A Small Farmer Girl 's Story of Making a Fortune by Farming

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The sudden death of my uncle was a great blow to Mrs. Wu. Throughout the first month of the year, Mrs. Wu was often absent-minded and shed tears silently.

　　Shen Yao felt distressed when he saw this, so he adapted some of the interesting things he had seen and heard in his previous life and told them to Granny Wu in order to distract her grandmother's attention.

　　It was not until the end of February, when spring ploughing began, that Mrs. Wu finally came out of her grief.

　　The Shen family had a large population and more than ten acres of paddy fields. However, rice was only grown once in this era, not twice as in later times, and some areas even grew three times.

　　Even if only one season of rice is planted, the yield is still pitifully low.

　　In his previous life, Shen Yao studied agriculture and knew very well that the best way to increase rice yield was to improve rice genes or to hybridize genetically different varieties to obtain hybrid rice with higher yield.

　　However, genetic improvement requires high-tech equipment, and hybrid rice also requires finding genetically different varieties and then repeatedly trying hybridization. It is still unknown whether it will succeed in the end.

　　Looking at the vast paddy fields, Shen Yao frowned.

　　It seems that it will take time to significantly increase rice production. Before that, she still has to think of other ways to make money. The greenhouse on eight acres of land is not enough for her.

　　Plow the fields, grow rice seeds, and then plant rice seedlings.

　　By the time the spring ploughing was over, it was already the end of April, and there was a hint of summer.

　　The wheat in the field was about to fill with grain, and the fields were lush and green. Before the wheat was harvested, the farmers had a month of leisure.

　　In the yard, Shen Yao was holding a small branch and driving the newly caught chicks this year, looking a little absent-minded.

　　Mrs. Wu called her several times before she came to her senses. She quickly dropped the branch in her hand and went back to the house to eat.

　　At the dinner table, Shen Yao talked about what he had been thinking about in the past few days. They were going to build the vermicelli workshop that they had originally planned to build for their uncle's family.

　　With the proceeds from selling vegetables and rice candy last year, plus the savings from the past few years, the Shen family had at least fifty taels of silver in savings, which was definitely enough to build a workshop and harvest sweet potatoes.

　　"If Yaoyao hadn't mentioned this, I would have forgotten about it. Years ago, you said this was a profitable business, but because of your uncle's matter, and then I was so busy with the spring ploughing that I forgot about it completely."

　　Old man Shen also put down his chopsticks and asked with some concern: "We can build a workshop, but most of our dry land is used to build greenhouses, and only the few acres of land at the foot of the mountain are planted with sweet potatoes. I heard from Yaoyao before that making vermicelli requires a lot of sweet potatoes, and what we have is not enough."

　　Shen Chunsheng has always supported his daughter, but his family does not grow many sweet potatoes. He said with some regret: "Now every household in our village grows greenhouses, and not a single acre of land is left for growing sweet potatoes. Otherwise, we could have harvested some from the villagers."