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Chapter 170 - 170 115 Master of Drawing Cakes _1

170: Chapter 115, Master of Drawing Cakes _1 170: Chapter 115, Master of Drawing Cakes _1 In the grand scheme of things, spring plowing takes precedence.

In the era of agricultural economics, any political and economic activity must yield to grain production.

With the arrival of the spring plowing season, the previously unsettled situation in the two counties instantly settled down.

Hudson no longer had the time to stir things up.

In fact, from start to finish, he had just built a stage, and the remainder of the performance was left to everybody else’s invention.

The less he participated, the less the exposed problems became.

Unless there were suspicious people, you’d likely never uncover Hudson’s involvement.

Other than incorporating “Swamp Brand” fertilizer, Hudson didn’t introduce any new tricks.

Mainly because he was unfamiliar with farming techniques, and dared not blindly give orders.

After reaping a windfall from the fertilizer, Hudson was clearly preparing to continue on this path.

Remember, the average yield of rye per acre reached an astonishing 203 pounds in the last harvest.

This figure, in an era where the average yield per acre is only about 140 to 150 pounds, is nothing short of an extraordinary bumper harvest.

If it weren’t for the serfs’ limited knowledge, only knowing that the land had an abundant crop but not the specifics, if word got out it could cause a sensation across the entire Alpha Kingdom.

Spring grain yields are typically lower, yet even they broke records.

Who would believe that, without the divine spirit’s blessing?

Hudson was content making a fortune in silence.

He wouldn’t do anything as conspicuous as making a spectacle of himself.

If everybody’s crops were to achieve bumper harvests, that wouldn’t be a good thing for the nobility of Southeastern Province.

Once the Northern Border shakes off the constraint of grain, the balance of the Kingdom would be disrupted, inevitably triggering a new round of political struggles.

With the Kingdom’s order disrupted, the fragile Mountain Domain couldn’t withstand the storms without a system of rules protecting it.

A mere two infantry corps could act as kings within the county, but placed in the vortex of the storm, they’d be crushed to dust in an instant.

Main crops in the plains were rye and potatoes, along with a small amount of wheat.

The only difference this year was that the seeds selected were large in size.

The difficulty of cultivating good varieties was too great, far beyond Hudson’s knowledge; the only option was to select them using the simplest method.

The effectiveness of this is wholly dependent on the blessing of the Lord of the Dawn.

Hudson’s expectations weren’t high; an increase in yield of three to five pounds per acre would be considered profit.

The newly reclaimed wasteland was all used for planting peanuts, soybeans, flax…

and other oil-based crops.

Even with the use of Swamp Brand Fertilizer, Hudson had no yield expectations for the newly reclaimed land.

The amount harvested would be the amount counted.

There’s a serious imbalance between the current population and cultivated land in the Mountain Domain.

In the coming years, it will have to rely on large-scale external purchases of grain to supplement it.

The plan for this year is to raise the grain self-sufficiency rate to one third.

It’s not that it can’t be higher, it’s just that it’s not worth it.

Hudson originally planned to rely on fertilizer to abandon the fallow system, but he was forced to give it up after weighing the pros and cons.

A little increase in grain yield can be concealed somehow.

Even if everyone becomes aware of it, no one would care.

After all, the Southeastern Province is well-known for its large grain output.

Aside from Hudson, the maverick, as long as the other territories were farmed normally, there wouldn’t be any grain shortages.

Even with the large quantities of grain sold to the Northland every year, everyone still had a substantial surplus left after meeting their own needs.

Having grown accustomed to bumper grain harvests, people wouldn’t care whether their neighbors harvested an extra few pounds.

But breaking the fallow system would be a different story.

It would instantly attract countless attention, and Hudson dared not imagine the scene if people discovered a way to maintain yields without leaving the land fallow.

The sowing work went smoothly, everyone was focused on their own land, and nobody had time to cause trouble.

Even when Baron Caryo entered the Luoye Area during the spring plowing period, it didn’t stir up any waves in the outside world.

Everything seemed to proceed as expected.

After busy toiling for over a dozen days, sorting out affairs in the domain, everyone’s attention finally returned to Baron Caryo.

For a time, there was a flurry of visitors, with nobles paying visits in an endless stream.

All of this had nothing to do with Hudson.

Other people’s territories had finished their busy work, but the bustle in the Mountain Domain was just getting started.

The mines were busy year-round, and ordinary workers only had about two or three days off a month, basically resting once every ten days, and taking turns to do so.

Even during the busiest period of spring plowing, it didn’t affect the mining production.

With ample labor force, Master Hudson never thought of letting the workers farm the land.

The biggest change was still land reclamation.

Last year, they toiled for several months and only managed to reclaim 33,000 acres of mountain land, obviously failing to satisfy Master Hudson’s appetite.

This year’s target was much grander than last year’s.

As early as the start of the year, Hudson had already launched the slogan “Reclaim 100,000 acres.”

When the noble lord shouts, the people below must run ragged.

In order not to make “Reclaim 100,000 acres” a joke, Hudson also made the corresponding plan.

Breaking down the tasks among various households was a must.

After the previous few months of hard work, the serfs had grown used to task distribution.

The key was the reward for exceeding the task.

To encourage enthusiasm, the generous Hudson declared: one-third of the extra reclaimed land would be used as “public land”.

Of course, the ownership belonged to Master Hudson, but the benefits generated by this part of the “public land” could be shared by the serfs of that household.

As for which part of the land would be used as public land, that definitely wouldn’t be marked out.

The cunning Master Hudson couldn’t possibly treat anything differently, could he?