May 1st, the weather is getting hotter and the crops are growing faster.
The Vine Tribe's cultivated land has reached thirty acres. With extremely primitive tools, it is already quite strenuous for a dozen people to take care of thirty acres of farmland.
Therefore, Jiang Xuan no longer lets the Wanderer continue to cultivate new land, as long as these thirty acres are well planted.
"These grasses, along with plant ash, dung, crushed bones, and pond mud, pile them all together, press them tight, and ferment them for half a month. Ferment them thoroughly as fertilizer."
"Whenever you find worms inside the fertilizer pile, the fertilizer is ready to use."
In the fields, Jiang Xuan personally taught the Wanderers how to compost. Even when facing the foul-smelling dung, he remained unperturbed.
Composting is a major secret to farming.
The slash-and-burn method yields low output. Besides the lack of management, insufficient fertilizer is also a crucial reason.
Plant ash is good, but relying only on plant ash to grow crops is definitely not enough.
Composting, mixing various materials together, fermenting them into nutrient-rich organic fertilizer, is very beneficial to crop growth.
Compost materials are very broad and easy to obtain, such as fodder, plant ash, dung, food scraps, animal bones can all be used.
Gan Song remembered Jiang Xuan's words in his heart.
Since losing an arm, hunting has become difficult for him; even simple snare traps are hard to set with only one hand.
But now, he has found something he can do well, which is farming.
Though he only has one hand, through effort he can skillfully master farming techniques and work as much as anyone else.
Gradually, he came to love farming.
The feeling of clearing land, planting crops, watching them grow bit by bit, mature and harvest, fascinated Gan Song deeply.
Gan Song confidently said, "Chief, rest assured, we will definitely make the best fertilizer!"
"Hmm, work hard, if we harvest more grain in autumn, everyone can be well-fed in winter without going hungry."
Jiang Xuan gave a few more instructions then turned and left.
"Let's get to work!"
Gan Song called out and then started gathering various materials for composting following Jiang Xuan's methods.
A busy scene unfolded along the fields.
Jiang Xuan walked to the creek, found a large patch of tall reeds, chose intact ones and cut them down with a Stone Knife.
Actually, reeds are best harvested in autumn, as they are strongest after the new reeds blossom.
But Jiang Xuan couldn't wait, so he could only cut some of last year's reeds, planning to weave several cooling mats.
As the weather becomes hotter, placing a mattress on the bamboo bed is no longer suitable.
Yet directly sleeping on bamboo beds is not comfortable, as the bamboo isn't smooth and it pokes when lying down.
Jiang Xuan considered and decided to weave some cooling mats.
Bamboo can also be woven into cooling mats with great effect but requires splitting bamboo into thin strips, which is not easy without suitable tools.
Reeds are different.
They are softer and tougher. Cutting and weaving are much easier than with bamboo.
After Jiang Xuan chopped for a while, Chi Shao came to help too.
She always silently guarded by Jiang Xuan's side, keeping alert for potential dangers.
"Chirp chirp chirp..."
The weather was hot; in the grass by the creek, many unknown little bugs kept chirping.
"Sister, that's enough, don't cut anymore."
Jiang Xuan cut a large bundle of reeds, Chi Shao did the same, and together they twisted the reeds into simple grass ropes, bundled them up, and carried them back to the bamboo house area.
"Plop!"
The large bundle of reeds was thrown on the ground, Chi Shao wiped the sweat from her cheek, curious at last: "Xuan, why did you cut so much grass?"
"To weave cooling mats."
"Cooling mats?"
"It's a pad for sleeping on beds. The beast hide is too hot to sleep on, I want to make cooler pads."
"Ah, I see." Chi Shao nodded; indeed, in this weather, it's not suitable to sleep on beast hides.
"Sister, let's first immerse these reeds in the pond."
"Okay!"
The two carried the reeds to the pond, then tossed the whole bundle into the water to soak.
This was because the reeds they harvested were last year's old reeds, completely dry and brittle, breaking easily.
Soaking in water lets the dry reeds hydrate and regain flexibility, making them better for weaving.
After submerging the reeds, they went on with other tasks.
More than two hours later, Jiang Xuan returned to the pond, pulled out a reed segment, bent it slightly, found it had softened, then retrieved the two bundles of reeds, bringing them back to the open space in front of the bamboo house.
He untied the grass ropes on the reeds, found a flat stone and a piece of wood, placed the reeds on it, and started pounding them flat one by one.
"Thump thump thump..."
As Jiang Xuan kept pounding, each reed stalk got flattened, turning into flat strips.
After finishing her own tasks, Chi Shao came over to help.
Gou Teng, Shi Qiu, and Nan Xing also joined in to lend a hand.
When all the reed stalks were flattened, Jiang Xuan began weaving them.
Weaving a beautiful, fine, patterned reed cooling mat is intricate and time-consuming.
But flattening whole reed stalks and directly weaving them into mats is much easier, doesn't take long, though they may look rather rough.
Jobs like weaving were done by the tribe members since childhood, everyone was quite skilled.
Jiang Xuan first used a flattened reed as a weft, then tied individual reed stalks vertically and evenly to the weft for warp.
Afterward, they only needed to weave each reed stalk continuously through these warps, tighten them, and a full reed mat could be made.
With the efforts of five people, they wove five single reed mats from the reeds they brought back in just one afternoon.
On the following day, these mats were dried under the sun for half a day.
Afterwards, Jiang Xuan and others replaced the beast hide mattresses on the bamboo beds with these mats.
At night, Jiang Xuan lay on his bamboo bed, the cool mat beneath offered excellent breathability, lying down felt neither chilly nor stuffy, very comfortable.
"Feels pretty good."
Jiang Xuan revealed a contented smile; willing to work diligently, one could use their hands to gradually improve life.
The three youths were also very satisfied with the new mats; they were comfortable to sleep on.
Chi Shao lay in her little room, stroked the mat beneath her, and murmured quietly: "Xuan has grown, he's more capable than me."
With a gratifying smile, Chi Shao soon drifted into dreams, filled with delightful reverie all night.