Free Web NovelChapter 440: Chapter 231: Pigs’ Snacks (2)
Farmers took these "lucky words" very seriously. It was one thing not to offer any, but she had gone and said something unlucky instead. If Uncle Zhang heard, he’d surely scold her for being ’a young’un with no filter’!
Seeing her look of regret, Zhang Huai chuckled. "It’s just a few words. Whether the fields do well or not isn’t decided by a single sentence, is it?"
After speaking, he glanced at the sky. The sun had long since set, and the fields were no longer baking hot. A light breeze carried a refreshing coolness, and wisps of cooking smoke were already rising above the village. "We should head back," he said to the other two. "It’s time for dinner. Besides, the mosquitoes are thick in the paddies. Juhua, you shouldn’t have come along—you’ll get eaten alive."
He glanced toward the mountains. ’Once autumn arrives,’ he thought, ’I’ll be able to come and go with Qingmu and Juhua. But for now, we have to go our separate ways.’
Juhua nodded. Tiny insects danced above the paths between the paddies. Suddenly, she no longer found her clothes so cumbersome. She was grateful to be bundled up so tightly; if her arms and legs were bare, the results would be too horrible to look at!
Qingmu took a few steps and asked casually, "How come you’re the one checking the rice seedlings today? Where’s Uncle Zhang?"
Walking behind Juhua, Zhang Huai replied, "My dad and mom are both out cutting grass." He thought for a moment, then added, "For the pigs. But they’re not just cutting wild greens, they’re cutting fresh grass too."
Qingmu asked in surprise, "Your family only has five pigs. Aren’t the acorns enough for them?"
Zhang Huai shook his head. "That’s not it. I’m doing it to build up fertilizer. Of course, it’s also for the pigs. I regularly cut fresh grass for them to chew on, sort of like giving them snacks. I don’t give them any less of their regular feed. They chew half and trample the other half. At night, we clean it all out along with the manure and dump it into the compost pit. Once this rice is harvested, we’ll spread it all on the fields. Otherwise, if you plant two crops of rice a year, the soil just can’t keep up."
Qingmu’s eyes lit up. "That’s a great idea! I was already planning to cut grass for compost, but having the pigs trample all over it first is even better. It’s easy enough to enrich the soil for the winter crop; after the autumn harvest, you can just chop up the rice straw and let it rot in the fields until spring. But after harvesting the early rice, you have to turn the soil and transplant the new seedlings right away. You can’t use straw then. You need to have fertilizer ready to go well in advance."
Juhua also thought it was a good idea, but she asked doubtfully, "But wouldn’t your manure pit have to be huge to hold all of that?"
Zhang Huai smiled. "You have to clean out the compost pit every so often. Then you burn some rice straw and dried leaves, mix it all up with clods of dirt, and let it combine. Only then is it ready to use. You can’t just throw the raw stuff onto the fields."
Qingmu chuckled. "That’s basically making enriched soil. In the past, when we didn’t have fertilizer, we’d just burn some plant matter for ash, mix it with dirt clods, and use that to grow wheat. With all this extra effort, Huai Zi is adding pig manure and green manure to the mix. It can only be better!"
’Everyone has their own way of doing things,’ Juhua thought. The biggest challenge with growing two rice crops a year was always the fear that the soil would give out. If you ruined the fields after just two years, you’d want to cry. But this method seemed like a viable solution.
Zhang Huai then said to Juhua and Qingmu, "I haven’t been doing this for very long, but I think it’s a good method. Forget the fertilizer for a moment, just having the pigs chew on grass all day has its own benefits. I think they’re much more energetic. They seem livelier than when they just ate and slept all day. They’re always grunting happily."
It suddenly dawned on Juhua—’This is just increasing the pigs’ activity level!’ Some people raised their pigs free-range to make the meat more delicious, letting them run around outside all day and nibble on grass. Those pigs were certainly more energetic, and their meat had a different flavor than that from pigs that were simply fattened up.
She turned back to Zhang Huai and smiled. "Huai Zi, that’s a good ’snack’ you’re feeding them. It’s a shame you don’t have enough space. Otherwise, the best thing would be to fence off a large area and let the pigs roam in there. But having them chew on grass like this is a good alternative."
Zhang Huai nodded. "When I saw how much more energetic they got from chewing grass, I considered turning the old house’s foundation into a pigpen after we move. But then I realized that wouldn’t be good. It would be too much of a hassle to clean. Would I have to scrape the ground clean every single day? If I didn’t, you wouldn’t be able to set foot in there after a few days. So I figured, forget it. It’s better to just be diligent and bring the grass back for them to chew."
Qingmu was fascinated by this and stopped walking—they were approaching the spot where Zhang Huai would part ways with them. "If they’re chewing grass all day, it must fill them up a little. Does that mean you can give them less regular feed?" he asked.
Zhang Huai stopped as well and grinned. "Well, I haven’t cut back on their food. Why else would I call the grass a snack? They eat their fill of regular feed, so chewing the grass is just for fun. I’ve seen them. They’ll chew a bit, swallow some of the wild greens, and spit out the tougher grass bits. I just dump a pile of grass in the pen and let them root through it, chewing and OINK-ing away. They only stop when they get tired of chewing."
Juhua laughed. "That’s the best part—it gives them something to do. Otherwise, the little guys would just eat and sleep all day and wouldn’t be nearly as lively."
Qingmu nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. Still, I don’t think it would hurt to reduce their regular feed a little. If they’re not full, they’ll just naturally eat more of the grass."
Zhang Huai said with a wide grin, "I’m just worried the little fellas would be unhappy. We’re going to eat their meat, so we should indulge them a bit, right? Besides, I want to make more fertilizer. If the pigs ate all the grass, what would be left to compost? I just want to toss the grass in the pen and have them help trample it so it rots faster."
Juhua and Qingmu couldn’t help but laugh at that.
After a bit more lighthearted chatter, the three of them parted ways and headed home.
On the way, Qingmu said to Juhua, "That’s a pretty good idea. We should start cutting some grass and tossing it in our pigpen, too. Just like Huai Zi said, let the pigs help trample it down and give them something to chew on to keep their mouths busy."
Juhua smiled. "It’s a good idea, of course, but it’s also more work. We have more fields than Huai Zi’s family, so I’m afraid we’ll be even busier."(To be continued. If you like this work, please consider supporting it with recommendation votes and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
