Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

The year 1984 seemed to have passed faster than in previous years.

Li Long collected the brooms in a shorter time than usual. After Li Jianguo and his team cut the poles back, the speed of the fourth team making brooms increased. Together with the ones from Qingshui River, Li Long would send a batch of brooms to the supply and marketing cooperative almost every two or three days.

It took less than twenty days to produce eight thousand large brooms. This speed surprised Li Xiangqian and Director Wei.

At first, Li Xiangqian suspected that the quality of the brooms could not be guaranteed because they were made so quickly, but after inspection and verification by two levels of technicians, the quality of these brooms was found to be acceptable.

In particular, the state cooperative called specifically to say that out of the 8,000 brooms, none were unqualified. The only problem was that a few had their Stipa splendens broken or their shapes flattened during transportation.

Because there was a surplus, this batch of brooms was completely qualified. The purchasing department of the state cooperative praised the county supply and marketing cooperative. They said that the inspectors from the autonomous region specifically looked at the condition of these brooms and gave positive comments.

At least it's a face-saving measure. At least in the next few years, the order volume of brooms will not decrease.

This broom job brought Li Long a net income of 12,000 yuan. Although everyone knew that Li Long must have made a lot of money, the villagers, especially those in Qingshuihe Village, were still very grateful to Li Long.

Of the eight thousand large brooms, more than three thousand were produced in Qingshui River - at the beginning they could produce more than three hundred qualified large brooms every day, but later on, the number slowed down.

There is not enough Sphagnum Achyranthes and there is not enough poles.

On the contrary, Team 4's main focus was cutting and drying sedge while Li Jianguo and his team were cutting poles. Later, as they made an effort, the output increased.

Li Long remembered that people in later generations had started using machines to make big brooms, and he didn't know if they could be developed now.

However, he didn't think of asking the agricultural machinery factory to research it, because if this thing was developed, it would not be a good thing.

It is not like the medicine cans used for spraying pesticides. If the medicine cans are made, it will save time and effort to weed the crops.

The development of the machine for making big brooms is equivalent to concentrating the money that Li Long originally intended to give to everyone for making brooms onto a few people.

It was different from what he had initially envisioned.

So forget it. His idea is that the harvester is now mature and is slowly being rolled out in northern Xinjiang, and even infiltrating southern Xinjiang. Then the next step is to look at the research of the spray tank.

It has been two years since the household contract responsibility system was implemented. The production teams have less and less mobile land, and the land allocated and contracted to each farmer is increasing.

The land is theirs, and everyone is working more and more enthusiastically, and they are constantly reclaiming wasteland.

Just growing crops is no longer enough to satisfy farmers' desire to get rich, so growing cash crops has been put on the agenda.

The main economic crops of the fourth team are melons. The village near Liangdonglou grows green onions, and some places also grow watermelons, hops and other crops.

At the beginning, we were exploring slowly, and many of us followed the steps of the Corps.

It has to be said that the Corps is a true pioneer in the development of agriculture in southern and northern Xinjiang; the cultivation of cash crops, such as cotton and melons, all started from the Corps.

Mechanized planting and the use of tractors also started there. At that time, the Corps had a lot of Kangmain, with at least one regiment having more than one, and there were even more Dongfanghong 75 track tractors.

As far as Li Long remembers, high-horsepower wheeled tractors were first used in the Corps. In the 21st century, when cotton was planted on a large scale, the Corps was the first to use cotton pickers, including other related equipment.

The last time Xie Yundong and Tao Daqiang finished harvesting wheat in several other townships, they heard that people in some townships had already started planting cotton.

It's a small area, but it's a good start.

As soon as cotton starts to be planted on a large scale, the spot-seeding machines and drill seeders used for planting cotton will become popular. Later, auxiliary machines such as cotton beating machines and spray tanks will be invented. Finally, there is the cotton picker, which is the final limit and directly kills the hundreds of thousands of cotton pickers who come from the mainland every year.

Although the price of melon seeds is acceptable at present, the market is so small. Li Long estimates that the price of melon seeds may drop this year. When more people plant them next year, the price of melon seeds may not be maintained at more than one yuan, let alone three yuan.

