Baskets of white-flowered cocoons filled the warehouse. Wang Siniang and Li Zheng were from the south of the Yangtze River. They had both seen silkworm flowers, but they had never seen silkworms raised so well and smoothly this time.
The discarded dead silkworms and diseased silkworms are very small and can be ignored. Wang Siniang has raised silkworms for old. According to her experience, at least 10% or 20% will be lost every silkworm season. They did not expect that the method taught by Miss Li was so effective! Not to mention
The quality of the silkworm cocoons collected is even more amazing. According to general terms, the silkworms raised this time are at least 12% or more - in previous years, a 70% or 80% success rate was considered a very good year.
The master's silkworm breeding is good! Miss Li's teaching methods are also good! Now they finally have an explanation! Wang Siniang and Li Zheng both breathed a sigh of relief. They both know that their outstanding achievements this time will be very important for their future in the villa.
Influenced by his status. Especially Li Zheng, who was one of the six students taught by Zhao Yingong at the beginning. Later, He Ning was parachuted in and became the "Seven Gods". They were the master's personal students.
The status in the villa is different from that of ordinary slaves. Everyone knows that they will be the master's confidant in the future. Therefore, on top of their own sense of superiority, they also have a strong sense of uneasiness. The sense of competition is particularly strong.
When the spring silkworms were harvested, Wang Siniang gave the silkworm ladies a holiday so that the villagers could go home. The slaves rested for a few days to prepare for the upcoming second silkworm raising.
Sericulture can actually be done multiple times a year. In some places with superior water and heat conditions and sufficient supply of mulberry leaves, you can even raise silkworms for eight seasons a year. Considering the climate conditions in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, four or five seasons a year was not a problem. In
In Huzhou, there are also farmers who raise five-season silkworms.
However, in actual sericulture, farmers rarely raise silkworms for multiple seasons, and most of them only raise silkworms for one season. After the raw silk appears in June, the sericulture work comes to an end. On the one hand, the economic scale of small farmers is limited. Farmers have to take into account planting and other sideline industries.
However, sericulture requires a lot of manpower, and continuous sericulture for a long time requires labor that small farmers cannot support. On the other hand, it is also the most important problem. There is no clear concept of disinfection in indigenous sericulture, although there is also cleaning
Measures such as painting silkworm chambers with lime water, but the cause of silkworm disease is not clear. The disinfection of silkworm chambers is not enough. After the temperature rises, viruses and bacteria become more active. The chance of getting silkworm disease increases significantly.
In addition, it also involves the temperature and humidity control required for sericulture. Spring is neither cold nor hot, with moderate humidity and dryness. In summer and autumn, this natural advantage no longer exists, requiring manual intervention. Investment in sericulture technology and capital
They all have very high requirements. This is difficult for most sericulture farmers who are small farmers to achieve.
In Li Yao'er's view, farmers in Jiangnan generally only raise silkworms for one season, which is a waste of mulberry resources. Considering the water and heat conditions in Jiangnan, raising silkworms for three seasons is a safer approach.
When Shen's family started collecting cocoons, the silkworms of Shen Kaibao's family had not yet "went up the mountain". The whole family was struggling. Seeing that the silkworm babies' bodies became transparent and began to stop eating, the whole family's hearts were lifted.
This year's success or failure depends on this. If the silkworm flowers are not good, the land taken out will have to be named Cao, let alone owe Mr. Zhao a huge debt! What can I pay back to others? Shen Kaibao is so anxious that he falls asleep every time he thinks about this.
Can't sleep.
A brazier was set up under the "mountain shed", and the cooked silkworms originally on the silkworm foil were moved to the "mountain shed". Fire was used below to urge the silkworms. When the silkworms were heated on the hill shed, they climbed up the clusters made of straw. The house Inside, there was the sound of crumbs and crumbs.
This is the first step for silkworms to make cocoons. Silkworms that cannot get up the cluster are not healthy and cannot make cocoons - even if they can get up, they will sometimes just crawl around and just refuse to make cocoons. At this time, they have nothing but thoughts. Apart from praying silently, I can only leave everything to luck.
The humidity in the silkworm room is very high - the silkworms have to excrete silkworm urine before going up the mountain, so there is a strange wet smell in the air, but this is also a sign that the silkworms have matured and are about to form cocoons, so everyone is very happy. I hope to have a good year this year.
Three days after "going up the mountain", the engine was turned off as usual. Shen Kaibao opened the corner of the reed curtain with trembling hands and took a look. His heart was pounding. The whole family gathered behind him, holding their breath and concentrating, not even daring to breathe heavily.
Fortunately! The straw clusters were all white, and at first glance they looked like eight points, maybe nine points. This was a rare good year in recent years! Shen Kaibao's family was immediately filled with laughter, and now they are all happy My mind was calmed down. The whole month of suffering from hunger, insomnia, debt and interest payments was finally justified.
The same laughter was heard everywhere in the village. This year's silkworm flowers were very good, and most families could pick seven to eight cents. A few, like Shen Kaibaobao's house, could pick nine cents.
