Traveling through 1942 with space

Chapter 324: Tobacco Planting

"Oh! Okay." Hou Xiaoge agreed, but his hands did not stop moving.

Two days later, because there was an extra strong laborer in the family, Hou Xiaoge's family harvested the wheat earlier than Erda and her sister-in-law's families.

After harvesting his own wheat, Hou Xiaoge did not stop, but took a sickle to harvest the wheat at his aunt's house.

My uncle-in-law helped to pull the wheat, and my aunt was alone, and only a small half of the more than seven acres of land was harvested.

With the help of Hou Xiaoge, uncle and eldest cousin, my aunt's family harvested the wheat quickly and finally finished harvesting together with Erda's family.

"Heiwa, a few days ago I heard from the locals that growing flue-cured tobacco is very profitable, and now many places have started to grow flue-cured tobacco.

Don't you Yanhuang League also deal in tobacco? Give me some ideas, can we grow it? "When we got home in the evening, we discussed and asked.

"The profit from growing flue-cured tobacco is indeed greater than that from growing grain, but you don't have any seedlings, so isn't it a bit late to plant now?" Hou Xiaoge said after calculating the time.

“We still need to grow seedlings? The locals don’t grow seedlings either!

Besides, we in Henan Province started planting flue-cured tobacco much earlier than in Yunnan Province. We have seen people planting it in the county before, and there is no need to grow seedlings.

And I calculated that it is only the middle of April in the lunar calendar. If we plant wheat now, it will be October in four and a half months. The weather here is warm, so it is still in time to plant wheat." Hou Yangmin scratched his head and asked in confusion.

"Oh! I forgot." Hou Xiaoge slapped the back of his forehead and suddenly realized.

He had some preconceived ideas just now. In later generations, both tobacco and vegetables were planted after raising seedlings, which was still rare in this era.

However, people in this era use extensive planting methods and very few people use seedling cultivation.

Speaking of tobacco cultivation in Yunnan Province, Hou Xiaoge has been living in this area for the past few years and has some knowledge about it.

The first places where flue-cured tobacco entered the country were Taiwan, Henan Province and Shandong Province, but these places have either fallen or become war zones in recent years, which is naturally not conducive to the cultivation of cash crops.

Therefore, it was not until the 41th year of the Republic of China, that is, in , that trial planting began in Yunnan Province and Guangxi Province. Unexpectedly, the climate in these two places was suitable and the trial planting of flue-cured tobacco was a great success.

Because flue-cured tobacco is an economic crop with huge economic profits, government businessmen have been promoting it vigorously in recent years.

After Tianmen Group came to Yunnan Province, it also got a big share of this market with the cigarette-making machines that Hou Xiaoge bought from America.

Kunming City is the capital of Yunnan Province, and information spreads quickly, so people living in the nearby Nanjiagou Village naturally knew about it.

The people of Nanjiagou had seen flue-cured tobacco and smoked dry tobacco in Henan Province, so they naturally knew that this thing had huge profits, so it was no surprise that Hou Yangmin was tempted.

It's just that Nanjiagou is unfamiliar with the local people and only has Tianmen and Yanhuang League as supporters, so he asked Hou Xiaoge so that he could have a better idea of the situation.

"Now Tianmen Group buys flue-cured tobacco at a high price. Planting one mu of tobacco is equivalent to planting two or three mu of wheat. It is worth planting.

I will contact the Yanhuang League to teach you how to bake it." Hou Xiaoge nodded in support.

"That's good. We farmers only know how to grow them, but we don't know how to roast or sell them. It couldn't be better to have your support from the Yanhuang League." Hou Yangmin smiled happily.

"Uncle, if we plant now and harvest in November, it will not affect the planting of wheat.

But breeding is better, the seedlings will be neat, the quality of the flue-cured tobacco will be better, and the maturity time will be faster. "Hou Xiaoge suggested.

"Growing seedlings? None of us knows how to do it!" Erda said with his eyes wide open.

"It's not that difficult, just find a piece of land in advance, make the soil level, apply more manure, and plant more carefully.

