Chapter 10: Agricultural Revolution in Sidimi (2)

After about half a day of plowing, a little over half a dessiatine of land had been turned.

I attached the disc harrow to Fridolf Gek’s remaining two horses.

A disc harrow is an agricultural machine used for harrowing that breaks up plowed soil using spiral-shaped discs attached to rolling rollers.

It doesn’t require as much power as a plow, so two horses are enough.

Furthermore, because it breaks a much wider area simultaneously compared to a plow, the work can be finished in a much shorter time.

However, if it had been plowing on ordinary farmland, a single pass would have sufficed, but since we were using a reclamation plow on wild grassland, we had to repeat the process about twice to completely finely cut the tangled grass roots.

Following the disc harrow work was the roller.

This task compacts the soil broken up by the disc harrow to make it suitable for farming.

Like the disc harrow, two horses were sufficient to pull it, and this time, a single pass was enough without needing to repeat the process.

By the time the work was finished that afternoon, we had reclaimed approximately 1.2 dessiatines of farmland.

The Joseon people who had already settled there also came out to watch our work, and they were so surprised that their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

1.2 dessiatines was an area equivalent to what a single sturdy man—no, an entire household—would spend a whole year to reclaim.

The grass roots of the natural grasslands in this region were deep and strongly intertwined, and digging and turning such land with agricultural tools brought from Joseon required an enormous amount of labor.

Naturally, it wasn’t just the head of the household; except for the wife and very young children, even the older children had to cling to the reclamation work to clear an area of about 1 dessiatine.

But since we had cleared that much area in a single day, the Joseon people who were already living here and farming could not help but be astonished.

One of those Joseon people said.

“Is it really true that this was done in just one day?”

Another person next to him replied.

“What do you mean, after seeing it with your own eyes?”

“Even if I saw it with my own eyes, can you believe this?”

“True, it is hard for me to believe as well. The land I made by working until my bones ached in my first year after coming to this land was far less than this.”

It wasn’t just the already immigrated Joseon people who were surprised.

The people who immigrated with me, as well as Fridolf Gek, Mikhail Yankovsky, and Yuli Briner, could not help but be amazed by this terrifying work speed.

In fact, Russia is an agriculturally backward country compared even to Western Europe, let alone the United States.

The Russian trio had never seen or even heard of such agricultural machinery.

Thus, they could not help but be shocked in front of the working speed of the latest advanced agricultural machinery from the United States.

Fridolf Gek said.

“I heard about it from Viktor yesterday, but seeing it for myself, I can’t believe it.”

Mikhail Yankovsky added.

“I’ve never seen anything like this either. No, I’ve never even heard of it.”

Fridolf Gek is from Sweden and Mikhail Yankovsky is from Poland.

However, since both were poor countries, they had never seen such items at all.

The two naturally turned to look at Yuli Briner, who was from Switzerland.

However, even Switzerland was still a very poor country at this time, though he had the widest experience among them due to his history of traveling here and there as a merchant.

But since he had never been to the United States, he had never seen agricultural machinery like this.

Yuli Briner shook his head.

Having así enlightened everyone from the naive Joseon farmers to the Russian country bumpkins, I took the horses that had finished their work to the well, washed them all, put them in the stable, and fed them plenty by bringing twice the usual amount of grain feed and hay.

“Today’s work was so hard that they need to be fed twice as much as usual. They need to eat at least this much while they are working.”

Fridolf Gek said.

“If we feed them like this, the feed and hay will run out in no time.”

“If we run out of grain feed, we can just buy it from Vladivostok, and as for hay, let’s prepare some here. The grass growing in these grasslands is of good quality, so if we cut and dry it, it will become decent hay for the horses to eat.”

“Is there a separate agricultural machine for that too?”

“Of course there is. For cutting hay, we can just use a harvester, and for drying it after cutting, there is a machine that flips the grass over. There’s also a machine for gathering it.”

Mikhail Yankovsky grumbled from the side.

“How did those Americans create such a variety of machines? And why didn’t we know anything about it even though such machines exist?”

“They say they created such machines because the land in the United States is so vast that it’s difficult to farm. However, in Russia or Europe, the land is narrow and the farmers are poor, so they can hardly afford to buy such machines. Even that reclamation plow alone costs 300 Rubles; who among the farmers could afford to buy it?”

The trio of Russian country bumpkins listening all nodded their heads.

Mikhail Yankovsky asked.

“But even if we keep reclaiming the land, what will we plant in the reclaimed soil? It’s a bit awkward to plant something right now.”

“I’m thinking of planting oats. They say types that grow anywhere, like oats or barley, are good for newly reclaimed land.”

“If we plant oats now, will the grains even form?”

It was currently the end of July, so it was indeed an awkward time to plant anything in this region.

If we tried to plant other crops, the cold would hit before the grains could even ripen.

“We can just cut them before the grains ripen and use them as hay. If you cut them before the grains form, the nutritional value is high, so it’s excellent as hay.”

Just like other grains, straw cut before the seeds form is far richer in nutrients than the straw left over after harvesting the grain.

“That’s good. The hay can be eaten by our horses, and we can also sell it to the army. The army is always having a headache due to the supply of hay anyway, so they will be very pleased if we solve that for them.”