Every one of the breathless farmers who were forced by famine and debt breathed a sigh of relief. This year has finally been dealt with. The riverside and rice fields are now full of women and children. These people are thinner than a month ago. They were tired a lot, their eyes were sunken, and their throats were feeling hoarse. However, the sense of relief made their emotions soaring.
Everyone is thinking about their plans after collecting the cocoons. Naturally, some of the cocoons must be returned to the rice and mulberry leaves borrowed from Mr. Zhao - this year, thanks to Mr. Zhao, otherwise the remaining cocoons will be their own. It's really hard to say.
The next step is naturally the highlight of women - reeling. Reel out the white silk and sell it to silk customers in exchange for silver and copper coins: the debts owed must be repaid, and the jackets and summer clothes in the pawn shop must also be repaid. Redeem it... Housewives and men in each family are calculating the necessary expenses to see which ones must be spent and which ones can be postponed.
Duoduoniang also came back from the Shen family, and her face was full of joy. Although she had worked really hard this month, the one or two silver wages she had just earned was heavy in her arms. She also brought back four-color thank-you gifts from Wang Siniang, and she was very happy. It was some "delicious food" that made several children in the family as happy as monkeys unlocking the door. There was also a piece of Songjiang cotton cloth.
Duo Duo Niang’s silkworm flowers were not bad either, and she collected eight cents. In addition, Duo Duo Niang ate all the food from other people this month, and even got back a tael of silver, so she immediately became the object of jealousy among her neighbors. From raising silkworms, whether the income is good or bad depends on God's will. Is it better to help others raise silkworms and make stable money?
Every household brought out their silk carts, and the women started making silk. The sound of silk reeling machines and the heat of boiling water pots were everywhere in the village. It was a lively and happy scene.
However, everyone's happiness did not last long. The first batch of "silk cocoon guests" arriving along Tang Road brought bad news.
The first silk cocoon guest to arrive was "Yellow Pigtail". He was sick when he was a child, and his family was afraid that they would not be able to support him, so he left a pigtail on the back of his head and did not cut it off until after the "marriage". However, this nickname But he always stayed.
He does not have a silk shop himself, but makes a living every year by slicing raw silk from the cocoons that several silk shops in Hangzhou buy nearby. He is very familiar with the people in the village. He is a pretty good person, although he inevitably cheats people. , but not too much. If a family is in trouble and really can't get through it, he will be willing to lend a penny and a half of debt to the family without collateral for emergency purposes.
The person "Huang Xiaozhai" is most familiar with in the village is Shen Kaibao's family. In the past, when he went to the village to collect cocoons and silk, he would always stay at his house. This time, he brought four-color water gifts as usual.
"Kaibao, are you selling cocoons this year or making silk at home?" Huang Xiao braid pulled Shen Kaibao to sit under a willow tree next to the vegetable patch behind the Shen family's house and asked quietly.
"Of course silk is sold. How much can silkworm cocoons be sold for?" Shen Kaibao said disapprovingly. Selling silkworm cocoons is only done by people who don't have enough manpower at home.
"The market is not going well this year." Huang Xiaozhai patted his thigh and sighed, lowering his voice and said, "You probably don't know yet, but this year the city's government office put out a notice saying that this year's silk cocoons -"
"I know this. How is the market going?" Shen Kaibao was already shocked. He had always had a bad premonition about this year's raw silk market. The fatigue of the silkworm season and the joy of the harvest once diluted this worry. This year Huang Xiaobian's words made his whole body tense again.
Huang Xiao braid sighed again: "It's so bad! It's so bad that everyone has no way to survive!"
He is literate and often travels around the city. His information is much more detailed than that of Shen Kaibao. This year, in the name of relief, he has contracted out all the raw silk and cocoon sales in the province to the Famine Relief Bureau, so all silk cocoon shops have to come to the relief. It can be purchased only after obtaining an approval from the Waste Management Bureau.
"...Brother, think about it, on the one hand, the money for famine relief is coming from here, and on the other hand, from the magistrate to the committee members of the famine relief bureau, no one should get their hands wet. Think about it, can the market be better this year? Come on?"
Therefore, this year, colleagues in the industry discussed together and set a public price. All companies, large and small, as well as the "silk customers" who went to the countryside, had to purchase according to this public price. They could only keep it low and not raise it.
Shen Kaibao heard that people were about to hang up, and he asked anxiously: "Don't be so pretentious, what is the price this year?"
"Twenty-five taels of silver per load of silk."
"What?!" Shen Kaibao almost jumped up: the market price has dropped by more than half compared to last year. His heart suddenly sank to the bottom and his mind became groggy. "This is asking us silkworm farmers to hang themselves!"
"Brother! Don't be anxious!" Huang Xiao braid said quickly, "There is nothing we can do about this..."
Shen Kaibao didn't know how he got home. A heavy feeling of uneasiness enveloped the originally happy village. After Huang Xiaobin, several more silk guests came, and their words were similar to Huang Xiaobin's. This price is not even willing to be increased by a penny. No matter whether you beg or scold, these people will stick to the original price without changing it. They are also "strong" in saying: I will increase it by one, two or two for you. Two, what shall we eat? The silk business will be difficult to do this year!