It was already late May after the locusts. Jia Simin talked to a farm owner at the farm. Jia Simin was very happy to see the growing fat chickens and ducks, and exclaimed: "Locusts are really good feed. They have grown a lot after eating them for only half a month."

"It's good, but the price is also expensive, and it's not often available. I'm asking the feed factory to hurry up. After comparison, the crushed and mixed feed is much better than the single unmilled grain, so it's more appropriate to process and crush it and mix it well to feed it." The front-line workers still have a deep understanding of these. Many people have a one-sided view that free-range chickens require very little food, but they are actually wrong. For example, in this site, 100,000 chickens are stocked on one hundred acres of rocky beaches. In addition to driving out to eat locusts during locust plagues, they usually move within the range of this hundred acres, with an average of 100 chickens per acre. Not to mention insects, even wild grasses cannot grow. On weekdays, more than a dozen nearby villagers send wild vegetables and weeds to feed chickens, but the staple food of chickens is still barley, soybean meal, and bran. In addition to bran, the other two feeds need to be crushed and processed.

Jia Simin said: "Okay, it's really impossible to catch up with the crushing of manpower alone. In the past few days, I have chosen a site to build a hydraulic mill and crush the processed feed."

The water wheel mill had reached its peak in this era and its technology was quite mature. During Wang Anshi's reign, the water mill was in charge of the country and earned nearly 400,000 yuan a year. Later, Sima came to power and abolished Wang Anshi's policies, and the hydraulic mill declined.

The construction of the hydraulic mill is not a big deal for Jia Simin.

He did it as he said, Jia Simin had six craftsmen and dozens of farmers. The first hydraulic mill was pruned in the ravine north of Wujia Village, upstream of the reservoir. This was a narrow mountain stream. In addition to winter, the water flow of the mountain streams can drive the mills in spring, summer and autumn, especially in summer. The water volume is abundant and powerful, and it can be crushed day and night.

Uncle Wu San also came to help, and Jia Simin personally designed it. The ten-meter-long wooden main beam is lying across the mountain stream, and the mill is above it. A good foundation was built to strengthen the mill that spans the mountain stream. A water wheel with a diameter of two meters was inserted into the water. The wheel rotated and drove the spindle to rotate. The end of the spindle is a wooden transmission gear, which drives the stone mill through the gears. The stone mill can be rotated and crushed.

The principle is very simple, the structure is a bit complicated, and they are all technical work done by skilled craftsmen, so ordinary shopkeepers can only do some hard work.

Uncle Wu San said: "Mr. Jia, I agree with the fact that there is no need for people to grind noodles in this hydraulic mill, and no animals, but how can he stop? If the water power is too high in summer, what should I do if the millstone is too heavy to make a lot of money quickly?"

Jia Simin smiled and said, "This problem has been solved during the period of Wang Xiang. They used a steering switch to the spindle gear and grinder gear. The switch turned on the grinder and switch turned off the grinder. As for the heavy rain, it was even simpler. Just pull out the water wheel in the water. If the pumping wheel was not enough, it might rush away. In order to solve this situation, when encountering a river with rapid water flow, you can open a canal from the side and use the water power of the canal to drive the stone mill, so that the amount of hydraulic power can be controlled."

Uncle Wu San exclaimed: "Manager Jia knows so much."

"This is all recorded in the book."

At a distance of more than 100 meters across this narrow river, Jia Simin set up fifteen mills, each mill with two stone mills and brick and wood structures. This way, when the water supply is sufficient in summer, you can grind a thousand pounds of noodles in one day. Thirty mills are tens of thousands of pounds, and the productivity is not small.

Lao Liang from the veterinary pharmacy shop also came and said, "Manager Jia, the water mill set up reserves three water mills for our veterinary pharmacy shop, which are specially used to grind medicinal materials for veterinary medicine production."

Jia Simin smiled and said, "This place is dedicated to producing divided grains. Five mills are built each of the Veterinary Pharmaceutical Floor and the Chengdu Pharmaceutical Floor. It is next to the east reservoir of the village."

Lao Liang was very happy that the development of the veterinary drug shop was somewhat unexpected. The veterinary drug market was much larger than expected. Originally, it was just considered for self-use. Who knew that after production, not only Tongda Dache Store used for self-use, but other veterinary stores and farmers were looking for purchases, and the supply of medicinal materials was in short supply. It was relieved to think about it. Processed medicines are easy to use, and it would be enough to feed them directly to the animals. If they were not processed, it would be very inconvenient. It would need to be boiled and fed to the animals. If it was at home, everything would be easy to say, but it would be inconvenient to go out. Therefore, the market for commonly used veterinary drugs was very large, and the profit of wholesale veterinary drugs was more than 30%.

Half a month later, after the efforts of craftsmen and farmers, fifteen hydraulic mills on the mountain stream were built. For auspiciousness, Jia Simin also invited the gong and drum team. Wu Song, Zhu Wu, Gongsun Sheng, Wu Sanshu and others also came to participate in the opening matter. These fifteen mills are the feed processing workshop managed by Jia Simin.

Jia Simin said: "The first mill is still a brother who will grind it. This is the processed barley soybean meal chicken feed." The feed was already placed in the hopper, so Wu Song just needs to pull down the switch, that is, the clutch, and the water mill will turn.

Wu Song said: "This time, Gongsun Zhenren made great efforts to destroy the locusts, so I would like to ask Gongsun Zhenren to come and pull him."

Gongsun Sheng smiled and said, "I have never seen such advanced mechanical skills before, so I will do it." He immediately pulled down the switch, the gears were connected, and the water mill quickly turned under the driving of the water wheel, and the grain in the hopper slowly entered the grinding eye.

"The setting is so clever, saving manpower and animal power. If there are many places in the river vigorously promote it, wouldn't it benefit many people?" Zhu Wu exclaimed.

"That's true. Wang Xiang once vigorously promoted it decades ago. Later, the new policy was abolished, and the water mill was abandoned. I think several places should be set up at the edge of the village for the villagers to use." Wu Song said.

Wu Sanshu and Jia Simin discussed and said, "It's better to set up a hydraulic mill outside Wujia Village and Xiaowujia Village. A mill costs about fifteen jin of money, and ten jin of money is paid in the village. The remaining funds are raised by the farmers in the village, and they are distributed to each household in just a few dozen cents."

"It's so good that if the villagers spend a small amount of money, they will be in charge of their own business and know that they will cherish and maintain their care during use. They will prepare for site selection from now on," said Wu Song.

Wu Song smelled the smell of business opportunities. If you find a river with stable water flow to build a canal and drive the mill, you can build a large-scale flour mill and build a flour mill with considerable benefits. You should know that although rice is abundant in the north, wheat is still the main food, and wheat needs to be ground to be eaten.

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!