In North America, later on Manhattan Island in New York, due to lack of experience, Albert's campaign to promote wheat planting in the spring was a failure. Because, the European wheat varieties of this era are too bad, and the growth period is close to one year. Wheat is planted in the spring, and that is harvested in the winter. But, is that possible? In the final ripening period of wheat, the temperature requirements are quite high.

Therefore, after Marin's reminder failed, Albert also learned from the pain. Before the autumn harvest, Albert harvested all the tall green wheat stalks. Then, it is used to feed ......

Previously, Marin had brought 10,000 English ewes to Laayoune in Western Sahara to find Merino to raise rams for breeding. Upon their return, the ewes gave birth to 15,000 lambs.

However, only 4,000 lambs were selected to have enough wool to meet the requirements of wool sheep. Therefore, the 4,000 fine-wool lambs were specially selected by the Marlin faction and further bred and bred to form a new breed.

Of course, the other 11,000 lambs were not abandoned. After all, these sheep are of excellent blood. Even if the wool is not as fine as the 4,000 that were selected, it is finer than the wool of most sheep in Europe.

After careful consideration, Marin decided to select 5,000 hybrid lambs and send them to the North American colonies to breed and breed in North America. Moreover, these lambs were raised as meat sheep. After all, colonies also need meat.

As for domestic pigs, Marlin did not provide pigs to the North American colonies. Why? The main reason is that the domestic pig breeds in Europe are too rubbish now. It's just a small body size, less meat, and a small number of cubs, only five or six piglets are born in one litter, which is too much different from Daming's Taihu pigs. You must know that the Taihu pigs in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty can give birth to more than a dozen piglets in one litter. Moreover, Taihu pigs also grow fast and end up in size. In terms of population expansion, it is clearly excellent.

Although it is said that Taihu pigs belong to black pigs, the proportion of fat is relatively high, unlike the white pigs in later generations with a high lean meat rate. But don't forget what era it is...... In this era when people are generally short of oil and water, fatty meat is more popular than lean meat...... Of course, no matter how good Taihu pig is, it must be introduced first......

The 5,000 mixed-breed lambs arrived in the North American colonies and were sent to the North American islands. Albert took these lambs very seriously and ordered them to be carefully cultivated. After all, although these lambs are eliminated, the wool is slightly coarse. However, it depends on who you compare yourself to. Compared with the Merino sheep and the lambs that had been selected before, their wool was indeed thicker. But compared to other sheep in Europe, they can be regarded as fine-wool sheep, which is better than the native British sheep. What's more, they are adapted to the wetter climates of eastern North America. After all, their mothers are from the humid country of England......

Albert ordered people to harvest the wheat stalks that were not yet ripe, in addition to making room, and there were also reasons to use the wheat stalks that were about to ripen as fodder.

You know, after a plant is ripe, most of the nutrients are absorbed by the fruit, and then the whole plant begins to dry up...... Therefore, after harvesting, most of the nutrients in rye grains are in rye grains, while there is not much nutrition left in rye straw......

However, because none of these wheats have yet to be headed, the nutrients from the stalks have not yet been collected into the fruit grains. In this way, this kind of plant that has not yet borne fruit is still very nutritious and suitable for feed. That's why Albert ordered all 5,000 acres of wheat stalks on Manhattan Island to be harvested and stockpiled as forage for new sheep. Even, part of the wheat stalks are silaged and used as high-grade feed.

In addition, after large-scale development, the arable land on Manhattan Island has also increased from 5,000 acres to 10,000 acres, almost reaching the extreme. The total area of Manhattan Island is more than 14,000 acres. Aside from the 10,000 acres of cultivated land, all that was left were castles, roads, ditches, and trade markets. After all, it is impossible to use all the land as arable land.

Leonardo da Vinci also came to Manhattan Island with a steam engine and a screw pump to test the pumping capacity of the steam engine......

Originally, Leonardo da Vinci planned to test the pumping capacity of the steam engine in the spring ploughing after the beginning of spring next year. But Albert was not willing to accept the failure of wheat planting, so he encouraged Leonardo da Vinci to plant wheat after the autumn harvest was over. After all, 10,000 acres of wheat yields millions of pounds of wheat that are worth more than 20 million pounds of rye.

Leonardo da Vinci felt that it didn't matter, anyway, he was here to test the irrigation ability of the steam engine, and it didn't matter if it was earlier or later.

For this reason, Albert stopped using water wheels to pump water and instead used steam engines to drive screw pumps. The steam engines and screw pumps brought by Leonardo da Vinci also lived up to expectations, surpassing the efficiency of the waterwheels, and soon irrigated 10,000 acres of arable land on the island.