Therefore, Li Long must prepare for the future and give his family members a heads-up in advance.

Soon after the big brooms were put away, the melon picking began.

After resting for a few days, Li Long went to the team to help his eldest brother's family.

Last year, it took us several days to harvest the melons from ten acres of land, and we had to hire people. This year, we have twenty acres of land, and many families in the team have planted crops, so it is not realistic to hire people to pick the melons.

In addition, his family didn't raise pigs much, so Li Jianguo simply did the same as last year and pulled the big pot to the field, picking and pressing the pigs at the same time. After pressing for a day, he picked another truckload and took it back.

After returning home, you can't just sit there doing nothing. You have to spread out the filtered melon seeds and flatten them.

Otherwise the snack factory won’t accept it.

Li Long drove a jeep to his eldest brother's yard and found no one in the yard, even his mother Du Chunfang was not there. He knew that the whole family had gone to the fields.

He drove the jeep towards the melon field and met Tao Dayong who was pulling a donkey cart halfway.

Tao Dayong was pulling a load of melons on his donkey cart. When he saw Li Long's jeep, he waved vigorously.

Li Long pulled the jeep over to the side of the road. Tao Dayong had already come over and took out a box of Tianchi cigarettes that were a little deflated from his pocket. He took out a cigarette and handed it to Li Long with a smile.

"I don't smoke, Dayong, you smoke. How's it this year? I think this melon-beating is good."

"Okay." Tao Dayong said happily, "To be honest, I didn't expect it to be so good. When I went to buy melon seeds from your brother last year, your brother said that the seeds were shriveled. I thought they looked okay at the time and thought they should be able to grow.

At that time, I thought that even if the yield was reduced by half, one mu of land could yield 70 to 80 kilograms, and at three yuan per kilogram, it would still be better than growing grain. I didn’t expect that after planting, I can now yield more than 100 kilograms of melon seeds per mu of land.”

"That's great, we can make a lot of money this time." Li Long said, "Do a good job."

"It's all thanks to you. If it weren't for you, our team wouldn't have these melon seeds. If it weren't for your big brother, I wouldn't have known how to take care of them this time, and I wouldn't have known how to kill the bugs. I'll sell the melon seeds tomorrow, and I have to thank you all very much."

Tao Dayong was sincere in what he said at this time, so Li Long just listened and asked him to take the melon back first.

When we arrived at the melon field, we saw a tractor parked at the edge of the field and a large pot in the field. My eldest brother, his wife, and my mother were all picking melons and putting them next to the pot.

Li Long parked the jeep under the shade of a poplar tree next to the tractor at the edge of the field, took a straw hat from the passenger seat and put it on his head, then took a pair of gloves and put them on, and walked into the field.

There were already a pile of melons next to the pot, but he couldn't handle them all by himself, so he followed his elder brother and the others to pick the melons.

After picking a few, the eldest sister-in-law Liang Yuemei said, "Xiaolong, you and your eldest brother should go and crush the melon seeds. You are strong and can crush the melon seeds cleanly."

"Okay." Li Long walked towards the pot holding three melons.

Li Jianguo also followed with the melon in his arms.

Two boards had been placed crosswise on the big pot. Li Long waited for Li Jianguo to come over, and then put a melon in the middle of the two boards.

The two people worked together to crush the melon, and the seeds and juice flowed into the pot.

"Brother, we may not be able to plant so many melons next year." Li Long said as he pressed melon seeds. "The roasted nuts factory only harvests so many a year. Based on the output, our family can produce half of it. One more family will be enough."

"I remember someone told us last year that they would come over to collect melon seeds?" Li Jianguo was a little puzzled. Of course, he was also reluctant to give up the income from picking melons - after all, the harvest from ten acres of land could be exchanged for a tractor, and who wouldn't want to do that?

If most of the melon seeds had not been sold to the roasted nuts factory last year, the families in the team would have been able to buy up the rest.

Just this, the whole team plus those outside, have hundreds of acres of melon planting.

"That's not much to collect." Li Long shook his head. "The market is so small, and people are used to cracking sunflower seeds. This is just a novelty, not the mainstream.

The market around us is full if there is a dozen tons. If we add the seed market, it can be up to 30 tons. According to this year's production, we can have 30 to 40 tons depending on the harvest. The market is saturated, and this price cannot be maintained.

