At the end of January, the Yazi Lake basin has entered the grain harvest season... Read the latest and most complete novel in New Cornis Township, and the Anderson family is preparing to harvest the grain in the fields. Since his family only has one agricultural household registration, there are only 30 acres of arable land, of which 20 acres of wheat are planted, and the other 10 acres of fallow land are planted with alfalfa. Several crops have been harvested this year, and the 8 thin cows he bought have been fat and strong.

Since there is only one mara wheat harvester purchased by villagers in the village, and priority is given to harvesting the land of the martyrs' families, Anderson saw that the weather was not very good in the past two days, so he discussed with his wife and simply hired three Italian macists introduced by the famous labor agent Sorendino, and hired them for three days at a salary of 20 cents a day and food and accommodation. During these three days, Anderson and his wife will harvest the wheat with their sickles first, and then thresh them after harvesting, and expose them to the sun.

Only then did the harvester come to his own field to harvest. The gloomy weather looks not good. In order to save his crops from the bad weather that may come, Anderson decided to hire a few black workers to do it by himself. Anyway, it would only cost one yuan and eight cents for three days. At most, you can go to the village entrance to buy some beef and whale meat to spend a little money. The total cost will not exceed three yuan. But if the bad weather comes and the wheat in the field is not enough to be harvested, it is hard to say how much the loss is. Now it is time to race against time, and you can't lose big because of small things.

The situation of Anderson's family is not an isolated case. In fact, on the east coast today, the number of agricultural machinery is still quite lacking. Let's start with the various products currently launched by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory in Xihu County. Such as: horse-raised wheat harvester, horse-raised corn harvester, horse-raised soybean harvester, threshing machine, Yanggu machine, etc. Among them, there is more than one version of the threshing machine and Yanggu machine. Because the power system is different, there is a hand-crank version, an animal-powered version (horse or donkey), and of course the steam version.

These agricultural machinery are like miracles for the mud legs in the village, whether from Livornia or from the Ming Dynasty. They are not fools, and of course they can see the benefits of this machinery, but these agricultural machinery are undoubtedly quite expensive. Take the Mara wheat harvester as an example, one costs more than one hundred yuan - because a considerable number of two of these harvesters need to be made by hand - this price is simply astronomical for farmers who are still in debt.

The harvester in Anderson and his village was purchased by everyone. Two veterans who had been on the battlefield paid the most. They raised more than 30 yuan in total. The other villagers were also 50 cents, and I raised forty or fifty yuan together. Then the village finance subsidized 10 yuan, and the Ministry of Agriculture’s “Special Action for Agricultural Machinery Going to the Countryside” subsidy funds of 20 yuan. Only then did their village get the professional horse-drawn wheat harvester and some spare parts and lubricating oil (seal oil) produced by Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory.

To be honest, working with agricultural machinery and without agricultural machinery is definitely two different concepts. A horse-raised wheat harvester is worth dozens of strong laborers. And as long as the machine does not have any problems and the horse is replaced in time, it can continue to work without sleep. It is much more efficient than those who have to rest. But the high price is the main factor preventing the spread of this machinery that is loved by farmers to the countryside. After all, although Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory is a state-owned enterprise, it now has to balance income and expenditure. After the production costs of the horse-raised wheat harvester are equal to the previous R&D costs, the cost will be almost 80 yuan, and the cost of a batch of parts, lubricating oil and transportation costs is not uncommon. The actual profit margin of Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Factory is actually only about 10%, which is not high.

This year, New Konis Township is the first time to grow wheat on a large scale, and many of the lands are also the first year's raw land. In addition, local farmers have also carried considerable housing mortgage loans, female slave mortgage loans, and small calculations of saving money for redeeming more land in the future. Therefore, villagers are not very optimistic about the harvest this year and are unable to spend huge amounts of money to buy expensive agricultural machinery.

In fact, let alone them, even in mature agricultural areas in the south, villagers are worried about raising funds to purchase agricultural machinery, mainly in contradictions such as usage rights and property rights. In addition, a family owns up to 60 acres of arable land (30 acres per person), and one-third of them are still in a fallow state. They really cannot buy a horse-raised wheat harvester that costs more than 100 yuan for their wheat fields. In other words, the restrictions imposed by the state on individual land ownership have made them impulse to buy agricultural machinery.

