12: Farming - Part 2

Farming - Part 2

As Landon looked into the basin, he realized that the water residue was clear in color and not a lot of organic sediments could be seen floating at the top. This was a bad sign.1

Typically, rich soil leaves murky colored water with a lot of organic sediments floating around.

The solution is simple. The soil needed manure.

Actually this problem would been solved decades ago, if the people in this continent knew what manure was.

The most important thing to know is that soil is alive. The are more species of organisms in the soil than there are aboveground. These organisms convert soil minerals and organic matter to vitamins and hormones needed for the plant.

So for more than a decade these people have been starving the soil. Obviously these organisms would either die or move away. It's that simple.Soil needs to eat too.

Infact, Baymard wasnt the only place where the lands were said to be barren. There are so many small towns that had this problem.

The reason Baymard was well known was because it was the third biggest city in the empire. For more than 40 years, it had been barren.

From the reports he received, people claimed that one day, the land turned barren. Some people even said it was a cursed plan. Of course Landon didnt believe in all those stories. It definitely didn't happen overnight.

Everyone gave up on the place, as it was deemed worthless to the empire. As the saying goes -'The bigger you are, the harder you fall'.

Baymard's size was comparable to Tokyo Japan back on earth. Immagine if the entire Tokyo turnt to barren lands and there was no food too.....Of course it make headlines.

Landon also wanted to introduce Crop Rotation. Doing this would definitely increase soil fertility, soil nutrients and crop yield.

Crop rotatation would also reduce stressful weeds and soil pollution.

It was a good method for maintaining the soil structure.

Having come up with a solution, he took a lot of bags and buckets, leaving again with Momo, Lucy, Terry and three other knights.

On their way to the the lower region, they stoped at the stables and got animal faeces and then got water from the wells.

They also picked up a lot of mosses, grass and dead tree skin and put in bags. As well as cooked discarded fruits, vegetables and vegetable peelings.

-Lower Region if Baymard-

"Mix everything together and put on the soil." Landon said

Everyone looked at him as if he was mad

'wouldn't doing this make the soil rotten?', they thought

Even though they were thinking that, they did it anyway.

"Water the farm beds. Remember not to flood it, doing so will make the soil hard."

They quickly went along to do what he said

"Now we wait.....In the next couple of days, you all will follow the exact procedure done just now. When you get a process, come and find me." Landon said

everyone nodded as they too were curious to know the results of this little experiment.

Once everything was done. Landon decided find a carpenter for the blackboard.

Since it would take time for the crops to show any signs of recovery, he decided to open a school in the meantime.

For now, he decided to teach all the children and villagers on how to read and write in Pyron (language used in the empire) and how to do math.

He had already decided to ask Lucy to assist in teaching Pyron, while Kim and himself would teach Math.

Although both women knew basic addition and subtraction, multiplication and division would be hard for them to do.

Hence he decided to break Math into two parts; Math 1(addition and subtraction) and Math 2: Multiplication and division). Kim would Math 1 and him Math 2.

Of course Both math classes would start off with basic understanding of numbers. They would have to make sure the villagers knew how to count, before they started addition or multiplication.

He also planned on teaching both women math every night from now on. He hoped that one of them could take over his duty as the second math teacher very soon.

There were quite a handful of literate people living in the central region. From the reports, he knew there were a few alcamists, welders, and so on, who were literate.

It would be a good idea to find these people and use them in teaching others. Afterall, he cant teach everything.

He decided to follow the same schooling system that exists back on earth.

No matter how old or young the villagers were, those who were not literate, would begin at Kindergarten.

They were to learn how to read, write, simple add numbers and so on. As the saying goes: 'Your never too old to go to school'

Infact, Landon remembered that back in his university days, there was a 50 year old man who was in the class with him. He was was so astonished and had deeply respected the man.

Not everyone had the guts to go to school at such an age. Most people where either ashamed or very prideful.

The situation in Baymard was very tricky. Everyone went out to either hunt, fish, cook, farm and so on.

Because he didn't want to disrupt their daily lives, he decided to make a teaching schedule for the town. He would have morning sessions and late afternoon sessions.

All illiterate villagers were required to attend at least 1 session a day.

All villagers below the age of 18, were required to attend the morning classes. While those above 18 could choose to attend any session they liked.

Morning sessions would have 6 classes, 3 taking place at the same time.

He decided to break the children down into 3 groups: those below 7, those below 13 and those above 13.

Lucy would teach Pyron to those below 7, Kim would teach Math 1 to those below13, while he would teach Math 2 to those above 13 at the same time.

Once their classes was done, they would just take the next set of children.

Landon thought all these things as he made his way to the center region in search of a carpenter.

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