the mountains are not as hierarchical as the plains, but the sense of kinship is stronger. The armed farmers here have more power than the plains, otherwise where would they come from? How many high-quality infantry sources are there?
In a manor, all armed peasants are blood branches of the knight family. These manor positions, including housekeeper, farm head, groom, carpenter, blacksmith, etc., are all hereditary to the armed peasant relatives of the knight family. .
Without them, the knight would not be able to manage the entire estate by himself, and would be notorious in the mountain aristocratic society for mistreating his relatives, so everything was discussed within the family.
The Adrian Knight is away from the manor for half of the year, and Henderson is basically responsible for all matters big and small.
Without the support of other armed farmers, he could not even remove Henderson from his position as head of the village.
He is nominally the lord of Henderson, but he relies on Henderson to pay him wages. Of course, he will not fall out with Henderson. "
Ansel reacted quickly, and he slapped his head in sudden realization: "I see, so compared to the knights, the real target we have to deal with is this group of armed farmers? ”
"...You can say that." Bryson nodded.
Ansel turned around at this time and started writing in his notes, recording these important information on the paper one by one.
Bryson stared at Ansel’s profile, his lips opening and closing tightly, like a fish out of water struggling repeatedly.
In the end, he didn't say anything. He just lowered his head and turned around and walked to the door. When he looked back, he saw Ansel still writing on the table.
Gritting his teeth, Bryson first poked his head out to look around. When he saw no one, he closed the door and walked back to Ansel.
"Is there anything else? Uncle Bryson." Ansel raised his head blankly and looked at Bryson who had dragged a chair and sat across from him.
In the past few days, Bryson has always been submissive. Ansel basically talks to him, and it is rare to see him taking the initiative to talk.
Bryson licked his lips: "Brother Ansel, our task is to promote the permanent lease, right?"
"Of course, what's the matter?"
< br>"I have an idea. Otherwise, let's entrust this matter to those armed farmers. You also saw today how much these residents don't like us."
Ansel blinked, as if he was meeting Bryson for the first time. He was about to refute, but was interrupted by Bryson with a grimace.
"Brother Ansel, I really think about you. This Adrian knight is unreliable and careless. We can't count on him.
The armed peasants are here How many years have we stayed in the manor? How many months can we stay here? The believers don't believe us at all. Even if we forcefully sign a permanent lease and establish a 100-household community, won't the 100-household leader still be the same Hande? Sen?
This place is in a remote place, can we still supervise it from time to time?"
After swallowing a sip of saliva, Bryson saw Ansel thinking deeply and thought he was in trouble, so he quickly followed up and persuaded: "You are so They have become itinerant monks at a young age, and their future is bright. What are they doing here? It is because they are unwilling to promote the permanent lease. They have no vision and deserve it.
You entrust the permanent lease to him and build a 100-household area. You don't say it, I don't say it. The task is completed and everyone is happy. How wonderful. "
Ansel stared at Bryson's face for a full minute, which made Bryson feel uncomfortable, and then he spoke: "I pretended not to hear this time. I will record it this time. "
After saying that, he stood up and wanted to leave the room, but Bryson grabbed his sleeve: "Brother Ansel, you are a good person, but some people are not born well. These mountains The people are! Can you really get these mountain people to come to your side in just a few days? ”
“If it doesn’t take a few days, it can take a month.” ”
“What do you want to do? ”
Ansel smiled mysteriously: "You will know tomorrow."
(End of this chapter)