The Rise of Primitive Tribes Farming

Chapter 496 The Grassland Must Not Become a Desert

With the efforts of more than 600 people, the work of building thatched cottages was completed in five days.

These huts are circular in shape, the walls are all mud walls with grass clippings mixed inside, and the roofs are bundled grass, laid layer by layer.

From a distance, hundreds of mud-walled thatched cottages stand in a patchwork pattern on the prairie, with smoke from the roofs, which is very spectacular.

Because there are Rhino Banyue and Bison King, and there are no other tribes on this continent, there is almost no need to worry about security issues, so even the fence is saved, and it can expand infinitely in the future.

After having a house, people from various brigades and workshops no longer need to gather together, and can carry out their own work independently.

Chang Yan, the planting team, heard that the land was going to be reclaimed, and the first batch came here with a very firm attitude, because it was still winter in the southern wasteland, and he didn't like winter because he couldn't work in the fields.

He liked to work, and he liked to be in the field all day, except for eating, sleeping, and necessary rest.

After the house was built, Yan couldn't wait to bring people and tools to start reclamation near the place of residence.

Yan used a bronze sickle to mow all the grass and pile it into a pile.

These green grasses will not be wasted. After land reclamation, they can be buried in the ground and used as green manure.

"Hey!"

I used a bronze hoe for the rock, and when I went down with the hoe, I didn't expect to easily turn up a large piece of soil, and the grass roots were not tightly attached to the soil, so they could be pulled out easily.

"The soil in this place is so soft!"

Yan's eyes lit up. It's hard to find such soft soil in the Southern Wilderness. The wasteland in the Southern Wilderness was very difficult to dig for the first time.

Not only are there many stones, but also the soil is tight, and the roots of grass and trees are stuck together, making it difficult to remove them.

But the soil here is not. This side is full of sand, which can be easily dug up to get rid of the grass roots.

"Such a good land can't be ruined. Everyone, hurry up and dig it carefully, and pick up all the grass roots!"

Yan yelled, and the planting team soldiers who followed him responded one after another, and everyone dug hard.

Because the land is soft, they are large in number, strong in strength, and rich in farming experience. They turned over a large piece of wasteland in just half a day.

Looking at the overturned soil, under the sunlight, it dries quickly and turned white. He frowned and said, "The soil is good soil, but it has poor water retention."

The poor water retention of the soil means that it is not drought-tolerant. Once there is continuous drought, the crops planted on this land are likely to die.

The way to solve this problem is to cover the ground with a thick layer of grass after the crops grow up, which can have a certain moisturizing effect.

At noon, Chen Bei came from another place.

Because the Rhinoceros Continent is far away from the Southern Wilderness, a large number of flamingos are needed for long-distance transportation.

Safflower plans to build a breeding base here, so that some flamingos can settle here and reproduce.

There is a river here, a lot of fish and shrimp, aquatic plants, insects, and the weather is not cold, so it should be suitable for flamingos to survive.

Safflower chose a wetland swamp by the river, where there was plenty of food and plenty of water, and the flamingos would probably like it.

The construction of the flamingo breeding base was left to the members of the engineering team and the flamingo team. Chen Bei went to look around and was quite satisfied with the environment there.

But when he came to the planting team's reclamation area, he saw a piece of already whitish soil, but suddenly thought of something, and frowned deeply.

"Leader, what's the matter? Is it because we haven't done well enough?"

Seeing Chen Bei frowning, Yan walked over and asked cautiously.

Chen Bei shook his head and said, "You guys are doing a good job, but you probably don't know much about the situation here."

"It's been half a month since I asked. The climate here is divided into dry season and rainy season. During the rainy season, it rains almost every day, and the amount of water is very abundant."

"If you don't cut the grass, it's fine, the rain will be absorbed by the grass and the soil."

"But now we have cut off the lush grass and turned the land upside down. The crops we planted cannot be densely packed like grass, so there will inevitably be a lot of soil exposed. Think about it, once it rains heavily, it will What happened?"

Yan is a person who often farms, and he has been in contact with various terrains. When Chen Bei said this, he thought about it carefully and immediately understood.

Yan said with a serious face: "The soil here is too soft and there are too many gravels. Once there is a heavy rain, the soil will be washed away, leaving only gravel."

Chen Bei nodded and said: "You have all seen the situation in the West Desert. If we don't take any measures and directly open up wasteland, then in the future..."

Chen Bei pointed to the land under his feet, and said, "This place will become the Western Desert."

Chen Bei's words are not groundless. In his previous life, the grassland in the north was turned into a desert because of overgrazing and land reclamation.

Turning the grassland into a desert is a very terrifying thing, and it is absolutely unacceptable to Chenbei.

The Mang tribe finally found such a new continent. If it becomes a desert due to over-cultivation, then what is the point of the Mang tribe staying here?
If you want a desert, isn't the West Desert even wider?

Chen Bei's words made Yan's face turn pale, and the rest of the planting team had also seen the barren desert, and their faces also turned pale.

Yan looked at the whitened soil and said, "No...you can't let this happen."

A member of the planting team couldn't help but said: "Then what should we do? We can't plant the land, right?"

Chen Bei nodded and said, "Of course we have to farm, otherwise what are we doing here?"

Yan seemed to have caught a life-saving straw, looked at Chen Bei with burning eyes, and said: "The leader must have a way, so that we can farm the land without turning this place into the Western Desert, right?"

Chen Beidao: "There is a way, that is, while we are cultivating the land, we will reserve a part of the land for planting grass and trees."

"Plant a tree?"

Yan scratched his head, a little confused, his knowledge limited his imagination, he didn't know how to plant trees and vegetables.

Chen Bei casually folded some grass stems and inserted them in rows on the ground as a demonstration.

"Our vegetable field should not be too large. Leave some grass around the field, and plant easy-to-live shrubs. Generally, the shrubs are not very tall, will not block the sunlight in the vegetable field, and have deep root systems. , can stabilize the soil."

"Besides, we plant a forest every other distance. This tree can be a fruit tree, so we can get a lot of fruit."

"Forests, vegetable fields, cross-planting, coupled with strict precautions, because it allows us to keep the soil while planting the land and prevent it from being lost!"

Looking at the rows of grass stems on the ground and the soil surrounded by grass stems, Yan felt that this method was very feasible.

"If you plant a tree, you will plant the tree. Anyway, we can eat the fruit ourselves. As long as we can keep the land, we can do whatever we want."

Chen Bei said with a smile: "That's it. You can discuss for yourself how big a piece of land will be opened up and how far apart a forest will be planted. I believe you can do a good job."

Yan nodded heavily, and said: "Don't worry, leader, we can plant good land in the Southern Wilderness, and we can certainly do it here!"

"Okay, then I'll wait to eat the vegetables and fruits you grow!"

Chen Bei handed over this matter to Yan with confidence, because he believed that Yan cherished the land more than anyone else, and he could do a good job in preventing land desertification.

(End of this chapter)