AWDC Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Field Work

When the old woman lost her husband two years ago, she left only the fields she could somehow cultivate alone, and rented out the rest to neighboring houses. Therefore, the remaining fields were small, and the fieldwork didn’t take much time for me.

In the midst of all that, I started thinking and implementing ways to increase the harvest in my own way.

“Since I’m entrusting the fields to you, I won’t say anything,” Ilse responded when I told her my ideas about the crops to plant in the fields.

I tried changing the fieldwork in my own way.

Like every house in this village, they hardly used any fertilizer. At most, they would just scatter livestock manure.

Also, they didn’t plan their farming. It could be said that they were ignorant of continuous cropping, planting the same crops over and over.

If you keep planting the same type or the same family of crops, insects and pathogens that like those crops will come to the field.

Furthermore, since they kept planting the same crops without giving fertilizer, the nutrients in the soil were absorbed, and the land became depleted.

If continuous cropping becomes severe, the crops will no longer grow.

Ilse’s field was in a similar situation.

I divided the entire field into three sections.

I planted buckwheat and sweet potatoes in one-third of the field.

Sweet potatoes were not a cash crop and were not grown much in this village. However, every house planted them as emergency food. Buckwheat was found in every house.

Above all, both buckwheat and sweet potatoes can be harvested even in depleted soil, and the harvest period is short.

And both sweet potatoes and buckwheat can be a staple food.

Saigō Takamori said that he grew up eating sweet potatoes as a child. That was the norm for commoners and lower-ranking samurai throughout Japan. Even in the Meiji era, the dietary situation of the common people didn’t change, and it was the same during the post-war chaos.

The poor residents of Toriholi Village ate more buckwheat and potatoes than wheat.

In the next one-third, I planted potatoes, beans, and a little bit of leafy vegetables.

I separated them by type as much as possible to avoid continuous cropping. I also planted marigolds in between. Marigolds have the power to prevent pests, and if they are plowed into the field after growing to a certain extent, they can become fertilizer.

In the remaining one-third, I planted oats and clover. When they have grown enough, I plan to borrow sheep from Sam, a neighboring farmer, and let them graze.

Sam is a large landowner in the village and has many sheep.

Before, Sam’s infant had a fever, and I gave him a fever-reducing medicinal herb and saved him. So when I asked Sam to lend me sheep, he readily agreed.

If oats and clover are plowed into the field, they become fertilizer (this is called green manure). Combined with sheep manure, the nourishment of the field should increase considerably. Of course, I plan to collect the manure and make compost.

Collecting straw and fallen leaves from the neighborhood and mixing them with manure makes good fertilizer.

Also, I put vegetable scraps and leftover food into a wooden enclosure and put earthworms in it. Earthworms process the garbage, and the soil made from earthworm droppings can also be used as a soil amendment.

The above is a simple plan.

The harvest will decrease this year, but I expect it to increase sequentially from next year onward.

Even if the harvest decreases, I was giving free medical examinations to the villagers, so they shared their crops with me. That alone was enough to make a living.

The following spring, I plowed the field where the sheep had been grazing and planted vegetables.

The area of the wheat field is too small to cover the needs of two people. It would be better to buy or get it from the villagers cheaply.

And, from the land that has been depleted by years of continuous cropping, only buckwheat, sweet potatoes, and potatoes can be taken as staple foods. Unfortunately, this year I had to focus on a diet of potatoes and buckwheat.

From the perspective of modern Japanese people, it would be considered a very poor meal, but it was common in the countryside of Japan before the war.

After the war, even Tokyo had no food, and people were filling their stomachs with potatoes.

And most of the houses in this village are in a similar situation.

Ilse didn’t complain at all.

“Ever since Toma came, I don’t have to worry about meals anymore. Sometimes the villagers even share fish and meat with me, so I can’t ask for more luxury than this.”

The old woman really has no desires.

That hard work appeared as results the following year.

The growth of my field was remarkable to Ilse and the neighbors.

The yield of cabbage, carrots, onions, etc. increased, and they were larger than those seen in other people’s fields.

“Wow, Toma is also a field doctor. It’s much bigger than ours. I’ve never seen such a big cabbage.”

Tom next door looked surprised.

“That’s right, ask him to teach you what kind of magic he used,” Cathy suggested, and I ended up explaining my methods to the neighbors.

“I knew that the land gets depleted with continuous cropping, but I didn’t know it was because pests and pathogens increased,” Sam, a large farmer in this village, had some knowledge of continuous cropping damage.

He planted crops to avoid continuous cropping, but he didn’t do it with a plan. Moreover, he didn’t actively make compost or green manure.

Sam has a large field, so he could devise ways to avoid continuous cropping, but smaller farmers kept planting the same crops.

Naturally, the land was depleted, and the harvest was unreliable.

I explained the effects of compost and green manure and taught them how to make them.

Anyway, looking at the vegetables in my field convinced them, and they listened to my story seriously.

Talking with the villagers, I realized that this village was not suitable for agriculture.

The arable land was too small, and the land was depleted.

The land was vast, but the water shortage was severe.

The arable land was only along the river facing the village, and the hills in the southern hinterland of the village were deserts where no trees or plants grew.

The desert spread as far as the eye could see, and to the west, high bald mountains were lined up, which blocked rain clouds and did not bring rain to the desert.

In the far south, snow-covered high mountains could be seen, but the rivers that melted from the snow mountains flowed largely east and did not moisten the desert.

The absolute lack of water was the only reason why this village was suffering from poverty.

The well water never runs dry, but there was no way to turn the dry land into a field.

Because the well is deep, water cannot be drawn without manpower, and it cannot be sprinkled on the fields.

Come to think of it, since coming to the village, taking a bath has become a great luxury.

There is firewood, but the amount of water drawn from the well was far from enough for a bath.

I had to carry the carrying pole to the well more than ten times.

It’s not a job that can be done every day.

Now I can only take a bath about once a month.

“Ah, I never dreamed I could take a bath.”

Those were the words of the old woman when Toma worked hard to draw water and heat the bath for her.

Someday I want to make it possible for the old woman to take a bath every day.

That has become Toma’s next dream.

By doing fieldwork, knowledge from the previous world is revived.

Thinking about how to harvest better and devising ways to do it, knowledge I had learned before suddenly came to mind.

I don’t have the memory of having experienced it like when I treat someone, but I have it as knowledge, and I remembered it while doing fieldwork.

I think it’s knowledge from books I read in the previous world.

Speaking of books, most of the characters in this world were alphabets.

Most of the people in this village are illiterate and rarely see letters.

However, when I look at the lord’s orders, they are made of alphabets.

The language is clearly different, but the characters are alphabets. So I didn’t have any trouble reading the characters in this world.

However, I was very surprised when I first saw the alphabet in this world.

It’s impossible to be a coincidence. I thought that the person who conveyed the characters to this world was from the same world as me.

That predecessor spread the alphabet. It wouldn’t be surprising if there were people in the same situation as me.

I wanted to know about that person somehow. However, there is only so much a boy of about 12 years old can do. I don’t even know much about this village, and I haven’t been to other villages or towns.

What kind of person was the predecessor?

Well, I didn’t think of any way to confirm that, so I didn’t think about it any further.

Also, the numbers were like the Chinese or Roman numerals in the previous world, without “0 (zero)”.

A new number is added each time the number of digits increases. It looks complicated.

It’s a mystery why the predecessor who spread the alphabet left only the numbers inconvenient.

Come to think of it, why can I speak the language of this world?

This was also a complete mystery.