Chapter 548: 548 - - 16-27 Countermeasures against frost damage

The next day, August 23.

Jin (his double) is guided by Lorona to select a plot of land to be used as a farm.

Of course, Reiko and Anne are with him.

"Oh, this area is good, isn't it?

The land slopes gently toward the south. There is a small river running through it, and it seems to have good access to water.

A coniferous forest is located on the north side. It is supposed to protect it from the north wind.

"Yes, but the land here is too thin. It's too thin."

Indeed, there is hardly any grass on the land. Reiko crouched down and dug the ground a little with her hands. Sand, gravel, and volcanic clay.

She puts some soil on her palm and shows it to Hitoshi.

"Oh, there is too little organic matter," he said.

"Organic matter?"

Rorona tilted her head. She is the mother of Istaris and the others, and appears to be in her late twenties.

By the way, it is said that the lifespan of the demon tribe is about five times longer than that of humans.

Rorona herself said that she was 200 years old. 5 times is equivalent to 40 years old, but it seems that the aging process starts after the age of 4 However, it is said that the aging process starts after the age of 400, and she still has a youthful appearance.

But that is beside the point.

Yes, organic matter. Yes, organic matter, like humus. And the soil is too hard, so you have to till it deeply.

The plow and hoe as farming tools were made yesterday. They are made entirely of iron with adamantite teeth, so they will not deteriorate too much when plowed by Golem's power.

"Now all that's left is to improve the soil. ......"

I have only a passing knowledge of the subject.

I have only seen a news story about diapers embedded in the desert (actually a superabsorbent polymer), and the rest of my knowledge is limited to burning fields and using rhizobacteria on beans.

"Well, nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium are essential.

I knew at least the three elements of plant cultivation, so I decided to start preparing from there.

"Oh, what is it?　That."

Lorona just tilted her head. It was a somewhat cute gesture, but she was married with three children.

"Nitrogen is for the growth of leaves and stems, phosphoric acid for flowers and fruits, and potassium for roots.

"Oh, ...... that's also the knowledge of the Magecraft Meister, the magical engineer?"

I don't know.

For the time being, we need to prepare humus, grass ash, bone meal, oil cake, and so on.

The humus should be free from coniferous leaves as much as possible. This is because conifer leaves contain turpentine-type oil, which hinders the growth of the roots.

Ash is made by burning trees and weeds growing on the land to be cultivated.

Bone meal is made by collecting and reusing bone meal that used to be thrown away as garbage.

Oil cake was not found at ....... It is the residue of oil squeezed out from sesame oil, rapeseed oil, etc. Since these vegetable oils were not used, there was inevitably no oil cake.

"Well, if we start with buckwheat and beans, they will eventually become fertile."

Roots left in the soil and husks after harvesting can also be converted into organic fertilizer.

As I imparted this simple knowledge to Rorona, Istaris, who had arrived before I knew it, listened attentively.

"Is Istaris going to take over from Rorona-san?"

"Yes. I hope to succeed my mother and take charge of the food supply.

Hearing this, Jin explained in more detail.

Istaris learned very well, and Jin was so pleased that he spoke a lot of unnecessary things.

"There is a fertilizer called 'kinpi' that you have to pay for, and they used dried sardines in some cases," he said.

"In addition to the three elements, calcium, magnesium and sulfur are also good in small quantities.

"The nodules on the roots of beans are symbiotic with rhizobium bacteria, which fix nitrogen in the air.

"The soil should have a dumpling structure, which is a grouping of large grains, so that the roots can breathe easily and grow well.

"If you dig a shallow hole and bury vegetable waste, it will become a good fertilizer in a few months.

"If you have peat, that would be a good fertilizer too."

Istaris listened hard, trying to remember what he had learned, even if he did not fully understand it.

Jin's knowledge was limited to the level of a vegetable garden, so he would soon run out of things to talk about.

"......That's about all I can say right now," he said.

"Yes, thank you very much."

Jin thinks.

Perhaps the demon tribe had underestimated technology because they were able to use magic more powerfully than mankind.