This year, everyone is watching us making money. Next year, a large number of people will definitely plant this. By then, not to mention 300 to 500 acres, there will be 3000 to 5000 acres. By then, the price of melon seeds will definitely fall, and the trouble is that it may fall to a huge point, and no one will buy it in the end. "Li Long's analysis was very reasonable, and Li Jianguo couldn't help but nod his head. That's the truth.

"What should I plant next year?" Li Jianguo was a little worried. "I finally have a job that can make money. If I don't plant wheat next year, I won't be willing to give up."

"Then ask around. I heard that the Corps is growing cotton."

"That's true," Li Jianguo picked up a melon and placed it in the middle of the board, and asked Li Long to press it down together. As he pressed, he said, "Han, to be honest, they have been planting cotton for a long time, but the yield is not very good, and this requires manual picking of cotton, which is very troublesome."

Picking cotton at this time is indeed a big trouble. If you plant too little, you can't make money because it won't be on a large scale. If you plant too much, you will need laborers to stay at home for a long time to pick cotton, which is a tiring job.

Moreover, the cost of picking up cotton becomes more and more expensive as time goes by. In the end, there was a strange situation where the cost of picking up cotton manually was higher than the price of cotton.

Li Long vaguely remembered that in the first two years of the popularity of machine-picked cotton in his previous life, the labor cost of picking the cotton twice was 3.5 yuan, but when the old man in the team took the cotton to the processing factory, the purchase price given was 2.9 yuan.

Because cotton blooms after the bolls are cracked open by the sun, it is impossible for the cotton bolls to bloom at the same time, which results in the first, second, or even third blooms.

The first batch of flowers has the best quality and is usually picked in the largest quantity. The second batch of flowers is considered a repetition, and because the amount that can be picked is smaller, the labor cost will be higher.

In September, farmers will apply flowering agents to make as many cotton bolls as possible bloom. However, they will apply flowering agents before some cotton bolls are ripe, so that more cotton can bloom and there will be more flowers in the first batch.

This will force the cotton bolls to dry and crack and produce cotton wool, and the cotton seeds will not be mature, the cotton will be light, and the cotton wool will not be long. In the words of the industry, the cotton wool is not enough.

Very contradictory.

Far away.

"If we can plant it scientifically, the cotton yield can still be increased." Li Long pressed down hard to squeeze out the melon seeds, then picked up the broken melon skin and pulp and threw them aside. He picked up another melon and put it in place, saying as he pressed down:
"We are currently planting upland cotton. I heard that if we plant cotton under plastic film, the yield will increase. But this is just one method. We can also think of other methods, such as planting chili peppers, green onions, etc."

"That's even worse. How can we manage vegetables in large fields? If there's an insect plague, it'll all be ruined."

When Li Jianguo first started to work as a pig farmer, the five mu of land allocated to him by the team was the land that the team had used to grow vegetables. He had managed those vegetable fields and knew that growing vegetables in large fields was not an easy task, as it was not as extensive and troublesome as growing grain.

The two of them chatted and discussed this together, after all, this was related to the direction of farming in the next few years.

Although Li Jianguo has made some money in the past two years, except for the money he made from selling melon seeds last year, the rest seems too illusory to him. Not to mention a one-time deal, it is generally not safe.

Li Jianguo has had a farmer's mindset all his life, so he feels that farming is the safest way. As long as he finds a good way, getting rich by farming is not a dream.

At least he saw hope in growing melons.

The path is very important. He didn't have the opportunity to try before, but now he can not only try, but also has the confidence to resist failure - he has a lot of money now, so even if he grows some cash crops, it won't be a big deal if he fails.

So he thought more about what to plant than Li Long, and was even thinking about planting medicinal herbs, cabbage, etc.

In this regard, Li Long still admires his elder brother very much. He is no longer a pure farmer, but his elder brother has experienced so much and still attaches great importance to farming.

In the next few days, Li Long came back every day to help his elder brother collect the melons, but that was all he did. In the evening, when he went back home, Li Jianguo's family had to flatten the melon seeds, which Li Long couldn't do, so he asked his mother and his elder brother and sister-in-law to send him back.

