Chronicles of The Hardships of Komachi in The Sengoku Era

In late August, Shizuko harvested all crops except sweet corn and satsuma potatoes.

There was a reason why I was leaving sweetcorn behind after the time.

If left to wither without harvest, the fruit ripens and the seeds can be harvested.

I mean, Shizuko was thinking about making seeds for next year.

(Good for you, not F1)

There are two species of corn.

One is the original species of corn, called native species or fixed species.

The other is a generation of hybrids made by multiplying two different pure systems, commonly known as F1.

F1 can be fruitful and disease-resistant, but on the other hand, I can't do the same corn the following year.

It is not assumed that it will always continue to be consumed as a first-generation individual and that a second and subsequent generation will arise.

Even if a second generation is finally made, it is born in a completely different form and nature than its parents.

This is the fate of an F1 individual that cannot be overridden.

Fortunately, the corn seeds that Shizuko had were a unique breed improvement on his grandfather's ancient native species.

So even if we plant the seeds the next year, we can have the exact same variety.

It is highly disease-resistant, has extremely soft granular skin and a refreshing sweetness.

Need more water than regular corn as a disadvantage.

But as a static child with nothing to do with the water bill, that was hardly a disadvantage.

(Um, I wonder if the land that does the rotating streak divides 2ha into eight parts. 1 ha for sugar cane, 1 ha for sweet potatoes and 2 ha for rice paddies)

Continuous cropping refers to growing the same crop over and over again in the same nursery.

And rotation is a way to make crops that have another nature on the same land in several cycles every few years.

By cyclically changing the crops to be cultivated, the nutritional balance of the soil improves yield and quality.

In addition, problems of reduced yield and quality due to pathogens, pests, etc. in a continuous crop can be prevented.

Shizuko considered one cycle to be four years and decided to move 0.5 ha of arable land area in two sets.

(Spring and autumn co-operation, and annual cropland changes, soil nutritional improvements due to compost. That alone will dramatically increase your productivity)

Plans were made to completely organize the current agricultural land and convert it to land for rotation and contiguity.

Fortunately, if we tidy up all the current farmland, it would be the same size as the planned 2ha.

But that's not enough farmland.

We will need 1 ha for sugar cane, 1 ha for sugar potatoes and 2 ha for fields.

In total, there were not enough 4ha. It is only next year that fifty peasants, ordered by Nobunaga to Kesei Mori, will come.

At a minimum, the land should be zoned by then.

(Um, I can't help it. I guess I'll have to ask the woods for a temporary workforce)

There is nothing else to ask Kasei Mori to provide the labor force because there is purely too little labor.

Kasei Mori will take on quickly, as it is already a farmland reform for Shizuko, which can be called a national policy.

But there's no reason to be excessive. Naturally, excessive expectations are forbidden.

(Ma, six more years...... I hope we can get it in order by then)

At the end of the day, I thought it was inconclusive to think deeply, and Shizuko stopped thinking about the difficult things.

(Sa, do you still work a lot today)

To clean up the work in front of him, Shizuko left the house behind with work tools.

Then a week later.

"Today we will all begin the first round of the summer potato harvest"

"Ooh!

About four months later, the time of harvest for the sugar potatoes planted in early May, that is, the first harvest time for the sugar potatoes came in early September.

The villagers raised their voices with great tension from that morning.

That, too, was most popular when I tried and dug the potatoes.

It was still a popular point to feel good and full, unlike the others.

"It was the size there when I tried and dug last week, so today I'm going to dig where that sign is"

Since seedlings were planted every week, the degree of growth also varied with the sugar potatoes planted on vast arable land.

To make it easier to understand it, Shizuko had put up a sign informing her when she had planted it.

If you cross the border around there, you don't have to dig up early for nothing.

"First, we will cut off the stems of the sweet potatoes to be harvested. After that, we'll harvest the sweet potatoes."

"Mayor - what should we do with the guy who harvested it?

"Please take the dirt back to the village and put it in a wooden barrel. The harvested potatoes are dried day after day and then shaded for about a week."

At that moment, booming rose from the villagers.

Naturally, I guess it's because I thought I could eat right on the spot.

"Shut up! It doesn't taste good to eat right after the harvest. It adds sweetness by drying. Sweet and dusty sweet potatoes or just sweet potatoes...... which do you guys want to eat?

Shizuko declares as she points the wooden scoop in her hand at the villagers.

Don't you feel like eating just potatoes on boulders, the villagers gave a bumpy look and shut up.

"Let's get started."

Shizuko, concerned about what the villagers had convinced him, told him so, laughing at the garlic.

The harvested potatoes were taken straight back to the village, where they were lightly soiled and sun-dried the day after tomorrow.

The unwanted parts will be gathered together and all will be compost and soil material. Undo the dirt you dug back into.

Such harvests take place only once a week. In the meantime, time was spent developing arable land.

It is the task of dividing into eight plots of arable land two hundred meters long and two hundred meters across.

It is calculated to be arable land of 0.5 ha size per crop.

(ii) Consider arable land as a set and turn them in a fourth-anniversary cycle.

