Mountain Forest Town's Grain Production

With an Administrator in place, Luo Ning didn't have to personally manage some matters in the territory.

However, this didn't mean he completely let go and became a noble lord who only sought pleasure (although this was his ultimate goal).

On the contrary, he wanted to build the territory into his own utopia, and many things required his attention.

Therefore, Luo Ning requested "Weekly Reports and Monthly Summaries" from Wilson. This would not only deepen his understanding of the territory's administration but also allow him to assess Wilson's capabilities.

After the busy past two days, the personnel arrangements for Mountain Forest Castle were basically complete.

Only minor adjustments would be needed later based on the situation.

After the midday break, Luo Ning, escorted by Macken, David, and Tom, mounted his horse and began inspecting the territory.

As the lord, he was full of enthusiasm for this inspection and had high expectations for every production and business area within the territory.

This feeling was like meeting someone after an online relationship – having imagined so many wonderful things and envisioned countless scenes, only truly meeting them would provide the most intuitive understanding.

The town center of Mountain Forest Town was very small, with houses extending only about four or five hundred meters around it, mainly consisting of Freeman houses and various shops.

Although the street was short, there must have been many people coming and going daily, otherwise, the street wouldn't be so dirty.

Luo Ning didn't linger on this street. Led by Tom, he turned eastward.

If the street was compared to the urban area, then turning out from it was the suburbs.

Luo Ning could see many low-lying houses built from mud, thatch, or wood. They were crude and looked unstable, the kind that could be blown down by a strong Wind.

Compared to living in the urban area, the only advantage here might be the fresher air?

"My lord, the town's wheat fields are mainly distributed to the east and southeast. The area to the northeast has orchards and vegetable patches, the northwest is mainly grassland suitable for grazing, and the southwest is mainly flax fields."

Although Tom's family was in tailoring, when he served as a Mountain Forest Town Guard and Professional Knight, he was often responsible for patrolling the agricultural areas, so he knew more about this.

"If we follow this dirt road eastward, we'll reach the Barley and Wheat farms."

Luo Ning looked up ahead and indeed saw a hint of yellow, seemingly the wheat swaying.

"Do you know the approximate area of the wheat fields?"

Tom pondered for a moment. "My lord, I've heard people discuss it, but I can't be certain of the exact number."

Luo Ning looked at him. This surrendered Professional Knight's actions over the past two days had either David or Macken accompanying him, and there was nothing unusual.

For him, as long as they sincerely wanted to surrender and worked wholeheartedly for him, he could treat everyone equally.

Just as he had told Tom before, if he performed well during the three-month observation period, Luo Ning would agree to restore Tom's salary from 20 Copper Coins per day to 30 Copper Coins per day, the same as David.

"It's alright, just tell me what you know."

Only then did Tom reply, "I've heard many farmers discuss it. The cultivated land already opened up in Mountain Forest Town is nearly 30,000 Mu. Although half of the area is Fallow every year, counting it all, there are still over 9,000 Mu of Barley fields being cultivated and nearly 7,000 Mu of Wheat fields."

Luo Ning had heard the term Fallow. It meant that if a piece of land was planted this year, it wouldn't be planted next year, resting for a year to increase fertility.

However, even with Fallow land, the total area of wheat fields planted in Mountain Forest Town each year was over 16,000 Mu, which completely exceeded Luo Ning's expectations.

One had to know that Mountain Forest Town was once wasteland, and everything required reclamation.

It was extremely difficult for these people to cultivate so much land without a lord's leadership.

Luo Ning frowned slightly. He thought of the cooperation between Sain Territory and Prinster.

With such a large cultivated area, the grain produced each year, after being consumed in Mountain Forest Town, could also be sold in large quantities.

He wondered how much of it ended up flowing to Swamp Town in Sain Territory.

Luo Ning became interested and asked, "Do you know the approximate Yield Per Mu for Barley and Wheat?"

Tom replied, "My lord, I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I've heard farmers mention during the busy farming season that the Yield Per Mu for Barley is around 90 Jin, and Wheat is a bit higher, over 100 Jin per Mu, probably around 105 Jin."

"This..."

Upon hearing these two numbers, Luo Ning was momentarily stunned.

He had anticipated that crop yields in this world would be low, as the level of cultivation here couldn't compare to that of the Flower Kingdom.

But he never expected the Yield Per Mu for Barley here to be as low as a mere 90 Jin!

"Why is it so low?" he asked in disbelief.

Tom subconsciously assumed that the Baron, coming from a privileged background, had no contact with agriculture and was therefore unaware of crop yields, so he explained:

"Actually, this yield is already quite good, my lord. It's said that the Yield Per Mu for Barley in Swamp Town of Sain Territory is less than fifty Jin."

Fifty Jin?

Luo Ning was completely shocked by this number.