After all, there are two children in the big yard, and it is not a good thing for the father to be away from home all day.

In ten days, the Li family harvested all the melons. This year's average yield per mu was lower than last year, but they still produced more than 3,300 kilograms of melon seeds from the 20 mu of land.

These melon seeds were flattened and bagged. They were only piled up in the Li family's spare room for two days before they were bought one after another.

No goods were delivered to the roasted nuts factory.

In fact, before the sale, some people came to Li Jianguo and others to ask about it. They were mainly Tao Daqiang, Liang Dacheng, Xie Yundong and others.

Each household collected a lot of melon seeds. Tao Daqiang and his friends followed Li Jianguo's example and flattened the seeds; team leader Xu Chengjun thought it was too troublesome and didn't do it.

As soon as the melon seeds were harvested, someone came to buy them under the pretext of buying seeds. The private speculator who came last year also drove a tractor to buy them, but the price he offered was not high, only 2.6 yuan.

Most people did not buy at this price because they knew that the Shicheng Roasted Nuts Factory would definitely offer a higher price. Also, when this person came, everyone knew that melon seeds were easy to sell and there were people to buy them without having to go out. So people from the team, other villages in the township, and even other townships came to buy seeds.

So he came over to ask Li Jianguo and Li Long.

Li Long and his colleagues suggested that it would be worth selling if they could get 2.8 yuan, after all, it would make much more money than growing wheat.

Li Jianguo's family was the first to grow melons and is also the most famous. Others who want to buy seeds will go to them first.

Li Jianguo did not raise the price this year, and even lowered it a bit, selling the seeds for only three yuan.

Tao Daqiang, Xie Yundong and others followed the Li family and charged three yuan.

It was Xu Chengjun who wanted to ask for a high price and was hesitant. Tao Dayong also originally wanted to ask for a high price, but after being scolded by Tao Jianshe, he no longer insisted.

It's just that his reputation is not that good, and he and his wife are a bit lazy and don't flatten the melon seeds, so not many people go to their house to buy goods.

Finally, he simply hitched a donkey cart to pull the melon seeds from his home to the county's private roasted nuts factory and sold them for 2.7 yuan.

Li Jianguo's melon seeds sold the fastest, and he earned almost ten thousand yuan from twenty acres of land, which shocked everyone in the team.

Those who hadn't bought the melon seeds yet went to other people's homes to buy them. This time Liang Wenyu's family got a good deal and became a ten-thousand-yuan household.

When Liang Wenyu came to Li Jianguo's house to report the good news, he excitedly said that he would try to plant 30 acres of melons next year.

"The price of melons will definitely drop next year, so we can't plant so many." Li Jianguo discouraged his brother-in-law. "Think about it, this year's melon seeds have all been sold by farmers. Next year there will definitely be a large area of ​​melons. Who will we sell them to then? If we can't sell them, we can only lower the price..."

Liang Wenyu understood it all at once.

This year, my team planted 20 acres of melons, and more than 3,000 kilograms of melon seeds were basically sold to the team and surrounding teams.

Based on this number, next year the area around my team where I plant melons will probably be two to three hundred acres, which is more than the total area this year.

There are naturally more on Team 4's side.

In fact, when Li Jianguo was selling melon seeds, he also reminded those people that it was best not to plant too many.

Some people listen, but some people say sour words behind your back:
"Your family got rich by growing this, are you saying this because you're afraid that other families will get rich? People can't be so selfish!"

After hearing this, Li Jianguo was so angry that he stopped talking.

Love is what you want.

Good words can't persuade a damn ghost.

Li Long had the same idea. Some things were clearly stated, but some people only saw what was ten centimeters in front of their eyes. If it was farther away, they wouldn't even look at it even if you pulled their eyelids.

Never mind.

After harvesting the melons, the Li family also had to harvest corn and sunflowers. Li Jianguo didn't let Li Long do these odd jobs, and told him not to run back when he had nothing to do. There was no other way to harvest the melons, there were not enough people, and he didn't need his help at the moment, so he asked him to take good care of the family.

Li Long was also happy to have some free time.

Then Li Qingxia will be back soon. (End of this chapter)