In front of the corridor of the Li family's compound, corn sprouts had just poked out of the soil, and three or two tender green leaves were gently swaying in the wind.

If it weren't for Li Xiao saying that this was corn, Zhao Zhiman wouldn't have believed it at all.

But Li Xiao was named a baron of Lantian County at the age of twenty-one, a farmer was knighted in white, which shows how much attention is paid to corn today, and even because of this corn, he let himself and his family be beaten into slaves.

Zhao Zhiman has never seen corn, but he loves and hates corn.

"This is corn?"

"Yes, it's corn, but it's just a sprout." Li Xiao looked carefully at the plants one by one and counted them.

Planting corn in the yard is a surprise.

In fact, it was the people in the Li family's compound, and no one knew that this was corn.

Old Qian stood to the side, his eyes widened, "Ah Lang, this is corn?" He also thought that this was the flowers and plants that Li Xiao planted in front of the porch on a whim. Who would have thought that such precious corn would be planted in the yard.

Fortunately, this ridge is fenced, otherwise he would not have been injured by chickens, cats, and dogs.

"Isn't all the grain planted in the field, how can it be planted in the yard?"

"It's easy to take care of, and besides, this is my seedling, and I'll transplant it into the ground when it grows up." Li Xiao finally finished counting, one hundred seedlings, one is not less, he sowed a hundred seeds, and all of them sprouted and lived.

This is a very rare figure, you must know that under normal circumstances, the germination rate of the corn in the field is at most 90 percent, and the germination rate of the rough seeds in the field is even only 80 percent.

Maybe it's because these seeds are brought out of the space, and there is always some aura in the things that come out of the mysterious space.

"Corn still needs to be transplanted? Isn't it direct seeding? ”

Lao Qian is a housekeeper, although he has been in charge of the shop in Chang'an for many years, he does not know anything about farming.

He had only heard of rice transplanting, but he had not heard of millet and wheat transplanting.

"Normally, you can sow seeds directly, but at the moment, we are precious, so we naturally have to be careful. Raising seedlings first and then transplanting can improve the survival rate and yield. ”

Although this corn is planted in the yard, this soil Li Xiao has made it very carefully. Ordinary loess, but mixed with the soil ash in the firewood stove, and added fermented cow dung and chicken feces, afraid of soil slabs, and deliberately made some dead leaves and sawdust mixed into it.

Finally, the soil is not ordinary, grayish and yellow, and the soil is relatively loose. As soon as the ridge soil was long, Li Xiao sprinkled a hundred corn seeds, and the sags were relatively thin. Watering at regular intervals, including a splash of diluted urine with water.

It is precisely because of this that this corn straw can grow so well.

"If we transplant seedlings, we can improve the survival rate and utilization rate of corn seeds."

Li Xiao rolled up his sleeves and reached out to pull out the ridge soil and check the rhizomes of the corn stalks. Direct sowing of corn seeds, an acre of land is about three to four catties of seeds, corn is planted in rows, and wheat and rice millet are different, but with sugarcane is actually almost the same.

Planting a row must be separated by a distance.

If you sow seeds directly, although it is convenient, you will definitely need to separate the seedlings once after germination to ensure that the spacing between the plants is not too dense, and sometimes you have to replant the open space that has not germinated. Thinning seedlings is an inevitable procedure for field planting, but now after all, there are few seeds, and the seedlings will inevitably be wasted when the time comes.

Li Xiao raised a hundred corn seedlings in his yard and a hundred in the space.

The key to trial planting is to test and obtain various data to provide data support for a large area.

"In a few more days, you can transplant it."

"How many plants can you plant in an acre of land, Alang?" Old Qian stared at these precious corn seedlings and asked.

One acre and two hundred and forty steps.

100 acres of the ancients, 40 acres of today, 100 acres of today, 250 acres of the ancients.

One acre of land in the Tang Dynasty was much larger than in the pre-Qin period. However, it is smaller than an acre of land in later generations. Roughly speaking, one mu in the Tang Dynasty was only equivalent to about 0'87 mu in later generations. It's about ninety percent, a little smaller.

Generally speaking, the average row spacing of maize is 0·57 m, and the plant spacing is 0·3 m. In later generations, an acre of land was 667 square meters, and if it was sown with precision, there were about 3,500 corn plants per acre.

One point of land is 350 plants, and in the Tang Dynasty, one mu was about nine points of land in later generations, and it was 3,150 plants.

In the Tang Dynasty, 315 seedlings could be planted in one piece of land.

A hundred corn seedlings can be planted more than three centimeters of land.

Such a piece of land, in fact, is the size of a room, six meters long and three meters wide, can be planted with ten rows of corn, one plant at an interval of 30 centimeters in each row, and ten seeds can be planted in a row, just one hundred corns.

In such a three-centimeter area, in fact, on the vacant land behind the Li family's compound, Li Xiao has already measured a piece. It is two zhang long and one zhang wide.

One foot of Datang is 30.7 centimeters in later generations, and such a piece is almost just enough to plant 100 corns, which is more than three centimeters.

"How much corn can be produced in an acre of land?"

Li Xiao roughly calculated, according to the calculation of later generations, the high-yield mu can reach 1,000 kilograms, the low-yield in high-altitude areas is about 500 kilograms, and the average yield per mu in a large area is 6 or 700 kilograms.

However, he also once looked at a data, it is said that when the Ming Dynasty first introduced corn, the yield of corn per mu in many places was about 100 kilograms, but it still made the government and the people at that time very happy.

