February 2, 1645, Port Oriente, sunny.

Shi Qinjie wore a blue cotton shirt dyed with natural dyes and sat in the office of his old superior, Jin Kola, a former executive committee member and now chairman of the National Modern Agricultural Development Promotion Committee. Kinkora had just returned from Fort Oddhill and had come to inspect the development of the agricultural growing area there.

Qishanbao was assigned to 200 Shandong immigrants and 100 Polish women, and the place was located at the mouth of the Yi River, and there were fertile estuarine impact plains everywhere, except for a small part of the land directly adjacent to the Milin Lake, where the land was somewhat salinized and could only be planted with some salinity-tolerant fruit trees, most of the rest of the land was very fertile. After the dredging work of the "Qingtang Army No. 1" dredging boat, the river is also wide and deep, which is suitable for ships to navigate. The shallow sludge removed from dredging is a very good fertilizer, which lays the foundation for a decent harvest on the farmland that was cleared in the first year.

The locals also set up duck sheds made of reeds on the river near the banks of the river and raised many ducks - just like in the Fort Rivers area in South Africa. Due to the abundant local food sources, the ducks grow quickly, and they will definitely be able to create great economic benefits for them in the future. You must know that in today's East Coast Republic of China, the unit price of duck meat has far exceeded that of beef and mutton, so the prospect of raising ducks is still very good. In addition, the ducks have a short digestive tract, so the feces contain a lot of undigested residual nutrients, and the duck droppings fall from the duck shed into the section of the river below that is enclosed with fishing nets, which is also very good for fish farming. And this. It is also a proven method in South Africa.

"Whalebone meal is good, but it's better for orchards." Zheng Bin took the pot of tea made by the secretary, poured seven full teacups in front of Jin Kela and Shi Qinjie, and then said with a smile: "Whalebone meal is mostly phosphate fertilizer, and a lot of nitrogen is fixed during the high-temperature cooking process, which is indeed a very good fertilizer." The key is that the quantity is still large, and a single whale can provide several tons, which is very good. ”

"Without fertilizer, there is no high yield." Jinkora took a sip of tea and sighed comfortably. He is 42 years old this year, and he often goes to the field to work. His skin was much darker than that of the government officials who had been planning in their offices for years. Fight with the military leaders.

"At present, the base fertilizer is completely dependent on struvite purchased from Peru through various channels, and the potash fertilizer is purely based on plant ash, which is very inefficient, and I don't know what to do with the potash mines on the shore of Lake Gebert in the Red Sea. It would be great if it could be mined. And the amount of this whalebone powder is completely insufficient. So much farmland across the country. One acre costs dozens of catties, and how many whales must be killed is enough. We only have one whaling ship now, well. Counting the one that just entered service, there are only two, which is completely unrealistic! Liming Town, Ping'an County, is now developing orchard planting, and these whalebone powder will be exclusively for them in the future, don't mess with it elsewhere, it's a pity. Jin Kela continued, "The last time Qian Hao greeted me, he was going to plant oranges, apples, peaches, plums and other fruit trees on a large scale there, and he had already planned several large orchards. With the growth of people's income in China, their consumption demand for fruits and other commodities is gradually increasing, especially urban residents, so the development of this cannot lose money, provided that everyone does not flock to the orchard project. The climate in Dawn Town is also good, and there is a lot to be done to develop orchard planting! Therefore, it seems that the policy should be fine-tuned, and in the future, I think this whalebone powder will be specially allocated to Dawn Town. ”

Due to the bottlenecks in shipbuilding capacity and in terms of sailors, the three existing shipyards in the East Coast Republic still have only 14 slipways, and only 20 or 30 large ships can be built each year, although they have been expanded several times. Although this number is quite good in the New World, it is still far behind the big European countries.

Among them, Zhenhai Shipyard, as the leading backbone, has 6 slipways, and if there is no technical transformation task, then it can build 10-12 large ships (big flying scissors cargo ships, flute-type transport ships, warships, etc.) every year; In second place is the oldest shipbuilding enterprise - Dayuhe Naval Shipyard, which has 4 slipways and is capable of producing 7-8 large ships per year; The last shipyard is naturally the latest to be established and located in the inland river of the modern special shipyard, although this shipyard has a relatively short history, but under the key investment of the state has developed very rapidly, has just expanded to 4 slipways, capable of building 4 special ships for immigrants, 2 dredgers, 2 whaling ships every year - without undertaking the maintenance and technical transformation of large ships.