This area of Primorsky Krai, especially around Vladivostok, has so many soldiers that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a military zone.

The troop count alone exceeds 10,000, and there are many cavalrymen in particular, so feeding and maintaining these horses is no ordinary problem.

Aside from furs and a bit of seafood, this region is a permanent deficit area with no proper products.

Most of the necessary supplies must be brought in from the outside, and since the goods exported from here are meager, it was safe to say that the wages and operating costs of the army sent by the Russian central government to this region practically drove the local economy.

When the wages for soldiers and civil servants paid by the Russian government are released into the area, that money ultimately flows to Kunst and Albers or other trading merchants to buy necessary supplies from abroad.

They were encouraging migration to this region by baiting liberated Russian serfs with free grants of land, but the migration performance was poor.

Even though there were indigenous people or immigrants from China or Joseon, frankly, they barely managed to make a living themselves and had little to call surplus production.

So, a few years ago, they implemented a policy restricting immigrants from China or Joseon, but then they realized having them was better than not having them at all and withdrew the migration restriction policy.

Instead, they requested that they plant hay on some of their farmland and supply it, but the farmers who immigrated from China or Joseon had no experience in hay farming and everyone struggled with it.

At a time like this, if we could supply a large amount of hay to the Russian Army, not only the Russian Army but also the local government would be very pleased.

While the reclamation work continued, the ship from Kunst and Albers, which had been unable to come due to the rough weather, arrived after three days, and Adolf Dattan, the Manager of Kunst and Albers, personally visited Sidimi to apologize.

“We fully understand that you couldn’t come because of the weather, so there was no need for you to come in person, but we are sorry that you took the trouble to visit.”

“No. It’s partly meant as an apology, but I came personally because there’s something I need to explain myself. Since constructing the latest American-style grain warehouse is a first for us too, I thought it would be better to see it with my own eyes.”

Indeed, since the grain warehouse and stable I ordered were of a style being built for the first time in this region, it was understandable that Adolf Dattan came in person.

The statement that Russian agriculture was backward meant that even a grain warehouse like this was of an outdated style compared to the American one.

Adolf Dattan discussed with us—me and the Russian trio—and decided on the locations for building the house, stable, and warehouse.

“So, rather than making the house ridiculously thick with no windows and only holes for shooting guns, it’s better to build a wall all the way around like this. The Honghuzi are from poor Chinese peasant backgrounds, so although they are many in number, they have the weakness of being poorly armed. Therefore, raising the walls like this is much better.”

Adolf Dattan had brought a new plan instead of what we had planned a few days ago, and everyone else also agreed with Adolf Dattan’s plan.

However, the wall that Adolf Dattan was drawing did not include the houses of the Joseon people, because the Russian residential area and the Joseon residential area were a bit far apart.

Mikhail Yankovsky said.

“If we extend the wall to the Joseon area, the cost is one thing, but the wall becomes too long, so the area one person is responsible for lengthens, and then the defensive power drops. So, let’s just make a gate on this side as well and make it so that if something urgent happens, they can all flee inside here.”

Mikhail Yankovsky was a famous hunter and had experience fighting the Honghuzi.

His opinion was accepted persuasively by everyone, and we decided to install a sturdy steel gate in case of an emergency.

I ordered that steel gate from Adolf Dattan.

In that way, the house and walls were built according to Adolf Dattan’s new plan.

The labor required for the house-building process was entrusted to the Joseon people of this region, and they were happy to have earnings during the farming off-season.

However, I had another intention for involving them in the house building.

It was my intention to give them direct experience with the use of concrete, bricklaying, and the new construction method brought from the United States called light frame construction.

The method of using concrete wasn’t anything grand.

It refers to the very simple method of sifting sand through a wire mesh and mixing it with cement and water to use for construction.

The Joseon people lacked experience and did not even know how to lay bricks.

That’s why this experience was necessary.

Light frame construction is a construction structure newly created in the United States.

While traditional timber construction mainly uses logs with only the bark removed or carved into rounds, light frame construction refers to a construction structure that uses lumber cut to standard sizes at sawmills using machines and cheap nails stamped out in factories.

In Joseon construction, poor houses are built using log timber and mud, topped with a thatched roof. Even for somewhat wealthy houses, the structure itself is similar, except for the large amount of wood used and the tiled roof.

Even here in Russia, when building houses, they are built by processing these logs.

Since it is a method of fitting logs together one by one while using almost no nails, it is difficult to learn easily, and a traditional skilled carpenter is essential.

In comparison, light frame construction is easy to make and easy to learn.

Since this light frame construction is still rare here in Russia, learning this now would surely be a help to the livelihoods of the Joseon people.

The technicians brought by Adolf Dattan taught them how to sift sand to mix with cement, the proper ratio and method for mixing water and cement, and how to lay bricks and use a hammer.

While the house and walls were being built, the Russians and I went out for reclamation work, and by the time the house was completed, we had reclaimed approximately 40 dessiatines and sown oat seeds.

Even sowing seeds for hay becomes too much of a waste if you just scatter them randomly.

Using a horse-drawn seeder to sow the seeds not only saves seeds but also significantly reduces labor.

When the seed sowing was completely finished and even the hay harvesting was done, the house was also fully built.

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