Chapter 11 Farming -Part 1
By the time training was done, it was already 9 A.M. The men all went to their assigned posts.
Landon decided to take Momo, Lucy and Trey to the farmlands in the lower areas.
Looking at the farms, he could roughly estimate that there were at least 300 farms.The whole place looked like one of those industrial plantations on earth.
There were three farmers on the land. When they saw Landon coming over, they rushed over to meet him halfway.
"Good day my lord", they replied with a hint of fear in their voices
"Good day to you all....I wonder if you guys can tell me about the land here? I was hoping that I might be of assistance to you all." Landon said while smiling.
"My lord, may we ask who you are?", asked an elderly man.
Landon could see that this man was like the leader of the pack. Everyone sort of hid behind him while talking.
"I am the new King of Baymard, King Landon.This is my personal knight Trey, my friend Lucy and I'm guessing you all know little Momo here.....Please be at ease. I only wish to help."
The farmers looked at Landon curiously . This was the first time they had ever seen or heard of a king who wanted to aid in farming.
"May I know your names as well?" Landon asked
"Your Highness. My name is Pat, this is Lyore and this is Waldo. We are farmers here in Baymard." said Pat as he introduced everyone.
Pat was a strong 42 year old man with rich black hair and and light green eyes. On the other hand, 37 year old Lyore had blond hair with light brown eyes. And 36 year old Waldo had ink black hair with dark brown eyes.
"Your highness, we have been farming in this land for more than 20 years now. The land is very barren. The growth of our crops are stunted and our yields are sparse." said Pat
Searching through his mind, he knew he had to determine the soil type in order to fix the problem.
"Hmm...dont worry. By tommorrow I will give you the solution to the problem. Meet me here, same time tommorrow morning." Landon replied
"Yes, Your highness"
Although they agreed, they really didn't believe that he had a solution. Afterall, they had been farming all their lives while he had been living in luxury.
Their fathers farmed on this land and now they did too. Since they could remember, the land had always been barren.
They chose to keep farming because they genuinely loved everything about it.
It felt like an accomplishment seeing something they planted sprouting out of the ground. Although the yields weren't high, they felt joy in doing their profession.
So when his highness said that he would give them a solution, they were taken aback and of course had doubts about this so called 'solution'.
They decided to wait and see.
Landon walked away from the men, poured some water onto the soil and waited. He observed that the water drained quickly. This was a good sign.
He then grabbed a handful of soil and softly compressed it in his fist. The soil felt smooth and could hold it's shape for a short period of time. 'So far so good', he thought.
Landon then took 3 handfuls of top soil from the ground and went back to the castle.
Once in the castle Landon filled a white jade wine basin with water and poured the soil into it. He then stirred it vigorously, until all clumps of soil had dissolved. He then decided to place the basin by the window overnight.
Infact it would have been best to use a transparent glass jar. But too bad... glass hadn't been invented yet.
He decided that in the future, he would teach the farmers and villager's everything he knew about farming. 'Knowledge is power', he thought.
The more people that knew the right ways to farm, the better the crop yields in Baymard.
"System, can you give me a copy of the farming book from my starter pack?"
"Answering host. No. If host wants a copy, host should write it out his self". The system replied.
"Aren't you suppose to be an all powerful and mighty Technology System?" Landon grumbled.
"It is exactly because the system is all powerful and mighty that your request was rejected. The system is not a photocopying machine host."
Landon was speechless. 'What a shameless system', he thought.
"So how can you help me then?"
"Host can use the system's space time capsule's. Once host's eats the capsule, host will be transported into the system's space. 1 hour in the outside world is equivalent to 5 days in the system's space." the system emotionlessly replied
Landon was excited. With this he could write down the entire book in hours.
"System, I want to use the space time capsule", he said excitedly.
"Host does not have enough experience, technology or bonus points to use the space time capsule"
Landon didnt know whether to laugh or cry
"Then why did you tell me about the capsule?" Landon asked almost wishing he could kill the stupid system
"The system thought it was the appropriate time to tell the host"
Landon massaged the temple's on his forehead trying for calm down.
"How much time is contained in 1 capsule? and how many points do I need before I can use the capsule?"
"Answering Host. 1 capsule is equivalent to 1 hour in the real world. For host to buy a space capsule, host needs any of these points: 10 Technology points, 5 Experience points or 2 Bonus points" The system replied
"Since I dont have any at the moment, what do I do?"
"The system suggests that the host invent's something, so as to get the bonus points"
Landon's eyes lit up.
'That's it...I'll make a blackboard', he thought
-THE NEXT DAY-
After training, he went to his bedside window and observed the contents in the basin.
He took a spoon and carefully checked if the soil had any layers.
At the very bottom was sand, the middle layer had silt and the top layer had clay.
This was loamy soil.
It was the perfect soil for agriculture. It was a mixture of sand, silt and clay. If the problem wasn't with the soil itself, then it there could only be one reason
-Lack of nutrients and organic matter-