At present, the slipways of several shipyards are basically full, and according to statistics, a total of 1 battleship ("National Will"), 1 frigate gunboat, 4 large flying clipping cargo ships, 4 flute-type transport ships, 2 special ships for immigrants, 1 whaling ship and 1 dredger are under construction, and it is expected that they will be delivered to all users from May onwards.

Even at that time, there were only three whaling ships in service, and after the run-in period, it was already good to be able to catch a dozen whales a year. With such a small amount, it can probably provide sixty or seventy tons of fertilizer to the country, what can it do? Since the second half of last year caught a sperm whale, Zhang Yun's "Hunter No. 1" whaling ship has now been a few months now, and it has only been a few months since a blind cat hit a fin whale in the waters near South Georgia like a dead mouse, and there has been no other catch.

The reason for their low catch rate is not that there is not a lack of abundant whales, but mainly due to seasonal factors. Now that the Southern Hemisphere is in the middle of summer, the frozen Southern Ocean has already thawed in winter, and many whales that migrate to the warmer waters of the north are returning to their birthplaces in large numbers to feed. The next time it will appear in the waters near the Falklands, it will be after May. Therefore, whaling in this non-whale hunting season is really a thankless task, and many times it often depends on luck to harvest prey.

In order to change this dilemma, Zhang Yun, the captain of the "Hunter 1", even planned to drive this small whaling ship deep into the southern edge of the Weddell Sea, ready to try his luck in the cold sea where floating icebergs are often encountered. Before he set off, he even told Matthias, the mayor of Baleen Whale Harbor, that he was going to go there for an expedition and named the unknown sea he might encounter after himself.

"Whalebone powder is really insufficient, and that's the way it can be. But speaking of which, I don't think the orchard farming industry can absorb too many people. Zheng Bin, who has passed the age of standing and has a scruffy beard, also poured himself a cup of tea, and then sat comfortably on the mahogany chair, commenting: "At present, although our industry is developing very rapidly and the scale is getting bigger and bigger, except for several industries such as shipbuilding, textiles, and construction, which have absorbed a large number of workers, other industries, including the fledgling leather processing industry, have limited population. Moreover, industries such as machinery, chemical industry, military industry, shipbuilding and other industries are not just a matter of being done by a single person, and the leaders of these factories are more inclined to recruit young people and then carry out a series of vocational education to train themselves, and the number of people they absorb is really limited. It is embarrassing for a large number of people who are neither educated nor young, and the only way to accommodate them is through agriculture, in addition to construction. Therefore, this agricultural work is still very important, whether it is orchard planting, grain or cash crop planting, or grain deep processing industry, it is the main channel to absorb the low-vegetarian and low-educated population. Among them, it is better to grow grain, which involves the construction of new settlements, and can also open up territory for the country, how good. ”

"It's just this one project anyway." Jinkola smiled and said, "How many people are there in our country now?" The only consequence of a swarm of orchard projects is that the market is saturated, and the supply is oversupplied, which hurts the interests of fruit farmers. Therefore, this large-scale concentrated orchard planting project is the only one for the time being, and there is no other semicolon. As for the behavior of farmers in other places planting their own fruit trees, we do not advocate or oppose it, and let the market guide it, and they can be used as a supplement to the market demand. ”

"Hey, my big chairman, what time is this, you two are still talking about these things. Solve my matter first, this is related to the future development of the two towns in the New China Colony and the well-being of thousands of people in the two places. Seeing Jin Cola and Zheng Bin sitting there chatting about agricultural work, Shi Qinjie, who had specially taken the time to rush back to his hometown from Xinhua Port, was a little anxious, only to see him ask Jin Cola in a hurried tone: "What is the attitude of the above?" You know, I'm talking about what the Executive Committee's attitude was to the construction of the Bayezid battleship for the Ottoman Empire? Do you agree or disagree? Boss Kim, I'm taking the time to venture back by boat, have you inquired for me? What's going on? Ouch, I'm dying, this is about the future of New China! ”

"It's complicated." Jincola sold it first, and only after seeing Shi Qinjie's face change, did he sigh and said: "Originally, seeing that the Ottomans bid so high, the support of the executive committee is still quite loud, and the possibility of passing guò is extremely high. However, just two days after an incident, the Viceroyalty of Peru of the Kingdom of Spain sent an envoy to our side to criticize us, and the gang of the Executive Committee suddenly became emboldened, and it seemed that the policy might be fine-tuned, and the sale of battleships and other strategic weapons to the Ottomans was probably put on hold for the time being. (To be continued......)