The people in Liyang have almost been replaced. The main population is actually the newly moved Yanzhou soldiers and their families, a total of 5,000 soldiers and more than 10,000 people.

With such a small number of people occupying a fertile and vast area like Liyang, it is actually possible to implement a fallow system.

In fact, they did the same thing.

Several plots of land are rotated. After planting the first plot, the second plot will be planted next year. After the second plot is planted, the third plot will be planted the next year. In the fourth year, the first plot will be planted again.

The benefits of doing this are huge, because the land has enough time to recuperate, restore nutrients, and produce higher yields.

To put it bluntly, the world is material and obeys the law of conservation of energy. Why did a piece of farmland that was originally bare become covered with tall corns and wheat a year later? How did it happen? If you create these things, will other things become the same?

Missing?

Nutrients and fertilizers are always the top priority in agricultural production.

However, if you till a piece of land vigorously, without sufficient fertilizer supplementation, and without giving it time to fallow, it will only become poorer and poorer, and the yield will gradually become unsustainable.

Shao Xun walked around Liyang and finally stopped in a large grassland.

More than a hundred households transferred from Jingu Garden also brought a group of livestock, mainly sheep, with a small number of cattle and horses, and even more than ten camels.

"Is it speeding up the entry into the Northern Dynasty?" Shao Xun thought to himself.

Historically, under the Hu regime in the Northern Dynasties, there were countless livestock raised in Henan, Hebei and Guanzhong.

"The Biography of Erzhu Rong" once recorded that in the northern region, "cattle, alpacas, and horses are divided into groups based on their color and grain quantity."

If there was a nomadic tradition in the early Northern Dynasties, for example, when the two sides competed for the city, you grazed at the west gate, and I grazed at the east gate, by the Northern Wei Dynasty, they were basically fixed within a rough range, with both grazing and farming.

"Where are you from?" Shao Xun called a farmer from Jinguyuan and asked.

The farmer was a little nervous and answered bravely: "I am from Wen County, Hanoi."

It turned out that he was a fellow villager of the Sima family. Shao Xun smiled and asked, "How did you get to Jingu Garden?"

"First recruit Empress Hui to plant rice in Guangchengze," the farmer said.

"What happened next?" Shao Xun asked casually.

The farmer glanced at him, extremely hesitant.

"You can just say what you want, why are you hesitating?" Shao Xun said displeased.

"Queen Hui said that Mr. Chen practiced martial arts all day long and needed to eat meat, so she asked us to plant alfalfa and raise livestock." The farmer said with his head lowered.

As soon as these words came out, everyone near and far was shocked.

Shao Xun was speechless and suddenly understood what it meant to be dead. This was what he had forced others to say.

At the same time, I am also a little annoyed. Yang Xianrong, did you do it on purpose? I am even more guilty. That woman is a bit crazy, but she really has nothing to say to him. She has given you everything and always thinks about you.

"How many acres of land do you have at home?" he asked awkwardly, changing the subject.

"Originally thirty acres, now sixty acres."

"Have you raised a horse?"

"I raise two horses, one cow, and more than 20 sheep."

"How do you cultivate sixty acres of land?"

When talking about his area of ​​expertise, the farmer was not so nervous and immediately said: "Twenty acres are planted with alfalfa to raise livestock, twenty acres are planted with millet and wheat for home consumption, and there are twenty acres left fallow."

"Is the fallow land not cultivated at all?"

"No way." The farmer smiled bitterly and said: "Three cities in Heyang need to collect horse feed, but we don't want hay, just beans. These twenty acres of fallow land will be planted with beans, and the harvest will be ready in March."

Beans have a short growth period and can be harvested in three months. They consume little land nutrients and the rhizobia can also fix nitrogen. They are actually a very good fallow crop.

Fallow does not mean that the land is idle. In modern agriculture, fallow is often associated with crop rotation, that is, planting staple grains is replaced by vegetables and miscellaneous grains, and then staple grains are planted again after one or two years to give the soil time to recover nutrients.

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This agricultural production model is not necessarily less profitable than growing staple crops without leaving crops fallow, or even higher. It can also reduce losses from pests and diseases, which is very important in an era without pesticides.

Of course, this can only be done when there are fewer people and more land. When the population explodes, fallow farming becomes unrealistic and cannot be popularized on a large scale. The only way is to plant staple food season after season. The more you plant, the more you will lose, and the more you plant, the more you will lose.

