Scientific Planting

In early spring, a fine drizzle fell steadily.

Lan Tian wore a straw hat as he worked in the fields with Gan Ji, busy sowing seeds. Though he had often gone into the countryside with his advisor, most of the time he had been conducting research and had barely swung a hoe. Now that he had rolled up his sleeves and gotten to work, he found it truly exhausting.

Even under the light rain, both father and son's backs were soaked with sweat.

Because of last year's military disaster, Wang Family Village now had few people and plenty of land. With Lan Tian helping him, Gan Ji had taken eighty mu to cultivate.

Wars were frequent during the Three Kingdoms era. Throughout the north, millet was planted twice a year. In the absence of droughts or locust plagues, the average yield was around three shi per mu.

In other words, the eighty mu managed by the Gan family should normally produce two hundred and forty shi of millet each season, or roughly four hundred and eighty shi a year from two harvests.

Liu Bei's field officials required them to hand over two hundred shi every season. Whatever grain remained was the farmer's own ability; if nothing remained, they could only go hungry or borrow from their landlord.

Three shi of Han-era millet was equivalent to 281 modern jin. If Heaven favored them, they should have no problem eating their fill.

The two had gone out to work early in the morning. Lan Tian was sallow and thin, yet he worked with great enthusiasm. Gan Ji could not bear to watch, but when he thought of the rent and taxes on eighty mu of land, he could only hope Heaven would grant them food.

It would be good enough if they had some surplus grain left after paying rent and taxes. At the very least, they could put some flesh back on Lan Tian's bones.

Around the hour of the Dragon, Gan Qian brought breakfast to the fields. With spring plowing underway and the two sowing so slowly, there was no time to return home and rest.

At that time, food was scarce, and people everywhere still ate only two meals a day, morning and evening. The Gan family's stored grain had already run out. Aside from borrowing millet seed from Liu Bei, they had also taken an advance on a small amount of rations.

Yellow Turban rebels frequently caused trouble throughout the Qing-Xu Region, while Cao Cao had heavily plundered Xu Province the previous year. One could easily imagine how tight Liu Bei's grain supplies were.

Gan Ji kept strict control over their rations, because what they borrowed would eventually have to be repaid. If they encountered a year of disaster, that debt would only grow larger and larger.

Fortunately, the land was now coming back to life, and Gan Qian could gather wild vegetables outdoors. But it was still difficult for Lan Tian to eat his fill.

Gan Qian watched Lan Tian wolf down his food and smiled. "Why are you eating so fast? Are you in a hurry to get back to work?"

"This ridge hasn't been sown yet. I need to hurry and get more work done. Otherwise, once the spring rains end, the seeds we plant won't get any water." Lan Tian was inexperienced at farming, but his theoretical knowledge was extensive.

Gan Ji looked at his adopted son in a new light when he heard that. "I thought you knew nothing about farming. I didn't expect you to understand that spring rain nourishes seedlings."

"I just heard others say it."

After breakfast, the two continued plowing and sowing until they returned home at dusk. It took them seven or eight grueling days to finish planting all eighty mu.

After that came the wait for the spring rains to nourish the earth. During this brief break from farm work, Gan Ji still had to prepare fertilizer for the millet seedlings. The term "fertilizer" did not yet exist in this era; people simply called it manure, mainly soil manure and grass manure.

Grass manure referred to naturally growing grass in the fields. Turning over the soil before sowing meant burying the grass beneath the earth as fertilizer, thereby improving the soil's fertility.

The Book of Fan Sheng recorded: "When the time comes to plow, plow whenever it rains. When soil clings together, seedlings grow alone. When weeds and filth rot away, all become good fields."

Besides this, farmers also burned soil into manure and scattered it while the crops grew to promote their growth.

More than ten days after the spring rains ended, the millet shoots slowly broke through the soil, and Wang Family Village's fields became a sea of green. At that time, Lan Tian did something unbelievable: he happily went into the fields to thin the millet seedlings.

