All animals and plants had their own specific living environment. If they were placed in an environment that was not suitable for them, it would severely affect their growth and even cause them to mutate. For example, oranges were a good example. After the test of time, oranges that grew in the warm areas in the south were still oranges, but oranges that lived in the cold areas in the north had become oranges.
Zizi, also known as smelly tangerine, was actually a different kind of plant. It didn't belong to the same kind of plant as oranges, but the two were very similar in many aspects. It looked more like they developed from the same plant. In the field of botany, oranges and zizi belonged to the rutaceae, and they were also plants of the citrus subfamily. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that they developed from the same plant.
In other words, oranges and oranges had developed from the same plant a long time ago. Their origins were the same, and they were both plants of the Citrus subfamily.
This mutation was forced under extreme survival conditions. If it was not changed, it would be a dead end. There was no better way.
Of course, if it was through human intervention, this mutation would be faster and more effective. After all, human intelligence was very high, and they could make the mutation of plants and animals in a direction that was beneficial to human beings. For example, the dwarf date palm tree in front of him was very good. It was convenient for people to pick the fruit, and at the same time, the yield was higher. After all, the nutrients absorbed by the trunk were given to the fruit, so how could the fruit not grow quickly and well?
However, Ang Lee knew that such a date palm tree could only grow in the tropical desert. If it was transported to Chang 'an, it would never grow well. Even if it could barely survive, it would be a big problem whether it could bear fruit. Even if it bore fruit, the size and number of the fruit might be very small, and there might be a phenomenon of sour fruit. For example, oranges could not survive well in the north of the Huai River. Even if they could survive, the fruit would not taste good.
Since the fruit was not delicious, there was no need to bring it back. If he wanted to eat date palm, he could go directly to the market to buy it. There were many date palm vendors on the streets of the Tang dynasty. After the railway and sea route to the west were opened in the Tang dynasty, commercial transportation had become extremely convenient. In the future, newly picked dates from Egypt could be transported to Chang 'an in a dozen days.
However, Li An felt that Osman's subordinates had good intentions. If he were to reject them directly, he would feel that it would be inappropriate. It was fine to accept some of them, even if they could not survive in Chang 'an City.
"Okay! Since you are sincere, I will accept it. However, I will not return to Chang 'an now. I will go to Spain first. I will prepare it when I come back. "
Ang Lee accepted the kindness of Osman's subordinate.
"Okay, Assistant Li, don't worry, I will prepare the best date palm tree for you... I will send it to the north of the Red Sea.
You will send it to the steam steamer, "Osman's subordinate said.
It could be seen that Osman's subordinate was very considerate, which made Ang Lee very satisfied.
"Okay, I will leave this matter to you."
Li An turned back to look at his subordinates and instructed.
Ang Lee did not need to wait in person for a small matter like receiving gifts. He could let his subordinate do it. It was not a difficult matter anyway, and his subordinate was fully capable of doing it. Ang Lee had more important things to do, so he did not have much time to waste on such a small matter.
Since he had come all the way here, he could not just take a look and leave! Ang Lee felt that it was necessary to stay in the date palm garden for a while to personally pick the dates. Since he was already here, it would be inappropriate to leave after taking a look.
Ang Lee asked Osman's subordinates to prepare the tools for picking, which were baskets and so on. Ang Lee himself had already prepared gloves and sleeve protectors.
It was impossible for ordinary people to prepare gloves when picking dates. It would be too pretentious and would be ridiculed. However, Ang Lee was of noble status, and Li Xiaolu was a delicate beauty. Therefore, no one dared to say anything. In addition to Ang Lee and Osman, many of his subordinates and Osman's subordinates also accompanied them to pick dates. Anyway, these dates were not worth much. Moreover, Ang Lee could also pay for them.
There were many pairs of gloves, but Ang Lee only asked his subordinates to take two pairs of gloves. He and Li Xiaolu each had a set. The others who accompanied them to pick dates could only use their hands. Anyway, dates were not prickly. Using their hands directly would only make them dirty, but there was nothing wrong with it.
Because the date palm trees here were very short, not much different from a person's height, so there was no need to use any tools to raise the height. They could directly pick dates on foot. However, because the distance between the date palm trees was relatively narrow, the passageway was somewhat narrow. There were many places where people could not directly pass through. They needed to bend down and go under the trees, which often made their clothes dirty.
As a farmer who made a living by planting date palm trees, it was normal to dirty their clothes in order to pick dates. It was not a big deal. It was a symbol of labor. For Ang Lee, who did not need to work and had a high status, it was unnecessary to dirty his clothes. Li Xiaolu was a dancer. She was also a person who did not work. Moreover, she was a person who loved to look beautiful. She was unwilling to dirty her clothes in order to pick dates.
Two people who did not want to dirty their clothes picked dates together in the dense date palm forest. It was a perfect match. At least, they were the same kind of people.
Of course, the position of Osman's subordinates was not low. They usually did not work, so they were reluctant to pass through the branches. Therefore, like Ang Lee, they chose to pick the dates in the wider path. They chose to give up the places where they needed to bend down to enter. Anyway, as long as they could pick dates, it was enough. They were just accompanying Ang Lee to play. There was no need to work too hard. If their arms were scratched by the branches and their faces were covered with mud, it would not be worth it.
The date palm trees were artificially planted, so they were all in rows. Each row of date palm trees was almost in a straight line. The distance between the trees was very short. Some were as long as a person, and some were directly nailed together. There was no way to pass through them normally.
The distance between the rows was slightly larger, but there were also differences. Some of the date palm trees were separated by a tree, and some were separated by two or three trees. Therefore, the spacing was still very different.
