William walked around the fields with Steward Osborne and Sean and the others, and saw that the barley here was obviously much thinner than when William had been in the manor managed by William in Rouen, and many of the barley grains were also shriveled.

"Steward Sean, tell me how much yield is per mu here?" William withdrew his gaze from the barley field and turned back to Sean at his side. Wright asked.

"Back to His Royal Highness William, the annual harvest per acre is generally about eight bushels (about 70 catties per acre of the city), and the harvest of self-owned arable land plus land rent is about 9,300 bushels per year (a total of 244,100 kilograms, a total of 244 tons), in addition to the harvest of more than ten cattle and sheep every year for raising livestock." In the face of William's question, Steward Sean answered truthfully.

If we look at the amount of seeds, the extent of medieval agriculture in Europe is even more striking.

At that time, the lowest general harvest was one and a half to two times the sowing amount, generally three or four times, and the best annual harvest was only six times, as for our country, from the materials of Yunmeng Qin Jian, the harvest was at least ten or ten times the sowing amount, and according to the records of "The Book of Victory" and "Qi Min's Technique", it has reached dozens or even hundreds of times. In this way, the number of seeds required for the reproduction of medieval agriculture in Europe was significant.

Although the yield per acre figure mentioned by Sean has exceeded the passing mark of the average estate, it is far behind the yield per acre of several estates managed by William in Rouen.

In Rouen, William's yield per mu nearly doubled to 14 bushels (122.5 catties per acre) after using fermented human and livestock manure.

Of course, William's method of fertilizing with fermented manure in several estates in Rouen was completely blocked, and almost no one could leave William's manor in Rouen with this secret, and the curious people would only get the answer that William cleaned up the manure in order to prevent the plague.

Therefore, William turned his head to look at Steward Sean's gaze, without any sense of blame, and said: "Steward Sean, I am going to build public toilets and septic tanks in the manor, and all serf daily excrement and livestock manure need to be dumped in the septic tank for fermentation.

After fermentation, the manure can be used as fertilizer to water the cultivated land, which can nearly double the yield per acre. ”

Hearing this, Sean, who was stared at by William's heart, finally relaxed, and asked a little about William's command: "His Royal Highness William, how can this dung be watered on the precious grain crops?" Doesn't this make the grain filthy and inedible? ”

In the face of Sean's doubts, although what William said was true, he could not prove it to him in a short time, after all, William did not have the time to bring these manor stewards to his manor in Rouen to visit.

"Sean, if you have any questions, you can ask Steward Osborne, and he will answer them for you. But..."William's eyes were fixed on Sean's steward, and he said sternly: "But my orders must be carried out to the letter, and you can't shirk it, if I find out that you have made any small moves, your good days will come to an end!" ”

Frightened by William, Steward Sean was also shocked into a cold sweat, and couldn't help kneeling down on one knee and said, "Please also ask His Royal Highness William to forgive me for being ignorant, I will complete what you ask me to do." ”

"Well, in that case, you can carry out my orders well, and I promise that you will not be responsible for the consequences and responsibilities caused." William's tone softened and soothed.

"Yes, His Highness William." Sean stroked the cold sweat from his forehead and got up in response.

Sean has personally experienced what it is like to be a companion, and if he accidentally angers His Royal Highness William, then his little life is estimated to be over, so he is naturally full of promises to His Royal Highness William's orders.

"This fallow land should be planted with soybeans, and as for pasture, it will be planted on wasteland pastures." Passing by a wasteland, William pointed to it and instructed Sean.

"Yes, yes! His Highness William. Sean didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly agreed.

William's instructions were also based on the experience of later generations, and were boldly implemented after experiments in several estates in Rouen.

Leguminous roots symbiosis with rhizobia to form nodules. Nodules convert free nitrogen in the atmosphere that cannot be directly used by plants into usable nitrogen.

Root nodules remain in the soil to improve soil fertility (the soil is usually always nitrogen deficient), so some legumes such as soybeans, milk vetch, clover, etc. are often used as green manure, and legumes are often intercropped with crops in rotation.

Surely, would William have bothered to teach these old medieval stubborns? It is to tell them in detail the principle of soybean nitrogen fixation, and the role of urea and minerals in manure in promoting the growth of crops, and it is estimated that they are not willing to listen.

After all, the power of habit is very powerful, and you can't expect William to completely change the planting habits of the Middle Ages in a few words, so he has to force the execution of his own manor house by means of orders.

Along the way, William and the others came to a small river, one of the many tributaries of the Saltt River.

The Sarthe River, a river in the northwestern part of France. It originates in the hills of Perche in the department of Orne, turns west and flows southwestward, where it meets the Royale and Mayenne rivers near Angers, forming the Loire River and its flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

Looking at the rushing river, William felt that this was a suitable place to build a dam and a water-powered mill, and turned to Sean beside him to tell him about it.

Rao had doubts about this order, and Sean, who had suffered a loss, no longer doubted it, and honestly said that he obeyed the order.

In fact, it is no wonder that Sean is unaware of the construction of the mill, and the promotion of the new thing is too slow.

In 870 A.D., mills began to appear in England, and by the autumn of 1033, William had seen very few mills.

It wasn't until the 12th century that mills really spread throughout Europe, from the Netherlands and Belgium in the north to Portugal and the islands of the Mediterranean.

At this time, these were all mills, mainly wind mills, wind mills mainly used wind energy to grind wheat to produce flour, some for oil extraction, some for drainage and irrigation, and some even for sawing wood. As you can imagine, the mill played an important role in the lives of Europeans in the past.

But because these windmills relied on unpredictable winds to operate, and when the wind stopped, the millers were unemployed, so William somewhat disliked these wind-powered mills and preferred a water-powered mill with a smooth output.

Whether it is a wind mill or a water mill, William has the relevant construction drawings in his hands, and at most it is adapted to local conditions.

William turned around and explained to Osborne's butler how to teach Sean how to build a water-powered mill, and then led the cavalry to the manor mansion for the night.