However, Li Xiao felt that his corn was not ordinary corn, after all, what came out of the space was equivalent to excellent seeds. The corn in the space bears eight ears, and even if it goes outside, according to the normal two, the yield will not be less.

He knows that some corn is planted in a large area and only one ear is kept, but many people will also keep two ears of corn planted in their vegetable gardens, and the key to this depends on whether the fertility can keep up.

If the water and fertilizer keep up, then leaving two ears on one plant can ensure the yield.

Even if there is only one ear left in a plant, there are two or three hundred grams of a large corn, and after drying and threshing, there can be one hundred and seventy or eighty grams, and there are more than 600 kilograms of pure corn kernels harvested in that mu, which is at least nearly six stone of output.

How to keep the double spike without reducing the yield, that is, to go to the yield of ten stones per mu.

As soon as Li Xiao said this number, he still shocked Lao Qian and Zhao Zhiman.

In this era, when it comes to the cultivation of staple grains, the most planted is actually millet, then wheat, and then rice. Although rice was most widely cultivated in later generations, in the Tang Dynasty, because the south was not developed enough, the yield was not as good as that of millet rice in the north.

In the north, millet is more than wheat, and millet is also called millet, which grows like a dog's tail grass. The yield of millet is actually lower than that of wheat, but from the pre-Qin to the Tang Dynasty, millet in the north has always been the most cultivated crop.

The key reason for this is that millet is more resistant to drought, and secondly, because millet has a hard shell, which is very easy to store, can be stored for a longer time, easy to store and drought tolerant, which is extremely important in ancient times, so that millet has always been far more than wheat cultivation.

After all, wheat does not need paddy fields than rice, but wheat also needs more water than millet.

And now, millet is more suitable than wheat and rice in the north, especially in the Guanlong area, Li Xiao's corn also has it, drought tolerant, easy to store, and it has the advantage of being stronger than millet, wheat and even rice, with high yield.

The yield per mu is six stones, or even ten stones.

Even if it is reduced by half, the yield of three stones per mu is also unbelievable, you must know that there is a lack in Guanzhong, there are many mountain slopes, and the yield of millet in some places is only about one stone.

Lao Qian trembled and said, "Among the grains, only millet is resistant to aging, is this corn also resistant to aging and easy to store?" ”

Millet has a hard shell, which can prevent mildew, insects and corruption, and can be stored for many years, and it can be stored well, even for ten years. Some of the millet stored in the granaries of the Sui Dynasty was still good when it came to the Zhenguan Dynasty.

In addition to the extensive cultivation of millet in the Guanlong area, there are also many millet cultivations. The advantage of millet is that it is extremely drought tolerant, and this crop is also called millet and rice, also known as rhubarb rice. It is easy to survive in areas with insufficient water sources, and the growth period is only two or three months, and it is also suitable for planting in Hedong and Guanzhong, where the climate is cold and the plant growth cycle is short.

Because millet is sticky when cooked, it is very suitable for making pastries and brewing.

The advantage of wheat is that it has a different growth cycle from millet and millet, and it can provide life-saving rations when millet and millet grains are not harvested. Especially since the Han Dynasty solved the problem of irrigation and milling of wheat, the cultivation of wheat has become more and more extensive.

Millet and millet are drought tolerant and easy to store. Wheat has a high yield, which is different from the growth cycle of millet and millet, which can fill the gap when there is no green and yellow.

And now, Li Xiao's corn actually has the advantage of a variety of crops.

For example, the yield of corn is high, even higher than the rice with the highest yield in the south, corn is drought tolerant, not afraid of water, can be planted on mountain slopes, not worse than millet drought resistance, and easy to store, corn husk, the same resistant to age and easy to store.

Another great advantage is that it is suitable for both the north and the south, especially in the field, it can become an important crop in rotation with wheat, spring millet, sorghum and so on.

Strong adaptability, easy to cultivate, spring corn also matures earlier than other spring-sown plants, which can best fill the blank period of green and yellow every year.

Especially for farmers in the mountains, this will be the best crop.

Zhao Zhiman finally understood why this corn was so important, and why Chu Suiliang and they wanted to grab the corn.

"San Lang, if you say it, you have to do it, don't say big things."

A voice came from outside the courtyard, and Li Zhi, who was wearing a spring shirt, walked in.

"What are you going to do?"

Li Xiao asked.

"I just changed an errand and was transferred from the Ministry of Industry to the Ministry of Households, and now I am a warehouse member of the Wailang, and I will inevitably have business dealings with Sinong Temple in the future." Li Zhi said with a smile.

There are four divisions under the household department, namely the household department, the degree branch, the gold department, and the warehouse department.

Kurabe Langzhong and Wai Lang are in charge of the world's treasury storage, cashier's rent and tax, grain, and food gifts.

The corresponding piece of the warehouse is actually the part of Sinong Temple. It's just that the warehouse department and Sinong Temple are not superiors and subordinates, one is a government order agency, and the other is a affairs agency. To put it bluntly, the household department is actually equivalent to the emperor's accountant, and Sinong Temple is equivalent to the emperor's cashier, but there is only one accountant and several cashiers. Sinong Temple is in charge of food, Weiwei Temple is in charge of weapons, and Taifu Temple is in charge of money.

After Li Zhi finished speaking, he swayed straight to Li Xiao's side, looking at the young seedlings one by one, "If it can really be as San Lang said, the arid, water-scarce and fertilizer-deficient land in the Guanlong Mountains can also produce three stones per mu, it will really be auspicious from heaven." ”