Lux's Farewell

As the initial mining team went to the exploration points one by one, Fauquelin and her professional team collected quite a lot of detailed data on the growth status of Forsbarrow's specialty plants in spring.

And through these data, it is not difficult to see that there is a reason why the Forsbarrow people cannot feed these northern plants.

For example, Cassie dorosa, the growth conditions of this plant are relatively normal, whether it is humidity requirements or climate requirements, Fossbarrow can meet them, but the problem is that its germination and overwintering conditions are too harsh .

As a three-year herbaceous plant, the cassia dorosa will go through two winters, and if it wants to survive the winter successfully, it must be blown by a strong wind, and it is a wind mixed with ice elements—that is, Anivia’s interest.

Without the blowing of Anivia's breath, under the epidermis of the stem of the Kasidorus flower, it is impossible to create a protective layer of ice elements to maintain the shape of the stem and push it down to the ground.

If there is no such protective layer, the cassia dorosa will stubbornly raise its head in winter, and then snap off, without exception.

And other northern plants also have their own various characteristics. Some of them have extremely high requirements on temperature and humidity, some require special elemental environments, and some even only adapt to the soil of the Longji Mountains...

Leaving the environment of the Dragon’s Back Mountains, these conditions can hardly be met, so the Fossbarrow people tried for a long time, but they failed to grow these plants. In the end, he simply chose the form of collecting herbs and came to pick them in the Longji Mountains.

Now, as Fuquelin's team has completed the field experiment, they will return to Forsbarrow with the seeds picked during this trip, and carry out simulated cultivation again in an artificial environment. If the experiment goes well, Fukui's Lin will convene other groups to discuss how to create large-scale conditions that can be artificially cultivated.

Field experiments-condition screening-experimental cultivation-environmental modification-small-scale planting-promoted planting, this is the plan that Kalya taught Fuquelin to quickly carry out artificial cultivation of special species.

The whole process would have taken at least seven growth cycles without the presence of Fuquelin, a girl who can accelerate the growth cycle of plants. The step of field experiment would take an unknown amount of time—only relying on control variables to observe The production conditions of the plants and the workload are simply prohibitive.

But with Fuquelin, she can greatly reduce the time for field experiments and experimental cultivation. Only small-scale planting and promotion planting need to spend the normal time of plant growth cycle!

After the field experiment was completed and returned to Fossbarrow, Fuquelin and the team held a very serious meeting. During the meeting, Lacus and Karya, as well as Granny Nadine, the president of the Herb Pickers Guild, also attended the meeting. meeting.

There was only one topic for this meeting, which was to choose which special plant in the north as the choice for Fossbarrow's experimental planting.

Because there is only one Fauqueline, and there are only a few people who can accurately match her, so it is completely impossible to carry out artificial cultivation experiments of multiple plants at the same time.

Only choose one of them to cultivate.

As for which one to cultivate, this question not only involves the difficulty of the experiment, but also needs to consider economic issues-if this kind of plant enters the market in large quantities, will the market be able to eat it?

How to cultivate plants that require a special growth environment under artificial conditions is an academic problem; but which kind of plant to choose for cultivation is an economic problem.

In addition, in order to convince the Fossbarrow people that plants can be cultivated according to the experimental results, the subsequent experimental planting may need to attract people to visit, which is also a problem that needs to be considered.

Among the plants in the northern border that Fuquelin had studied, Cassia Dorothy had the clearest growth conditions, but after a brief discussion, it was the first to be out.

No way, for three-year-old plants, even with the help of Fuquelin to complete the preliminary experiments, the plants will grow naturally in an artificial environment starting with the small-scale planting of artificial conditions.

The follow-up promotion and planting will also take a lot of time, and planting this kind of plant will take a lot of energy. The current Fossbarrow people do not have enough time and savings to plant flowers for three years without production—and even if there is, the current Lak Si's appeal is not enough to make them put down all their worries and try.

Therefore, even if the growth conditions of cassia dorosa are very clear, even if its market and price are very attractive, even if its field experiment effect is the best, it still cannot be selected.