Thinning seedlings was also called spacing seedlings. Because farmers at the time did not practice Scientific Planting, they sowed far more seeds than the number of plants they intended to keep, causing the seedlings to crowd together. Not only did this greedily drain the soil's fertility, but each seedling also received insufficient nutrients, while air circulation and sunlight could not reach adequate levels.

When Gan Ji saw the fellow pulling up sprouted seedlings, he immediately went into the field to stop him. "Xiao Tian, what are you doing? If you pull out these seedlings, what will we harvest in summer?"

"This is called thinning seedlings. If we remove the excess seedlings, the remaining millet will grow better, and the yield will be higher." Lan Tian explained.

"Nonsense! I've farmed for more than twenty years, and this is the first time I've heard such absurd nonsense. Why haven't you stopped?" Gan Ji pointed at him angrily when he saw that the fellow had no intention of stopping.

It was true that you were my adopted son, but if you were going to smash my rice bowl, not even my own father could allow it.

"Adoptive Father, this method really works." Lan Tian fought hard to persuade him.

Lan Tian did not continue talking to Gan Ji about "Scientific Planting." With the other's current store of knowledge, he simply could not understand it, so Lan Tian could only appeal to his emotions.

"No matter where you learned this method, I have a responsibility to keep this family alive." Gan Ji said furiously.

"Adoptive Father, just let me try." Lan Tian pleaded.

"Lan Tian, don't be lazy and seek comfort. I have more experience farming than you do." Gan Ji advised him earnestly.

"How about giving me twenty mu to try?" Lan Tian said, taking a step back.

"I said no, and I mean no. What's gotten into you today, boy?" Gan Ji looked utterly puzzled.

"Father, Brother Tian, what are you arguing about?" Gan Qian happened to be delivering food at that moment and saw the two arguing until their faces were red in the field.

Gan Ji was too angry to speak, so Lan Tian explained what had happened. After listening, Gan Qian persuaded him, "Father, how about giving Brother Tian ten mu to try? He has to try it before he'll give up."

Gan Qian said this partly because she did not want their relationship to turn sour, and partly because she had always believed Lan Tian was no ordinary person, but someone with great wisdom.

"Fine. Ten mu it is." Gan Ji finally compromised when his daughter pleaded for him.

Gan Ji gave Lan Tian a relatively barren ten mu and let the fellow go practice his so-called "Scientific Planting." From then on, Lan Tian thinned seedlings and cleared the plants within his own territory, while his adoptive father Gan Ji no longer said anything.

At first, Gan Ji still tried earnestly to persuade him. Could the farming experience accumulated by their ancestors over hundreds and thousands of years be wrong? But as time passed, he began to sense that something was off.

The millet Lan Tian tended was sparse, but the plants had thick roots and stalks, and they were much taller than the ones Gan Ji managed.

Could that so-called "Scientific Planting" really be working?

Could I, old farmer Gan Ji, actually be worse at farming than a child?

When the millet seedlings began to form ears, Gan Ji, who had always considered himself a farming expert, had no choice but to concede. Every ear of millet in Lan Tian's field bent the stalks beneath its weight. As long as they did not encounter insect pests or drought, the harvest should be excellent.

These past few months had worn Lan Tian out as well. With such a frail body, he had thrown himself into the fields every day just to eat his fill, tending those ten mu as though they were his own mother.

Pests? No pesticide? Then I'll catch you by hand. I'm eating my fill no matter what.

This really was achieving dreams with his own two hands.

Though he was exhausted every day, Lan Tian felt incomparably fulfilled. It was like taking part in practical fieldwork or working on a graduate research project.

At this point, Gan Ji found Lan Tian more pleasing the more he looked at him. He wondered whether he should marry his daughter Gan Qian to him. After all, the two siblings were only one year apart in age. But then he shook his head.

Gan Ji vaguely remembered what the village fortune-teller had said when Gan Qian was young: "This girl possesses the bearing of a dragon and phoenix. One day, she will surely be honored beyond words."