Currently, in agricultural mature areas such as the southern capital and Xihu County in the north, these relatively wealthy farmers, just three or five friends or trustworthy people, jointly buy a professional harvesting machinery such as horse-drawn wheat harvesters, horse-drawn soybean harvesters, horse-drawn alfalfa harvesters and other professional harvesting machinery. In addition, if the economic situation is still a little surplus, they may also buy some threshers, Yanggu machines and other machinery - of course, it is a hand-crank or animal power version.

As for the high-end version of steam, the high price is definitely not something that ordinary people can afford. Nowadays, only in some state-owned farms in the capital Dongfang County can this kind of majestic equipment be seen. This kind of equipment is generally fixed. Farm workers transport the harvested wheat (branded) to the steam threshing machine before threshing the collected wheat grains, then blow off the wheat marbles, sagging grains, grass seeds, dust and other debris in front of the swelling machine. Then, the remaining purer wheat grains are taken to the drying yard to dry. Even with machine assistance, this process is extremely labor-consuming. The sucked wheat straw is stacked as fuel for cooking and boiling water. Of course, the burned wood ash must be sprinkled into the fields to maintain the ground force.

In addition to the high price of the machinery itself, the scarcity of horses in the East Coast is also a very important reason. Compared with the price of a cow at 10 yuan (low-price war bonus bull), a horse at a price of hundreds of yuan is enough to make most people afraid. Moreover, this price is still the same as those slow horses. If it is a good horse, the price may be even more expensive. What's more, this horse is not at all worry-free when raising it, and the cost is also very high, especially during the busy farming season, the soybeans must be fed every day, otherwise they will lose weight when working.

Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that the number of rural agricultural machinery is growing slowly. It is nothing more than that, and the cost is too high. Nowadays, in many rural areas, only some people who have just returned from the battlefield have bought some agricultural machinery in joint ventures and rented it to villagers in the same village or even neighboring villages who urgently need machinery. The rental price is quite reasonable, and farmers also praise them when using it. On the one hand, these soldiers who have retired from the army have improved their status in the village, and on the other hand, they have also found a way to make money for themselves.

After all, many of them were injured on the battlefield and their health was not as good as before. In addition, they were all simple farmers and most of them didn't know how to manage the large amount of retirement funds they received. Therefore, they returned to their hometowns to do some agricultural-related work under the advice of the Soldiers Committee. For example, buying agricultural machinery and renting them out is an example. This is definitely a long-term and stable income at the moment when the grain planting area of ​​the East Coast is expanding every year.

Three days later, Anderson's house, who was drying wheat grains in front of his door, finally received good news: the harvester will drive into his home's field for harvesting tomorrow. After receiving this news, Anderson immediately sent his wife to the village to buy some cured meat and beer. Tonight he had to invite the driver of the harvester (a veteran) to dinner so that he could be careful when working and not let a large amount of wheat be lost in the field - that would be a loss. In addition, since the harvester harvests grain for everyone for free, not only the driver's rations must be prepared during work, but also the rations of two horses - alfalfa and beans - must be prepared. This is the customary rule for everyone.

The results of grain harvest in the previous few days were almost counted. After the grain harvest was dried in the warehouse, the weight per mu was weighed. The wheat fields in Xinkonis Township were opened in early 1946. After the reclaim was completed, everyone planted some beans, vegetables, corn, sweet potatoes and other grains into the fields. In the autumn after harvest, all wheat was planted under the unified call of the township government. The wheat species were transported in by the neighboring Hekou Township, Zhenhai County through Highway 2. Therefore, strictly speaking, these wheat fields in Xinkonis Township were almost half a year of life, and it was not surprising that the yield was so bleak.

You should know that the farmers in this village either come from Zhili, the Principal of Prussia in Livornia, and there are even a few immigrants from England with advanced agricultural technology. The Ministry of Agriculture also specially assigned a certain quota of Andalusian black cattle to sell (the farmland has more organic fertilizer). Therefore, if it is cooked, it is not appropriate to do so. The harvest of cooked land should be 150 or 60 kilograms per mu, and most of the Xihu County is like this. Not only is the land fertile than here, but the number of cattle is also greater than here, and the irrigation system is far more than that of New Cornis Township, which is mostly dry land. Therefore, the grain yield is twice that of here.

Anderson compared the situation of those farmers' families. Well, everyone took good care of the fields more frequently, but he had eight cows in his family, and those people were all paupers who had not been here for a long time. It was a blessing to have one or two cows. How could the amount of manure be compared with his family? He estimated that the yield of the 20 acres of wheat fields in his family should be more than 100 kilograms, and if he was lucky, it might even reach about 110 kilograms.
Chapter completed!