Among the remaining plants, after three hours of intense discussions, the crowd finally chose Xianghongsu as the first artificially cultivated plant.

........................

Xianghongsu, a special plant in the northern region and the southern foot of the Longji Mountains. Its usable part is its red leaves.

Whenever the spring is warm and the flowers bloom, the plants at the southern foot of the Longji Mountains will seize the precious time to bloom and compete for splendor.

The flowers of Xianghongsu are not gorgeous, but at this time, its leaves will turn bright red, and it will emit a wonderful aroma and secrete oil.

Because the wintering temperature in the northern region is very low, the local northern cold bees need more beeswax to build their nests than bees elsewhere, so they like the oil of fragrant red sage very much.

In addition to collecting honey, these cold bees in the north rub their bodies on the leaves of Hongsu, bring back this fragrant oil, mix it with beeswax to build a nest, and in the process, hide in the leaves The florets will complete pollination by the way.

Herb pickers in Fossbarrow will also pick a lot of sage leaves in spring. The leaves of this plant can be used to extract oil, which is the main component of the "Northern Essential Oil" that is popular in Xiongdu.

Although some corrupt nobles in Xiongdu used it in strange places, in fact, the oil of Xianghongsu is a very good edible oil. It is not only very fragrant, but also quite durable. It can also be used as antifreeze oil in winter The body has high economic value.

However, because there are plants with higher economic value such as cassia dorosia in spring, the Forsbarrow herb pickers generally do not pick too many fragrant red persimmon leaves - under the same volume, The price of fragrant red sage leaves is less than one-twentieth of that of cassia dorosa.

For herb collectors, sage is a very tasteless plant. When there is nothing to harvest, people usually pick some sage leaves to go home, squeeze the oil by themselves, and then sell the oil residue to hunters to dye their fur.

However, from the perspective of artificial plant cultivation, fragrant red sage leaves are the best choice for Forsbarrow!

Although fragrant red sage leaves are also perennial plants, their leaves can be picked in the spring of the first year. will continue to grow.

In addition, due to the easy pollination, the fragrant red sage tends to grow in a large area, densely stacked together, and the output per unit area is very amazing!
Moreover, although the results of the field experiments of the sage are not as clear as those of the cassia dorosa, they are of the more obvious type—the main reason why the Fosbarrows were unable to grow the sage in the past was because of its impact on the land. The fertilizer rate has high requirements. In addition, with the different growth cycles, this kind of plant also has extreme temperature requirements. It must be very cold in winter and very hot in summer.

(Regarding this point, Fuquelin who conducted the experiment is actually a bit strange, because even in summer, the temperature in the area where Xianghongsu is located cannot meet the requirements for the growth of Xianghongsu in the summer cycle, but it happens to grow in the mountains. very well.)
For Fossbarrow, land fertility and temperature control are the easiest things to do.

On the whole, Xianghongsu has the advantages of high planting density per unit area, high commodity output rate, easy growth conditions, complete product follow-up processing industries (oil extraction, printing and dyeing), and is the best artificially cultivated economic crop!

After completing the field experiment process, Fauquelin will lead her team to start further experiments on the artificial cultivation of Cinnamon in the experimental area in Forsbarrow City.

Since it is early spring now, not to mention the seeds of the sage, not even the flowers, so in order to carry out the experiment, Nadinson will go to the Longji Mountains to dig a few stalks and come back.

........................

After the meeting was over, Fuquelin excitedly went to arrange her own laboratory.

Lacus took the initiative to invite Granny Nadine to drink tea together.

Although she is a model of aristocrats, and although she drank the Ionian treasures specially given to Lux by Augsa, the tea drinking style of Lux is no different from that of Nadine's mother-in-law. Then wait for the tea to cool slightly, and then directly ton ton ton.

"It's really good tea." After drinking half a cup of tea, Granny Nadine smiled and narrowed her eyes, "Drinking a cup of tea in early spring, the spring cold is gone, and my old bones and joints don't hurt anymore. "

"If you like it, I have a lot." Lux also smiled, "I can't drink it, it's good or bad, as long as there is some taste in the water."

Granny Nadine blinked her eyes when she heard the words, her expression was a little subtle.

