Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 682 Donkey

In recent years, several surrounding prefectures have raised a certain amount of donkeys and mules for farmland and a small amount of travel, which has further promoted the breeding of local donkeys and mules.

However, their numbers are not very large, but donkeys and mules, which were once considered exotic breeds, have now become commonplace.

Donkeys prefer dry and warm areas and cannot tolerate cold. They are relatively thin in appearance, but can tolerate heat, hunger and thirst, drink little water, and have a strong ability to resist dehydration.

Donkeys eat slowly but chew finely, but as long as they have enough time to eat, with their hard and well-developed teeth and flexible upper and lower lips, they can eat all kinds of coarse and hard feed, including hay, grass, straw, etc.

Donkeys eat 30% to 40% less than horses, but their ability to digest crude fiber is 30% higher than horses. Donkeys are also very resistant to hunger because of their gastrointestinal characteristics. Some donkeys can even go without food for several days.

Donkeys are also gentle and have short and strong waists, which are good for carrying things. They are comfortable to ride. Donkeys mature early and can reproduce at the age of one and a half to two years old. Their reproduction rate is also higher than that of horses. A female donkey can produce more than ten foals in her lifetime.

So in just a few years, the number of donkeys has increased much more than that of horses and cattle. I wonder if it would be okay to open a donkey breeding farm in Xichangfu?

If I could really open a breeding farm, that would be great, at least I would have fertilizers. The soil in Xichang is much worse than that in Mobei, and fertilizers are still scarce. Opening a breeding farm would kill two birds with one stone.

Hualei made a note in her notebook.

The next day, Hua Lei returned the salary list to Wu Yousheng and asked him to distribute it immediately. In just three days, all the salaries of the officials in the government office were distributed.

The officials of the prefectures and counties below would usually send full-time people to come to the government office to collect their salaries with the issued salary certificates.

These full-time personnel would often bring back the salaries of multiple officials from the county or state government at one time, thus avoiding the need for multiple officials to travel back and forth repeatedly and affect the handling of local affairs.

However, Hua Lei still took care of Wu Yousheng and asked all the prefects to come in person this time. If the county magistrates below were willing to come, they could also come. A meeting was held at the government office in late April. Hua Lei wanted to know the situation of the following prefectures and counties.

As for Hua Lei and Rong Jin's salaries, they had already received them for two months when they went to the capital. Now that they were here, their salaries were naturally calculated according to the method of Xichang Prefecture.

Therefore, in addition to the monthly salary, Hualei and Rongjin also began to receive salary and official land. The salary would be distributed in the next season, but the official land was received directly, with the two of them receiving seven hectares and six hectares of land respectively.

According to the calculation method of the Great Sheng Dynasty, it is 700 acres and 600 acres.

However, this official land does not need to be managed by Hua Lei, but is supervised by the Hufang Tuntian Langzhong, and specific affairs are handled by full-time personnel.

The government office only needed to survey and prepare the official land account once a year in June and report it to the Ministry of Rites in the capital. The account recorded the specific location, area, rent standard, etc. of the official land, which was called "white book".

In October of that year, the rent would be collected based on the records in the white book and paid to the relevant officials.

Those who rented these official fields were ordinary people. Before renting them out, a lot of preparation work had to be done, including preparing the land for rent, seeds for farming, cattle and tools, money, and repairing water conservancy facilities.

After everything is ready, the farmers are officially recruited to farm the land. After the land is successfully arranged, the rent needs to be collected according to the agreement.

Because official fields and government fields are similar, they are basically high-quality fields, and both require seeds to be provided by the government office. Therefore, Hua Lei decided to plant the corn he brought with him on part of the government office's official fields and official fields.

However, Uncle Zhao and Jinnian and Jinshi's boat had not arrived yet, and the corn seeds were still on the way. Hualei could only suppress his anxious heart and go to the workshop.

While the Lifang was busy distributing salaries, the workshop was busy leading people to cut wood and prepare to make plow carts, vertical rakes and square rakes.

The production methods of vertical rakes and square rakes are relatively simple, and the sizes can be large or small. There are no mandatory regulations, so it is relatively simple to make them.

Therefore, after only three days, the workshop had already produced four or five square harrows and vertical harrows. When making the plow cart, they encountered some difficulties, but with Rong Jin's guidance and help, the plow cart was also made quickly.

When they tried it out in the fields, everyone around the fields cheered. The workers in the workshop felt a sense of accomplishment and worked overtime to make plows and harrows. The people in the household office were also very happy and immediately started tilling the official and official fields.

The farm tools were taken care of by the workshop staff, so Hualei no longer had to worry about them. She went to find Du Mu Cao under Hufang and learned about the possibility of raising donkeys.

After visiting the breeding area in the city, Hua Lei discovered that the farm was very large, but in order to simplify the breeding process, cattle, horses, donkeys and mules were raised together, with only simple isolation in between.

Moreover, the livestock excrement was not cleaned up in time. The cow dung was trampled by the horses, and the donkeys waded in the cow urine. In addition, the weather was getting a little hot, and the smell was really offensive.

This is very inappropriate. You know, the habits of each species are completely different. If they are raised together, it is very easy for cross-infection to occur, which can lead to illness.

Moreover, the allocation of sites is not appropriate. The donkey site is too crowded, while the horse site is too empty. Although horses are precious animals and do need more care, this is not conducive to the care of other livestock.

Seeing the somewhat lazy breeder, Hua Lei found Chen Ducao, who was in charge of this area, and put forward suggestions for improvement and suggested expanding the scale of donkey breeding.

Of course, the old saying is that at the end of the year, a certain proportion of the extra donkeys will be slaughtered as a gift. The salary of all the breeders in Dumu Cao is linked to the number of donkeys raised.

The more donkeys there are at the end of the year, the more salaries and beneficiaries the keepers will receive. If they do a good job, Hualei will even give them extra money.

Therefore, Chen Ducao also began to get busy, urging his men to clean up the farm, build fences, and isolate the breeding in batches. This was due to Hualei's pressure, and also because of the carrot hanging in front of Hualei.

You know, last year they really had nothing except their fixed salary and work days. So, even during the Chinese New Year, they lived a tight life.

If we have a direction to work towards, we can jump and even catch the hanging carrot. Maybe by the end of the year, we can really lead the donkey back. The staff of Du Mu Cao secretly hoped.

The situation in the farm is slowly changing. Hualei takes time out from time to time to check on the progress, so that those who occasionally want to slack off can give up and start working honestly.