The Fiery Era: Starting from Longxugou

After the control group was completed, Zhao Shi'an used his mind to fold all the newspapers he had just opened, took them out of his spatial storage and put them into the bamboo basket, and then hung the bamboo basket back on the roof beam.

After taking the seeds, he set his sights on the string of corn hanging on the roof beam, and took it down while standing on a stool.

Zhao Shi'an discovered that the corn in this era was really small, not even as long as his palm.

Peeling back the outer husk reveals the bright yellow corn kernels. At first glance, there seem to be only 14 rows, and many kernels are not plump. The spacing between the kernels is also a bit wide. Overall, the corn of this era was short and small.

Compared to modern corn, it is at least half the length and much thinner.

No wonder the yield is low; these were specially saved for seed at home. If it were regular corn, the yield would definitely be even worse.

He was initially puzzled, as corn is a high-yield grain, and in his hometown, a single crop can yield over a thousand kilograms, while in this era, the average yield per mu is only a hundred or so kilograms.

Even the extremely expensive thumb-sized corn can yield several hundred kilograms per mu. The difference is just too huge!

However, upon seeing the corn cobs like this, he immediately understood.

Looking at the corn cobs in front of him and comparing them with modern corn varieties, Zhao Shi'an suddenly realized that this old variety could be used to cultivate thumb-sized corn.

In terms of appearance, the corn of this era is closer to the thumb-sized corn. If it is cultivated, it can produce fresh corn with better taste and higher sugar content.

Modern regular corn costs just over one yuan per kilogram, while thumb-sized corn, although its yield is more than half that of regular corn, is priced four to five times higher.

So it seems like it's not such a bad thing after all.

Although the yield of thumb-sized corn is lower than that of regular corn, it is still several times higher than that of older varieties.

Considering the impact of seeds and farmland, it is possible to cultivate them and see the results first.

The main direction should still be to cultivate corn that is longer and thicker. When corn becomes longer and thicker, there will be more kernels and more rows, and the yield will naturally increase.

Thinking of all this, he put the string of corn back into his spatial storage, taking two plump kernels from each ear.

It wasn't that he didn't want to take the whole ear of grain directly, but the target was too big. There were only 10 in total, and they were all countable.

After collecting the corn kernels, he continued to use spring water for breeding and plant the other half directly. To prevent them from affecting each other, he bred each type of seed separately. Since there were no containers, the seeds were all soaked in water droplets and half-floating in the air.

Fortunately, his mental strength was greatly enhanced inside the space, so this amount of consumption was negligible.

Once the conditions are right, we can use specialized petri dishes to cultivate them.

After taking the corn kernels, he took the corn out of his spatial storage, restored the peeled corn husks to their original state, and hung it back on the roof beam.

After hanging the corn back up, Zhao Shi'an picked up the garlic on the table, broke off a few more raw garlic cloves and put them into his spatial storage. He went to the cupboard, opened the bottom door, which was where the grains were stored. Besides the two large bags of cornmeal and half a bag of wheat flour that the family had stockpiled, the rest were potatoes and sweet potatoes.

They then picked out three or four potatoes and two smaller sweet potatoes and put them into the space.

Potatoes in this era were also very small, mostly the size of an egg, and many were about the size of a hawthorn.

He almost didn't recognize the potatoes when he saw them.

Sweet potatoes in this era are quite large; most of them are very big. He took two small sweet potatoes.

The garlic, sweet potato, and potato were also divided in half; one half was planted directly, and the other half was bred using spring water.

Zhao Shi'an took another ladle of spring water and put it into the large water vat in his house. He scooped some water from the vat and took a sip. After finding that it didn't taste like much, he felt much relieved.

After finishing all that, I left the house, closed the door, and went to the vegetable garden on the west side. I had intended to harvest some spinach and chives, but then I remembered I would be going to the garden later, so I didn't.

However, he was quite envious of the brood of chicks that had just hatched in the vegetable patch. If he could put them into his spatial storage, he could achieve egg freedom in just a few days.

As I approached the vegetable patch, the chicks following behind the mother hen immediately started chirping and running around in all directions.

Hearing the chicks' squeals, the mother hen raised her head, tilted her neck, and looked them over. After confirming they were family, she clucked a few times and continued scrambling for food.

Zhao Shi'an looked at the little yellow fluffy balls running around, picked one up at random, and examined it in his hand.

The chicks were less than ten days old, their downy feathers hadn't completely fallen off yet, and they were noticeably smaller than modern chicks. Their downy feathers were yellowish-brown, sparse, and felt soft and fluffy to the touch, unlike the glossy and dense downy feathers of modern chicks.

However, it's understandable; eggs were small in this era, so the chicks that hatched from them were naturally even smaller.

The chick felt very light in my hands, almost weightless, and its little body trembled slightly, clearly because it had just been frightened.

Zhao Shi'an observed for a while and found that the chick first chirped softly twice, and its big black eyes rolled around in a daze. Its little pointed beak tentatively pecked at his palm twice, as if it regarded his palm as the ground, and the force was very light, like tickling.

Once it realized there was no danger, the chicks stopped chirping and quietly lay down, huddled up.

After looking at it for a while, Zhao Shi'an became more and more envious, but in the end he suppressed the idea of ​​putting the chick into his space.

Nine chicks hatched in total at home, and each one was counted. Although in this era, it was considered good if half of the chicks grew up successfully, as various problems would occur along the way, all of these were based on the premise that they must be found dead.

Although there is no such thing as a "chicken butt bank" now, chickens have always been an important asset in the family. Even if the chicks die, people are reluctant to throw them away and usually eat them themselves.

He ate it when he was a child. At that time, the chicken in his family died. When cooking, he threw the whole chicken, still feathered, into the stove to roast. After roasting, he rubbed off the ash and ate it dry and fragrant!

If you collect a few chicks into your space, when your family returns, the original owner's mother will definitely go berserk, and her ancestors for eighteen generations will be in danger!

Rather than taking the risk, it's more cost-effective to spend money to buy some chicks outside, and you can also buy chickens, ducks, and geese along the way.

The reason he spent money to buy them was mainly because he couldn't tell the males from the females. Newly hatched chicks all look the same, and even experienced chicken farmers couldn't tell them apart, let alone him.

He does have the space to use his mind to select, but the prerequisite is to understand the physiological structure of chicks. He has hardly killed any chickens in modern times, so naturally he knows even less about these things. Fortunately, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future.

Having figured this out, Zhao Shi'an took out a few drops of spring water from his spatial storage and placed them in his palm.

The chick saw that the "ground" was wet and pecked at it.

After feeding the chicks with spring water, Zhao Shi'an put them on the ground, wiped his hands, and got up to walk outside.

When I passed by Tian Fusheng, I greeted him and went straight to the vegetable garden after leaving the courtyard!

Our family's vegetable garden is located near the south gate of the Temple of Heaven. This area has been a major vegetable-producing area in Beijing since the Ming and Qing dynasties. The land is fertile, close to the southern moat, and is genuinely irrigated, ensuring a good harvest regardless of drought or flood. It is an excellent vegetable garden.

Before liberation, this land was controlled by vegetable bullies. After liberation, the vegetable bullies were suppressed, and the vegetable plots were given priority to the poor people who had been exploited and oppressed by the vegetable bullies.