Chapter 226: Lots of swamps and peat

While spring ploughing has not yet begun, and officials have been reorganized, Marin ordered Kohler, the newly released acting finance minister, to send someone to figure out the land composition of East Friesland. For example, how much arable land, how much wood, how much grassland, how much ...
In addition to sending people to understand the situation on the ground, Koller also asked Jeffrey for the old statistics that the country had counted. After all, the former lord must have done it.
Of course, Marin understands this data for industrial structure planning and adjustment. The previous East Frisian did this mainly to facilitate taxation. After all, the rulers of the feudal era were most afraid of the people hiding the amount of cultivated land and population. Because of this, the taxation of rulers will be lost.
If it is an extremely large country like the Daming Empire, if you want to conduct a census of the country's population and land, it is estimated that the workload will be huge. But East Frisian is different. East Friesland aside from the semi-independent Jever, other areas, only a total of about 3,200 square kilometers, is only the size of a smaller prefecture-level city, or two or three counties.
It is very easy to conduct a census in such a small place. So, after a month's work, referring to the old data, Kohler handed the report to Marin ...
什么 "What? Kohler, are you correct? A third of the country's land is swamp?" Marin almost stood still after seeing the report. 33% of the country ’s land is swamps, is n’t it amazing?
Before, when playing "Europe", Marin also played with East Frisian as a start, and also saw the introduction above. The game shows that East Frisian Marsh area is close to 40%. In this regard, Marin is obviously unbelieving. Because if 40% of a country is a swamp, wouldn't it become Liangshan? Can directly stage "Water Margin" ...
However, the actual data tells Marin that although 40% is not reached, there are also 33% ...
This is also an important reason why most of the cultivated land in East Friesland is concentrated in Lyle County over there. Except for Laier County, several other counties basically have large swamps. It is these swamps that divide the central and northern regions of East Friesland into pieces, which are difficult to connect into pieces. Therefore, farmland is scarce in the central and northern parts of East Friesland. Even the development effort is very small.
Before that, the reason why Marin was able to use 5,000 Eugrams land to replace all the land on the northern coast with his hands, is probably not why there are too many swamps there.
In fact, the plots separated by the swamps in north-central East Frisian are not too small. Some plots, although surrounded or blocked by swamps, also have dozens of acres. For Huaxia farmers, they have settled in the depths of the swamp, as long as the government allows it. After all, dozens of hundreds of acres of land are not a small area in China. Only wealthy farmers can have so many fields. Moreover, in the fields deep in the swamp, fresh water resources are very abundant and irrigation is convenient.
But this is in Europe. Those European lords had no interest in developing a few hundred acres of flat land. Because European land yields are low and serfs have to keep their own food. Therefore, they believe that the development of those swamps is of little value. Also, horses are prone to pits because of difficult transportation deep in the swamp. Therefore, the lords were reluctant to send people into the swamp.
Therefore, those swamps are basically deserted. Only in the edge of the swamp, some lords may raise cattle and sheep. But the breeding is also extensive and not good at storing wintering feed. Therefore, before winter, cattle and sheep are slaughtered on a large scale in many places, and the meat is salted.
Of course, this is also related to their lack of good quality forage. Marin introduced alfalfa in the Wadden Islands, harvested alfalfa, and feeding cattle and sheep in winter can ensure that cattle and sheep will not fall off. However, the local weeds were replaced by local weeds because of insufficient nutrition. If they are used to feed animals in winter, they may lead to large-scale malnutrition and may kill a group of animals. Therefore, the Europeans concentrated on slaughtering a large number of animals before the winter ...
Therefore, in this era, Europeans did not lack bacon and salted fish, and sausages were very common food. The sailors sailed, and they all brought a lot of cured meat, and ate it every day without supplementing vitamins. It was strange that no scurvy ...
But, because everyone concentrated on slaughtering animals before the winter. Therefore, there are many bacon meats in the winter market, and the price of meat cannot be sold at all. Even in the period of centralized slaughter, the price of meat will fall sharply. Therefore, the little aristocrats who raise livestock are also very poor and have little gain, and they are not as good as those who cultivate the land. After all, the aristocrats who planted the fields harvested in spring and autumn, and put the grain in the warehouse, which will not be bad for two or three years.
She Marin knew about the swamps in the little aristocratic territories of the North Sea. Therefore, he can exchange lands from those lords at a low price. However, he couldn't believe that there were so many swamps in Orich and Emden counties.