And it is also the point of this rotation that includes chicken farms that are not in this era.

The shape in which shells are laid in the chicken breeding area is called flat-bred.

Chicken manure falls on top of it, so when you switch to a field, you just need to tame the soil.

The diet is also fine with what humans would not otherwise eat, such as vegetable scraps, animal or fish bone powdered objects, or seashell powder.

On the other hand, it does not give corn, etc., so the egg yolks do not turn yellow and turn white.

Basically, the color of the yolk varies depending on the feed the parent chicken eats.

If you keep feeding the blue, the yolk will look blue.

If you continue to give bone powder and the like, then naturally the yolk will have a white color.

(Ma, other than me, you won't recognize that the yolk is bright yellow... no problem)

More than there is no chicken egg industry, the food called eggs becomes precious and luxurious.

Therefore no one will wonder, even if the egg yellow is other than yellow.

"But is it easy to get chickens...?

He was a static child who felt a little anxious that he might need to start with a sperm egg.

When it came to chickens, Kasei Mori looked strange.

The chickens were not even considered edible, even if they ate wild bird meat, because they were consecrated as time telling birds and treated mainly as lovers of animals.

Shizuko remembered that the chicken egg industry began in the Edo period in the first place.

In the end I only got one male and five females.

Initial anxiety was moderated and it was necessary to cultivate hiyoko from sperm eggs.

It was a time when there were no hatcheries, so it was necessary to make it with something alternative, but it could be solved with something unexpected.

It's a hot spring.

Originally dumped in the river as waste water, I thought about using that heat to create a place like an incubator.

First, build a small cabin where the water runs and paint the floor for waterproofing. This creates an environment for simple floor heating.

Then lay the soil and crust on the floor, gathering ducks and other wild bird feathers to create an environment that wraps them one at a time.

It would be easy to put it in words, but it took nearly two weeks to make it, and it would have taken three more if it included making a temporary chicken farm nearby.

When ready and asked Kasei Mori to carry the chickens, he returned a ruthless dialogue that it would take two weeks to carry them.

While building chicken farms and hatchery sheds, the harvest of sweet potatoes continued.

Dried for a week, the sweet potatoes were well received by the villagers.

However, because of the large number of cultivated potatoes, it became necessary to create a "potato hole" to store the potatoes along the way.

Dig a deep hole, lay a straw there, and add the potatoes.

Finally, the morsels were added and kept well warm before soiling.

Billboards will be put up so that it is easy to understand, and furthermore the order in which they will be digested by swinging the number.

But that's not all. At the same time, I decided to make dried potatoes.

The process is only a little complicated, but it has the advantage of being edible even if there is a little mildew.

I'm working on it somewhat, but it's easy if you get used to it.

After harvesting, sugar in cold air and steam over an hour to two hours.

Line up the skinned sweet potatoes with someone to dry them in the sun for about a week.

If you turn them into pots and store them side by side in a cool place, you'll have no problem.

Now I don't have any food problems until next spring, and I can expect a considerable improvement in nutritional aspects.

Pumpkins also have proper storage, so it is no exaggeration to say that they have excess food.

"The harvest is almost over... it's a baked potato tournament to celebrate the harvest -!

To celebrate the abundance, Shizuko decided to hold a baked potato tournament using satsuma potatoes.

Of course, not a single opposite voice rose from the villagers.

Shizuko, who has finished this harvest, needs to live with Satsumoto as their staple food from now on.

Even so, by the next year's harvest, if it lasts long, the nutritional balance will collapse in another sense.

Sugar potatoes are only emergency preparations, supplementary foods, a regular meal, and rice is the staple.

(I guess about 12 tons if I had 2 ha. About 200 rice mounds... but that's when the rice is rich. Simply calculating, maybe ten tons?

In modern times, rice yields are 10 mounds at 10a and 100 mounds at 1ha.

Since a mound has 60 kg, a total of 6000 kg, or six tons, is standard.

However, this is a story hundreds of years after the Warring States era.

Since agricultural technology is low, it is the wish that a ton can be produced at the same size in the Warring States era.

If it's Warring States agricultural technology, though.

"Can you handle it?"

"What is it? Mayor of the village"

The former village chief, Yoichi, reacts to the potpourri and grunting words.

"Well, I thought I'd have to produce rice next year."

"That's right. That sweet potato is delicious, but I still want rice."

"I'd like to make a hundred mounds, even if I deduct the amount to pay the innkeeper."

"A hundred mounds!?

To Shizuko's words, which he casually said, Genichi raised his voice with a stunned look on his face.

"Um... village chief? You really think you can reap that much?

"I'll throw away all the cultivation methods I've ever had. If it's my way, it's a lot of work."

"Ha... Well, if the village chief says so, I believe..."

"Mayor! The potatoes are burnt!?

When I tried to reply to Genichi, who looked subtle, a golden voice flew in from afar.

"I'm coming! I'll explain what happens next year."

Seeing Shizuko with some pleasant look on her face, Yoichi had a feeling that next year's rice would be rich.