Chapter 264 (1/2)
Chapter 264 Bumper Harvest
Border Town’s finally welcomed its first day of harvest.
Braving the hot sun, the serfs cut the straw stalks with their sickles and tied the batches of wheat into bundles so that they could move them to the other side of the river at a later time.
Roland knew that freeing the wheat grain from the wheat kernel was a very cumbersome process, and the mechanical farm tools and harvesters also aren’t invented yet, so for now they will still have to use their hands to separate, clean, dry, and screen the wheat.
After the stalks of grain had been moved back to the camp, the serfs spread them out on the ground to dry in the sun and gathered several kinds of tools – which more exactly was anything that they could lay their hands on: wooden sticks, stones, or rakes. They used these tools to repeatedly strike the wheat stalks and ears, trying to free the caryopsis from their hull, a process which often lasted for three to four days.
In Roland’s memory, the rural areas would often use cows and donkeys to pull a stone roller which pressed the grains out of their shell. Not only did it save a lot of labor, but it also removed the husks more evenly than when striking it.
Roland had no other choice but to accept Border Town’s backward standard of agriculture.
After the striking, the serfs again used anything they could to turn over the wheat, even using wooden sticks if they didn’t have any forks. Those who had nothing else even used their hands to directly grab the wheat stalks and throw them into the sky, the same as when turning stir-fry over in a pot. After going through the first striking, most of the outer shells of the grains should already be broken, this process should allow the fruits to separate from the ear of wheat.
In fact, after threshing the remaining wheat straw still had plenty of uses. After being crushed, it could be returned to the fields or could be used as bedding for livestock, it could also be made into fodder or used for papermaking. However, Roland didn’t have enough time to promote a green industry at the moment. All he could do was look on as the serfs brought those wheat straws to the river-side and burned them. In the days that followed, Border Town’s sky was covered with a dusky smoke which was comparable to the time of the former cement powder pollution.
During this time, Redwater Bridge’s two spindly type islands had also been finished, with the construction of the concrete walls having also gone according to plan. For the base of the bridge pier they had used the same prefabricated method as for the main bridge – first placing the steel and concrete into trenches to form the columns of reinforced steel, then reduce the weight and lift the walls in place. Finally it was Lotus’ turn, she was in charge of sinking the walls into the earth until only a section of the steel plate was still exposed, to which they would later connect the bridge to.
While handling these two projects, Roland spent this whole week traveling between the Redwater Bridge and the fields; which ended up giving him quite the tan.
By the time the straw was cleared away with forks, only layers of grain and their husk was still left in the grain-yard.
The serfs then swept it all together, and piled it into small hills. They then stepped on top of those hills, and used their shovels to throw the grains and husks into the air. Because the husks were so much lighter than the fruit, they were blown away further by the wind. As a result, the grain was still left at the foot of the hills, while the empty shells and debris laid at a distant location – by using this kind of method the serfs were slowly able to gather all of the grains.
Of course, wanting to completely clean up the husks was impossible. Furthermore, this process mixed the grain with the mud and gravel. Thus Roland decided that by next year’s harvest, he would need to have prepared a sufficient batch of farm tools in advance – inventing a harvester wouldn’t be possible, but the sheller machine should still be easily to realize. He merely had to exchange the stone roller with a millstone, furthermore he could also install a sieve beneath it and use an air blower to separate the grain from the chaff.
When the plump wheat grains were evenly spread over the whole valley, it looked like as if the entire northern shore of the Redwater River was covered by a golden layer. Looking at these golden fruits, Roland’s heart was filled with a sense of accomplishment. No matter whether the harvest would be enough to fill the bellies of ten thousand people, at least for Border Town, this counted as a memorable day.
From today on, Border Town’s food supply would gradually change from being totally dependent on imports to achieving self-sufficiency.