In fact, because the speed of the steam engine is only a few tens of revolutions per minute, its pumping speed is not fast, at least, it is much slower than the single-cylinder diesel engine driven water pump used in the rural areas in later generations.

To this end, Leonardo da Vinci asked the craftsmen to make a screw pump with a thicker caliber to win by quantity. In addition, he also used the transmission system of large and small gears, so that the large gear of the steam engine drove the small gear of the spiral pump. In this way, the pumping speed can also be faster.

After these changes, the pumping efficiency of the steam engine pumping system has been greatly improved. However, it is still not comparable to the pumping efficiency of single-cylinder diesel engines in later generations. However, it is even better than the waterwheel. This is because the speed of the waterwheel is slower and varies according to the speed of the water. The rotation of the steam engine is relatively stable, so the efficiency is much stronger than that of the water wheel. Of course, it is more coal-intensive......

Albert's autumn ploughing on Manhattan Island aroused great interest among the Delawares. The Drava people were very envious of the colonists' use of cattle to plough the land. Because they are still in the backward agricultural era of slash-and-burn cultivation and the use of manpower to dig the land.

To this end, several female chiefs of the Delaware people jointly approached Albert, hoping to buy oxen and ploughs from Albert, as well as iron farming tools such as shovels and scythes.

Albert thought about this and agreed. However, it is not free to agree. He promised to provide several Delaware tribes with cattle and iron tools for a long time, but he wanted land—fertile land at the mouth of the Hudson River near Manhattan Island. In addition, he wanted to hire a group of Indian archers to serve as an auxiliary force to the army that was fighting the Iroquois. After all, in terms of familiarity with the North American jungle, those old hunters from the Black Forest are far inferior. With these people acting as the lead party, the operation will be smoother and safer......

After discussion, the Delaware tribes finally agreed to give Albert the western half of Long Island, which is across the river from Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River. Albert, on the other hand, needed to provide them with 500 head of cattle and the corresponding ploughs. Of course, there are other iron farming tools that need to be provided......

Albert estimated that the western half of Long Island is estimated to be one or two thousand square kilometers, which is dozens of times larger than Manhattan Island. For this, he agreed without hesitation. Anyway, ploughing cattle is really nothing to the Grand Duchy of Beihai. Every year, the Grand Duchy of the North Sea imports tens of thousands of cattle from the Crimean Khanate. Among them, many cattle were directly killed for meat...... So, send 500 head of cattle to the Dravaares, and there is no pressure. Of course, Albert also kept in mind Marin's instructions - never send Indians horses, lest the Indians, who were already good at war, make fierce cavalry......

As soon as the winter wheat was planted, Albert organized a few thousand farmers to take a boat across the river to the western part of Long Island and began cutting down forests in preparation for the conversion of the area into farmland. And those 5,000 sheep were also taken to the Long Island area for grazing. After all, it's a lot more than Manhattan Island. There are a lot of weeds in the forest, enough for the sheep to eat......

In addition, the Long Island region is relatively independent of the North American continent and is separated from the mainland by the River East, so there is little chance of Indian invasion. There was an Indian fishing village in eastern Long Island, but it was an ally of the Delaware.

Therefore, Albert believes that agriculture and animal husbandry can be vigorously developed in the western part of Long Island. At a minimum, 100,000 acres of arable land could be reclaimed in the western part of Long Island. Of course, this requires sufficient labor. Therefore, Albert planned to ask for more than 10,000 English immigrants with Garand, who was in charge of Cape Breton and Newfoundland, in order to reclaim the western part of Long Island. Moreover, the tens of thousands of immigrants on Cape Breton Island actually have a somewhat overflowing population. Because of the low temperature, we can only grow rye and herd sheep, which is a waste of human resources.

And if some people are immigrated to develop Long Island, it is estimated that the effect will be much better. After all, New York grows not only rye, but also wheat and soybeans, as well as a lot of vegetables. But on Cape Breton Island, there are very few varieties of vegetables, and only a few of the more hardy varieties can be grown.

In addition, Albert believes that Upper Bay in the western part of Long Island is a very good freshwater port and can be made into a good freshwater port. In addition, a shipbuilding base can be built here. Because, the harbor conditions here are really good. It is a retracted inland harbor with a relatively narrow but actually wide exit to the sea. Because it is the mouth of the Hudson River, the northern part of the Upper New York Bay is basically a freshwater area. In the south, near the mouth of the sea, although there is a certain amount of salt, the salt content is also very limited because of the impact of the river. In the era of wooden boats, the northern half of Upper New York Bay was an absolutely excellent port area. It's open, deep, freshwater, and protected from storms at sea......

In fact, Albert's vision was accurate. Because, on the New York Bay was the famous New York Harbor in later generations, the largest trading port in the United States. The main dockland area of New York Harbor is located in the Hudson River estuary area at the western end of Long Island......