Chapter 331 (2/2)
Most of the families on the farmstead were facing imminent starvation due to lack of food stores. Thus, Yu Hai made sure to hand out their wages on a daily basis. Those who plowed more and did a better job could receive more money. The families who plowed less or perhaps didn't do as good of a job would receive less or even no money. Thus, on the first day, there were some families who received a hundred copper coins while others only received twenty to thirty copper coins.
Even the people who only got twenty to thirty copper coins were quite satisfied. The current markets had reasonably-priced grain. Coa.r.s.e grains were eight to nine copper coins a catty, so the money from a day's work could buy three catties worth of grain! If you added on the wild herbs that the children gathered, the family could still eat until they were half full.
However, those who only pursued speed and not quality on the first day learned their lesson for the second day and made sure to spend their time doing the job well. Sure enough, the money they received for the second day was a lot more than what they got from the first. As this happened, those who were trying to take advantage of the situation all settled down and began to carefully farm to earn money.
Within a dozen days, all a hundred and seventy or so mu of farmland had been carefully plowed. Weeds had all been cleaned up and the land had been fertilized. The fertilizer used was all human waste that had come from each family saving it up at home. Yu Hai set a price of five copper coins a cart for the fertilizer and bought it from all of the tenant farmers. The tenants didn't expect that the fertilizer created from their own waste could also be sold for money, so they were even more deeply grateful towards their employer.
When Yu Xiaocao arrived at the farmstead, she first met up with her father. After chatting a bit, the two of them separated to do their own work. Yu Xiaocao went into the storehouse to select seeds while Yu Hai gathered all of the tenant farmers up. With the manager of the farmstead there, Yu Hai, as the owner, didn't need to personally do these menial tasks.
Zhu Junyang followed Yu Xiaocao and watched as she first went to the farmstead's well and drew up a bucket of water. In actuality, Yu Xiaocao was using the action of drawing up water to conceal the fact that she told the little divine stone to alter the well. The well water was now a very dilute form of mystic-stone water.
When he saw Yu Xiaocao struggling to carry the bucket of water, Zhu Junyang took the bucket over with a look of disdain, ”Your arms and legs are way too weak. Aren't you afraid that this bucket of water will cause you to collapse?”
Head Steward Liu was shocked, 'Master is helping Miss Yu carry water? When did Master ever do such crude labor like this before?'
”Master, leave it there and let me take it instead!” Head Steward Liu hurried forward to take the bucket of water from Royal Prince Yang.
Yu Xiaocao didn't feel it was right for Head Steward Liu to do hard labor at his age, so she interjected, ”Forget it, let me do it instead! The more I exercise, the stronger I'll get!”
”Alright, alright! Let's go, where are we taking this?” Zhu Junyang carried the bucket of water and ran forward. Yu Xiaocao had to run to catch up. Behind them was Head Steward Liu, whose face was wrinkled into a suffering frown.
When they got to the storehouse, Yu Xiaocao took out her bottle of already prepared 'special medicine' and poured it into the bucket to mix. Once done, she sprayed it on the corn seeds.
Zhu Junyang didn't quite understand what she was doing, so he asked, ”What's the purpose of spraying this water on the seeds?”
”To prevent pests and disease from harming the plants ah!! Look, in the autumn, there were probably insects that laid their eggs in the soil. When spring gets warmer, those bugs will all come out and will start eating the roots and shoots of the crops. If I spray the seeds with this pesticide, we can avoid losing some of our crops!”
Yu Xiaocao was very earnest as she explained herself. In fact, the spiritual power within the pesticide could also increase the germination and survival rate of the seeds. These other factors were not easily explained to the young royal prince. If the young royal prince didn't follow her inside, she would have directly sprayed the mystic-stone water onto them instead of going through the ha.s.sle of 'mixing pesticide'.
The seeds that had been sprayed with 'pesticide' were all delivered out into the fields. The tenant farmers took the seeds and watched the owner demonstrate the depth of the holes and distance between the holes. Following that, they started to enthusiastically sow all of the seeds into the ground.
Yu Hai and Liu Hu all had a decent amount of experience with this, so they were in charge of patrolling the land and watching over the process. They conscientiously recorded down every family's speed and quality of work. This was the first time that the tenant farmers had encountered the planting methods for corn, so some of them hadn't fully grasped on how to plant them. Yu Hai and the others identified those people and also patiently taught them the right method.
The efficiency of sowing on the first day was relatively low. The faster families had managed to plant about two mu worth and they received around eighty copper coins in wages. The ones who planted the least were Widow Li and her son. There were only two of them and her son was only around ten years old. Although the two of them were slow, they were very diligent and careful with their planting. In fact, Widow Li was afraid that they might plant the corn in the wrong distance, so she used a branch that she had broken into the correct length to measure as she slowly dug the holes. Yu Hai had seen everything they had done, so when they were getting their wages, they received forty copper coins in total.