I have learned this at home and outside. It’s hot now and I can’t sleep, so let’s finish work early tomorrow.

Tomorrow at noon I will ask my mother to pull up the vegetables in my yard, and we will grow seedlings in my yard and level the ground." Hou Xiaoge said with a smile.

"It's a pity to pull out these vegetables. They can still grow longer." Erda looked at the vegetables in the yard and said with some regret.

"Oh! How much land can be used for seedling cultivation? My yard is only one acre! Seedlings are planted densely, so three acres of land is enough." Hou Xiaoge waved his hand and explained.

"Okay, then you can discuss it with your mother. If possible, each of our families will plant some in their yards." Hou Yangmin said in a low voice.

"It's okay! It's a good thing to grow seedlings in advance. It will take us at least five or six days to finish grinding wheat, and we have to make ridges for planting tobacco." Hou Xiaoge said.

"Building ridges?" Several people looked confused.

"You don't have to worry about this. Just water the fields in a few days. I'll tell you when the wheat is almost ready." Hou Xiaoge didn't want to explain more and waved his hand.

"Okay, you've been out all year round and have been abroad, so you know how people grow crops there. We'll listen to you." Trust and prestige are accumulated over time, and several old farmers also chose to believe Hou Xiaoge.

"Okay, it's getting late, uncles, you guys should go home and have some rest! Finish work early tomorrow and we'll come back to clean up the place." Hou Xiaoge looked at his pocket watch. It was almost ten o'clock in the evening.

……

After several relatives left, Hou Xiaoge told Wang Maimiao about the seedling cultivation.

"What did you say? Pull up all the vegetables from our three acres of vegetable garden to grow seedlings!

This vegetable has only been planted for less than a month, it is still too small, when it grows up, it can be sold for two dollars! You are wasting it." Wang Maimiao was furious.

"Today, my uncle and Erda came over and said they wanted to grow flue-cured tobacco. Flue-cured tobacco has a high value. I was talking about raising seedlings, which is a foreign method of growing it." Hou Xiaoge said as he sat down, pressing his cheap mother's shoulder.

"Flue-cured tobacco? I've never planted it before and I don't know how to plant it. I'm also planning to plant some fast-growing vegetables in the field, and then plant corn in mid-June! I've already picked out the corn seeds.

Your uncle and his family want to grow flue-cured tobacco? One acre of flue-cured tobacco can really replace four acres of corn." Wang Maimiao was confused, then shocked.

(Corn is not as valuable as wheat. Two and a half acres of wheat are worth four acres of corn.)

"Well! Mom, you're setting up a stall at the market all day long, don't you know the price of flue-cured tobacco?" Hou Xiaoge asked.

"Hey, kid, I'm a woman and I don't smoke, why are you asking that!" Wang Maimiao's face turned red. He couldn't say that she was just chatting with others!

"Then just listen to your son. Can I still coax you? I can let you plant another crop of corn and harvest an extra hundred kilograms of corn. You can also plant wheat at the end of the year." Hou Xiaoge said with a smile.

"You can still harvest over a hundred kilograms of corn? Can your kid perform magic tricks?" Wang Maimiao stared with disbelief.

"I can't explain it now. I'll tell you tomorrow when we start raising the seedlings." Hou Xiaoge waved his hand and said.

"Okay then! You are the head of our family now, and I will listen to you." After saying this, Wang Maimiao looked at the vegetables in the yard with some heartache.

In summer, the weather gets bright early because it is the busy farming season. The whole family gets up at five o'clock the next day when the sky is already slightly bright.

Today is the time to grind wheat. Outside the village, there is a wheat field and vegetable plot that Hou Xiaoge suggested the village to divide. Every family has already leveled the wheat field, and the fields are now full of wheat.

There is wheat in the threshing ground, and someone needs to watch over it. Last night, my two cousins were sleeping in the shed that was built in the mule cart to watch over it. When several families arrived at the threshing ground, the two brothers were snoring in their sleep.

"Brother, brother, get up and eat." Hou Xiaoge shouted as he lifted the lid of the shed.