Even until the Republic of China, the farmland in the north was already very barren, and the wheat harvest per acre was only more than a hundred kilograms. But people had no choice but to plant it, because the population had grown to 400 million, which was almost 80% of the ancient prosperous age.

Ten times, but the area of ​​cultivated land has not increased eight to ten times, and the yield per mu is only slightly higher than in ancient times. In the Northern Dynasties, Tang and Song Dynasties, the yield per mu in the north was high, and the yield per mu in the lower fields was low. On average, it was about one hundred pounds per mu.

There is not much difference between the collection and the Republic of China.

Over the past two thousand years, the growth of agricultural output per mu has been extremely limited. After all, matter and energy are conserved. In an era without chemical fertilizers, no matter how you improve agricultural technology, the marginal effect will only become lower and lower.

"How much grain can your family harvest in a year?" Shao Xun asked again.

"In two years, we harvested one hundred and forty bushels of wheat and sixty bushels of beans," the farmer replied.

"How many people are there?"

"Big mouth, small mouth, five people."

Shao Xun nodded, this income is enough.

A family of five eats sixty or seventy grains a year, which is barely enough to keep them full. But they also raise a lot of livestock and have milk to eat, so they won't go hungry.

Once the beans are planted on the fallow land, if not enough, you can plant some fruits and vegetables, and you will be able to harvest in a few months.

If you plant a few fruit trees in front of the house and behind the house, there will be no shortage.

This is the advantage of having more land.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it was common to grant land to dozens of acres per ding, and it was not uncommon to grant land of hundreds of acres.

With such a ratio of people to land, even if it is cultivated extensively, one acre of land can only yield a few dozen kilograms, which is more than enough to feed a family.

In the early Tang Dynasty, there were only more than 10 million people, and men were granted hundreds of acres of land.

In Tang poetry, even ordinary farmers in the village eat meat and drink wine during various festivals. It is not entirely accurate to say that people in ancient times could not eat meat. At least it was okay when there were fewer people and more land.

With fewer people and more land, as long as there are no wars or disasters, the people will not only be able to eat enough, but they can also farm for up to three years to save a year's worth of food - but it is impossible not to have wars at the moment, and this will have a huge impact on agricultural production.

If you are older, the most serious problem is that your family will lose half of its land this year, because the old, weak, women and children will not be able to farm due to the lack of men.

"Call those Qu commanders over." Shao Xun ordered.

Yang Qin and Liu Ling rushed out, looked at each other, and stopped.

"Go quickly." Shao Xun urged.

The two of them went together, and after a while, the commanders were called over.

"Meet Mr. Chen." They said in unison with awkward accents.

Shao Xun looked at them, pointed at someone at random, and asked, "What's your name?"

"Juqu Chong."

"Huns?"

"My ancestors originally settled in Lushuihu, but later moved to the north."

Anding and the northern lands are close together, and they are all counties of Yongzhou.

"What is your career?"

"Grow cattle and sheep, and also farm some land."

"How to farm and herd?"

"Build a house next to a field, farm on the east side, and graze on the west side. Then change again every three years."

When Shao Xun heard this, he was very happy.

The Hu people also know how to rotate crops and keep them fallow. Yes, things will be easier to handle.

"I want to grant you some land in Zhao County, what do you think?" he asked.

"As long as you have land."

"But the land needs to be cultivated according to the method of Golden Valley Garden, how about it?"

"Yes." Juquchong agreed.

In fact, he has already had contact with the Jinguyuan gang.

Isn't it just crop rotation? It seems like no one understands it.

His family's tribe lives in An'ding and Northland, and they have long discovered the mystery.

If a piece of land is planted for several consecutive years, the harvest will be lower every year. It is commonly said that the land is "thin".

At this time, the land was converted into pasture for grazing, and then planted again a few years later. The land soon recovered and the land became "fertile" again.

They don't understand the reasons, but they can sum up their experience, and the metaphor of fat and thin is very appropriate.

"He is a refreshing man!" Shao Xun patted Ju Qu Chong on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I raised tens of thousands of cattle and sheep in Anping, and I will reward you with them all."

"Thank you Mr. Chen." Juquchong was really happy this time and shouted immediately.

After thanking him, he turned around and spoke to the other chiefs in nonsense. Everyone fell to the ground, beaming with joy.

Shao Xun was also very happy.
To be continued...