Excluding seeds, the Barley harvest in Sain Territory was probably only a 1:2 ratio. This might not even be enough to feed themselves, right?

Honestly, with such a low yield, why even bother planting it?

Luo Ning suddenly understood why Sain Territory wanted to incorporate Mountain Forest Town.

Baron Leysen might have viewed Mountain Forest Town as his family's granary, specifically for producing grain.

During the conversation, the group quickly reached the wheat fields, but the closer they got, the tighter Luo Ning's brows furrowed.

Counting the time, today is already the fifteenth of August in the Imperial Calendar. In a little over half a month, it will be time for the barley harvest.

In Luo Ning's impression, a wheat field should be a neat expanse of golden yellow, but the field before him was not like that.

Firstly, the wheat here wasn't neat; their stalks were high and low, very inconsistent.

Secondly, Luo Ning noticed that some of the wheat had already begun to ripen, while some was still a bit underdeveloped. In the same wheat field, sown at the same time, the ripening time was actually different.

Finally, and what Luo Ning found very puzzling, there were many weeds in the wheat field. It looked as if it had never been tended to.

Luo Ning sat on his horse like this, carefully observing the wheat field. He found that there wasn't a single farmer here.

"Tom, where are the farmers?"

He finally couldn't help but ask, "Why don't I see any farmers here?"

Tom replied, "My lord, perhaps they are clearing wasteland?"

This answer again surprised Luo Ning. Leaving this wheat field unattended and putting all their effort into clearing wasteland, was this really how things were done?

"Was this arranged by Prinster?"

Tom nodded. "At the beginning of each year, Prinster assigns each family the task of clearing wasteland, which must be completed within the year. When I wasn't a Professional Knight yet, I also cleared land."

"Alright, alright."

Luo Ning couldn't understand the logic behind only focusing on clearing wasteland without tending to the crops that had been planted.

He dismounted from his horse and went to the edge of the wheat field, reaching out and pulling up a weed that was growing well.

"You said you cleared wasteland, so how much do you know about farming?"

He handed the weed to Tom and asked, "Why don't you weed?"

"That's too much trouble."

Tom took the weed and answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Weeds don't affect the growth of wheat, and as you can see, the wheat is growing densely. If we just walk into the wheat field, we'll damage them."

Indeed, the growth of the wheat was not uniform. To be precise, it was chaotic and disorganized, looking as if the seeds had just been scattered on the ground and left to grow on their own.

In this situation, fertilizing and watering would probably be very difficult.

"How do you sow the seeds?" Luo Ning couldn't help but ask.

Tom began to gesture with his hands. "My lord, we usually first burn the grass on the wasteland, then turn the soil a couple of times, and then evenly scatter the seeds on top."

Seeing that the other party didn't continue, Luo Ning couldn't help but ask, "And then?"

"That's it!"

Tom smiled. "Then we just wait for the harvest. And then, if we feel that the yield here has decreased, we leave it fallow for a year or two, graze livestock here or something. When we come back to plant crops after two years, the yield will magically increase. This must be a blessing from the Seven Gods!"

Luo Ning suddenly felt that with such practices, achieving a Yield Per Mu of 90 jin already seemed very, very good.

Without fertilizing, without weeding, just waiting for the harvest like this, it was probably only slightly better than slash-and-burn agriculture.

Why was there such a situation?

Luo Ning didn't know much about the history of this world. He only knew that recorded history began with the founding of the Orlant Empire.

Although the Empire had now fallen, both the Auduin Kingdom and the Tricia Kingdom claimed to be of the Imperial Bloodline and possessed legitimate inheritance rights.

Therefore, both kingdoms continued to use the Imperial Calendar.

It was now the year 968 of the Imperial Calendar.

Almost a thousand years, and the level of farming was still this low?

Or was it that the level of farming was once higher, but hundreds of years of continuous warfare had reduced the agricultural level to a nearly primitive state?

Without the help of good agricultural technology, when the lords saw that the Yield Per Mu was too low, they probably had no choice but to have the farmers clear more land.

They exchanged the expansion of cultivated land area for an increase in the total grain output.

Luo Ning couldn't help but sigh for the farmers here.

This method of farming was bound to result in low yields, and in order to increase the total amount of grain, they could only expand the cultivated area, which required them to clear more land.

In such a cycle, most of their energy was spent on clearing land. Where would they have the time and energy to research how to increase the yield of a single plot of land?

"Agriculture must be optimized, and the grain Yield Per Mu must be increased. Only in this way can more people be freed up to develop other areas."

"And only with sufficient grain can I support a larger population."

Agriculture was the foundation. Only by solving the problem of food and clothing could development be discussed.

"Let's go, let's go see the next place."

Luo Ning patted the dirt off his hands, got on his horse, and headed towards the next area.