In fact, the two counties really have a lot of swamps. However, Marin used to take the road from Emden County to Orich County. The avenue itself has chosen a route with relatively few swamps and has been developed along the way. Marin naturally did not see many swamps. But in fact, there are many swamps in these two counties ...
Marin didn't believe it, so he took the brigade and rode out of the city to see the swamp ...
Sure enough, when Marin's team left the avenue between Orich and Emden, it didn't take long to see the marsh pools in the east and west ...
Looking at so many swamps, Marin murmured to himself:
"If there is so much land, if the swamp water is drained, can it not be turned into a good field? Then I will not send it?"
"Master, I'm afraid it's difficult ..." Kohler interrupted, interrupting Marin's YY.
"Why? How difficult is this? Dig an irrigation canal and pump the water from the marsh pond into the irrigation canal. The marshland is drying out soon? Then, you can start to cultivate good fields ..."
"Master, it is not difficult to dig irrigation canals, and it is not difficult to divert water. The hard part is how to drain the water in the swamp pool ..."
If you want to develop a marshland, you must not only dig irrigation canals to divert water, you must also drain the water from those ponds. Otherwise, there is too much water in those lands, and they are still marshes, which cannot be reclaimed into fields.
"Is it difficult to pump? Isn't it just to get a pump ..." Marin suddenly stopped talking. He suddenly remembered that it was the Middle Ages, not modern times, and he could just get a diesel water pump to pump water violently. It is very very troublesome to drain the water in the swamp pool, the cost is very high, and the difficulty is extremely ...
Marin went silently to the horse, walked to the edge of a swamp pool, squatted down, grabbed a handful of dirt, looked at it, but was attracted ...
It turned out that the mud beside the swamp pond was gray-black. He knew this kind of soil ... because, this kind of soil has a name in later generations, called peat ...
Peat soil, also known as peat or peat. Its material is mainly composed of incompletely decomposed plant residues and completely humic humus and minerals. It generally occurs in swampy areas and develops in the presence of water and air. Because it is rich in organic matter, it is considered to be a very good natural fertile soil, and it can also be used as a natural fertilizer.
Marin of the previous life did not know what peat soil was at first. However, after his work, the old lady who rented the rental house was an enthusiast of flower growing and liked to plant flowers and plants on the rooftop.
Marin sometimes goes to the rooftop to bask in the sun when he is not at work on the weekend. If he meets the old lady who is taking care of the flowerpot, he can talk about it.
The landlady's old lady was a broken-mouthed man. She caught Marin and liked it for a long time. In addition to being short in parents, it is to inculcate Marin's knowledge of flower cultivation.
The old lady is a demolition household. She has many houses and can receive a lot of monthly rent. Therefore, she is very leisurely to cultivate flowers, and is also willing to spend money ...
For example, ordinary people raise flowers, just find some soil cultivation. But the old lady paid attention to the grade, and she also specially bought the peat soil that was said to be imported as flower pot soil, which was very luxurious. In addition, the old lady's mouth was broken, and she often took Marin to show her ~ EbookFREE.me ~ and showed Marin the imported peat soil and even the English-speaking plastic bags packed with peat soil.
So, Marin knew the peat soil, and was pulled by the old lady to feel the imported peat soil. It is said that the peat soil bought by the old lady was imported from Ireland ...
Furthermore, Marin also knows that when the peat soil is dry, it can be squeezed tightly for one minute, and if it can be released after release, it is high-quality peat soil. These are all taught to Marin by the landlord old lady ...
I saw the peat soil that was obviously peat soil, and Marin squeezed a handful of dry peat soil into his hands ... After about a minute, Marin let go of his hands, and the peat soil gradually dispersed. Although it is not top-level, Marin knows that this can be regarded as advanced peat soil ...
But Marin looked at these swampy areas that have existed for millions of years. This kind of peat soil seems to be very many, everywhere ...
Well, it seems that these swamps are not useless. If the water is drained, the fertile peat soil here will surely be transformed into a fine field!
Moreover, peat soil is not only fertile planting soil, it can also be used as fuel. In Scotland, it is said that during the manufacturing process of Scotch whiskey, peat is used as a fuel to germinate barley.
Although the calorific value of peat is not high, it is much lower than coal. However, it is comparable to the calorific value of firewood and even exceeds the calorific value of firewood. Therefore, peat is also an excellent fuel ...
Of course, it is not easy to extract this fuel, and you need to go deep into the swamp area ...
In short, these swamps are not useless. It is these peat soils, whether they are used as fertilizer or fuel, are very valuable.
Even, Marin also planned to add some peat soil when making manure fertilizer ...