Of course, most of the spacing was relatively small. Only a few spacing was relatively large. This was also a compromise designed for the convenience of harvesting and the increase of production.
If the spacing was large, the number of fruit trees planted would inevitably be small. If the spacing was small, it would be very troublesome to pick the dates.
After all, with so many fruit trees, it was certainly not possible to always pick them with a basket. In order to facilitate the picking and transportation, vehicles must be used. The passage of vehicles had requirements for the road. If it was too narrow, the vehicles could not pass through. Therefore, every few rows of distance, there must be a wider gap to facilitate the passage of vehicles.
When it was necessary to pick the dates, the family could divide the work. Each person was responsible for a gap, and one person was responsible for pushing the cart. The pluckers on both sides would first put the collected dates into the basket in their hands. After the basket was full, they would pass through the gaps of the date palm trees and pour the dates into the cart. Then, they would go back and continue to pick. In this way, they could pick a sufficient number of dates with the greatest efficiency. It was the most effective way and the most efficient way.
Of course, in the entire date palm forest, there must be a wider road. After all, the road just now was only for a small cart to pass through. A large number of dates still needed a larger vehicle. In addition, the main road needed to be double the width of the vehicle so that the vehicles could be staggered when busy, further increasing the efficiency of picking.
When Ang Lee came, he saw that the farmers here hired a lot of people to work. They also prepared a lot of vehicles. There were large horse-drawn carts with a large transport capacity, and there were also manually pushed small carts.
Generally, farmers with small plantations would choose to pick the dates themselves, but farmers with larger plantations were different. They couldn't be busy by themselves. They had to hire someone to pick the dates. As long as the salary was lower than the profit from selling dates, they would consider it.
If the price of dates fell sharply, and the labor cost of hiring someone to pick the dates was higher than the profit from selling dates, all the people who planted dates would not hire anyone to pick them. They would rather let the dates rot on the trees than choose to pick them. After all, no one was willing to do things without benefits.
The production of this era was still relatively small, so the situation of a bumper crop price plummeting was relatively rare. In general, the price was relatively stable.
The reason why the price often plummeted in later generations was that the technical conditions were too superior. The output of one mu of land could reach ten times the output of this era, and the labor efficiency increased by dozens of times. As a result, the output of crops planted by one hundred people in later generations could easily exceed the output of one million people in this era. Even in different countries in later generations, the gap in labor productivity was amazing.
For example, in a country on the other side of the ocean, two million people could feed the entire country. The proportion of the population was less than one percent. Moreover, the food produced was also very abundant. It could be called a model of modern farming. In some countries, more than half of the people were farming, but it still couldn't fill the stomachs of the people. The gap between the two was obvious.
Of course, for many countries with a large population, if mechanized farming was hastily implemented, suddenly hundreds of millions of farmers would become millions of farmers. Then, what would the extra hundreds of millions of farmers do? Would they let them starve? What if there was a peasant uprising? This was a very realistic problem. They couldn't just look at what others were doing and do what they were doing. They needed to adjust step by step and gradually reduce the number of farmers to avoid causing unrest in the whole society.
The Tang Empire's agriculture was gradually promoting mechanization, which greatly reduced the need for agricultural labor. For this reason, more surplus labor could be liberated and let these labor forces enter the industrial production, thus promoting the industrial modernization of the Tang Empire.
This process was promoted step by step, not overnight. Because of the insufficient production capacity of agricultural machinery, the liberated labor force was not too much. The development of industrialization could completely digest this surplus labor force, so they could easily survive.
Ang Lee chose a gap that could allow a small cart to pass through. Walking here was very smooth, and the branches would not scratch his clothes. Moreover, he could also pick his favorite date palm.
Most people would pick the date palms one by one. After transporting them back, they would slowly process them. This was the fastest way to harvest them. However, Li An wasn't a laborer hired by the landlord. Of course, he didn't need to pick them as hard as he could. Instead, he picked them selectively. He specifically picked the biggest and most plump dates. As for the ones that didn't look good, had bad shapes, or had bug eyes, of course, he wouldn't pick them.
Although they were all fruits on the same tree, there were still some differences in size. It was impossible for every date palm to grow exactly the same. There were no identical leaves in the world. Similarly, there were no identical dates in the world. Even if they were of the same species, the fruits on the same date palm tree were of different sizes. There would always be some differences. Of course, the differences wouldn't be too big. The big ones wouldn't be as big as a watermelon and the small ones would be smaller than a rice grain. This was impossible. Except for a few fruits that hadn't grown, the smallest normal fruit was half the size of the largest one. That was to say, the difference between a bigger and a smaller fruit was at most two times, and it was impossible to have more than two times the size of the largest one.
A date palm tree could hang about five or six bunches of fruit. The bigger ones could have more than a dozen bunches. Each bunch could have about a few hundred dates, but definitely not more than a thousand. The total output of a tree should be dozens of catties, and the bigger ones should not exceed a hundred catties. However, there were many date palm trees in the orchard. If all of them were added up, it would be a huge amount. It would take a lot of trucks to carry them out.
Ang Lee paced around and observed, while Li Xiaolu next to him held a basket, ready to listen to Ang Lee's orders at any time.
"Assistant Minister Li, there are more red and big dates on this bunch. Let's start picking from here!"
Li Xiaolu said with a smile.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Well, since the little beauty values this bunch, let's pick them together. Let's start."
After that, he used his gloved hand to look for the biggest and reddest date among the bunch of dates. After finding it, he gently twisted it off and put it into the small basket on Li Xiaolu's chest. It was the harvest of the harvest.
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