And as their blood thinned, their magical power gradually weakened until now.

While Jin was explaining to Rorona and Istaris in this way, 20 <> had finished cultivating about 2 hectares of land.

At this rate, they would finish cultivating 10 hectares by the end of the day.

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To feed 100 members of the clan, 15 tons of grain would be needed. That would require at least 30 hectares of arable land.

In reality, the clan of < has about 50 members, which seems sufficient, but this is the area of arable land including fallow land to prevent continuous cropping.

In the cold region, 40 hectares would be needed to take into account the reduction in harvest.

Jin sees that the current cultivated area is almost 30 hectares. This is just barely enough, and stockpiling will not be enough.

"I wonder if we can get enough black wheat in time if we start planting it now.

Istaris told me that the first frost occurs in late October or early November. The first snow falls at the end of November.

Black wheat is susceptible to frost.

Jin did not know this, but they had been growing it for a long time and knew it well.

"We can harvest it as early as two months.

They had cleared a field on a south-facing slope, so it would have some effect.

"Now all we have to do is .........　Warding!"

"What?"

Jin, who had been watching the fields being cleared by Ugly and the others, seemed to have had an idea and ran to the workshop.

Neither he nor his double had changed at all.

"Well, the strength should be weak. But make the area of effect as wide as possible. ......"

"Jin, what are you making?"

Theon looked into the workshop. Istaris came in later. Unlike Jin himself, the double was running faster than Istaris, who is a demon.

"It's a ward against frost!"

"Oh, you can do that?

Physical protective wards may be able to prevent frost, but covering an area as large as several tens of hectares would be difficult.

However, Jin knew of several ways to prevent frost.

In inland areas of Japan, people burn heavy oil or waste oil to generate black smoke and fan the air to prevent damage from late frost in May.

In short, we can either prevent radiative cooling or circulate the air to keep it from freezing.

"A physical field with the maximum intensity reduced. One of these should be able to cover an area of one hectare.

Jin has created a physical barrier (solid barrier) that is so weak that it would be impractical. It is one ten-thousandth as strong as normal.

But it is strong enough to prevent the diffusion of warm air during the daytime and the intrusion of cold air. Moreover, its low strength does not impede human ingress and egress.

"......Hey, ......Wow, that's great."

Theon seemed to understand the effect immediately.

"It will probably keep out as much snow as the Kazahana," he said.

With this, it would be possible to grow black wheat in two seasons. If possible, Jin advised, it would be better to grow beans from spring to summer and black wheat from summer to fall.

"If we don't have a greenhouse, we can get a little better crop with this. ......"

The weak heat retention would raise the temperature a few degrees, which would extend the cropping season by a month or two.

"You are indeed a Magecraft Meister, Master Jin, to be able to destroy the seeds of conflict in this way!"

Istaris praised Jin with open arms, and Jin scratched his cheek in embarrassment.　

At the end of the day, we were shown the zirconia mining site.

It was deep in a pit dug into the cliff near the seashore. Jin was surprised to see it.

To his surprise, clear, colorless zirconia crystals were being mined in large quantities.

"......Why?"

When you think about it, it is quite unnatural that such a large amount of colorless and transparent zirconia is mined.

"<>"

I found that the deposit extends quite deep, but its distribution is geometrical, i.e., it has an unnatural shape, so I guessed that it is half-artificial.

The zirconia from the deposit also seems to be mixed with some additives, if we are strictly speaking.

Unfortunately, Jin is not very familiar with gemstones, so he did not know what it was and what effect it was having.

At any rate, it is easy to imagine now that something must have happened to this deposit in the past.

Well, since our purpose is not to uncover the true nature of the deposit, we decided to let it go for now as long as we can extract some usable materials.

* * * *

In Horai Island, the old man praised Jin.

"Yes, I think it was a good idea too. It would be practical in our region, but not over there where the concentration of free magic element (ether) is high.

<

If we can make them understand that there is a possibility of self-sufficiency in food, the food problem is as good as solved. The moderates will listen to us.

"Oh, we'll visit other moderates soon."

.

"Yes, let me know when you get it together."

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