In fact, according to her good friend Grandma Ling, Granny Nadine has heard a lot about the deeds of Lacus as a "model nobleman". It doesn't matter at all, even whenever she thinks of the title "Noble Model", she will subconsciously think that it is Lux's outfit.

But the strange thing is that Lux is obviously a very direct and honest person - in the eyes of a person of Nadine's age, this kind of sincerity cannot be deceived.

In this case, she can only regard those stories of her friends as rumors of the nobles of Xiongdu.

"Does Granny Nadine have any ideas about the cultivation of saffron?" After talking about the tea, Lacus finally brought the topic back to the topic, "During the previous meeting, you didn't speak, just nodded —Is there anything inconvenient to say?"

"No." Granny Nadine replied very simply, "Not at all, you have already thought of everything I can think of."

"..."

"It's not an unintentional compliment." Looking at Lacus who suddenly didn't know what to say, Granny Nadine put down her teacup, "It's the truth."

Lux nodded, expressing her understanding.

"From the perspective of outsiders, we herb pickers can pick cassia dorosia, a plant that is worth gold after drying, but they don't know that the flowering period of cassia dorosa is less than ten days." Talking about the life of the herb collectors, Nadine sighed helplessly, "And they all grow in the steepest and most dangerous places. Every year, there are many good guys and good girls. Cassie Dorothy lost her footing and fell to her death."

Lux continued to nod silently.

"My father stumbled and fell into a deep valley while collecting herbs." She raised her head slightly, and her tall body sat up straight, making it difficult to see the expression on her face. A cassia doris."

"..."

"So after I heard that farmers in other places can plant land, I wondered if I could grow some plants like them, even if it takes a little more hard work." Granny Nadine rubbed the rim of the teacup with her withered fingers , continued, "At that time, I chose Xianghongsu."

Lacus was a little surprised.

"But I'm not a mage, I can't control the temperature." Granny Nadine's expression gradually turned bitter, "I opened up a place at the top of the city, and built a flower bed with the most fertile soil I could find, and put There are a lot of fragrant red persimmons planted in it."

"In the first spring, the red sage sprouted, a layer of thin seedlings with light red leaves, very beautiful in that flower bed." Recalling the past, Nadine continued to tell, "At that time, many people were like me. They looked at those fragrant red persimmons every day when they had nothing to do. They watched them grow up and provoke cold bees—my neighbor was stung by cold bees in the flower bed."

"and then?"

"And then in summer, they all died." Granny Nadine shook her head, as if she was feeling sorry, "One by one withered, I was so anxious that I lost my hair, but not even one survived until autumn."

Lux pursed her lips.

"Later, I didn't give up. I dug up a batch of mature plants in autumn and planted them in the flower beds." Granny Nadine continued in a stubborn tone, "I took care of them more than I took care of Nadinson."

Lux didn't speak because she already knew the ending.

"And then, one winter, they all died." Speaking of this, Granny Nadine finally lowered her head, looking straight at Lacus with a pair of cloudy eyes, "I know why you are looking for me, I know."

Lacus was a little surprised.

"I'm not the old hunter who can't see the situation clearly. I just hope that the herb collectors can live a better life." Granny Nadine's expression is very complicated. I’m sad because I can’t pick them. If we can, we actually hope to plant them in a safe and secure way, rather than go to the mountains and take the risk of leaving no bones to get those precious flowers and plants.”

"If planting can make herb pickers better off, then Fossbarrow doesn't need a herb picker!" Granny Nadine stretched out her arm and put her rough and withered hand on Lacus's hand, "I I don’t know magic, so I can’t grow Xianghongsu, but you know it, so you must grow it, and find a way for everyone to grow it!”

"Among the herb pickers, the old woman still has some weight in her words." Nadine pursed her lips, and promised in a voice as strong and airtight as possible, "As long as there is a way to let the fragrant red persimmons be planted, No matter if you use magic or what, among the herb pickers, there is absolutely no little bastard who dares to say something wrong!"

After all, Lacus did not speak, she looked directly into the eyes of the old man opposite, and nodded solemnly.

"must."