Read I Was Reincarnated as a Poor Farmer in a Different World, so I Decided to Make Bricks to Build a Castle

442 - - new and variety improvement

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"So, what can I do for you, brother Ars?"

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"Sorry to call you all the way out here, Kyle. Actually, there's something I could really use your help with. It's all about rice breeding.

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"Rice is the grain that brother Ars brought back from the East, right?　If it's the variety that was grown over there, why not just grow it?"

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"Hmmm, well, I'm going to try to grow them as they are. Well, I'm going to try to grow them as they are, but I'm not sure I'm satisfied with this variety yet. I'd like to make better rice if possible."

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　The Nelson swamps in the Valles territory under Vargas.

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　That's where I called Kyle.

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　The purpose, as I told Kyle, was to improve the breed of rice.

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　The rice I got in the East is closer to Japanese rice than to Thai rice or other varieties, according to what I have actually tasted.

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　When I cooked the rice in a pot-type magical tool, I could make fluffy and delicious rice.

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　However, having memories of my previous life, I was not completely satisfied with the taste.

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　It tasted more like ancient rice than the modern rice I usually ate in my previous life.

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　Maybe the rice in this world has not been improved that much.

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　Perhaps, not only the taste but also the yield per acre is low.

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　So, since we are going to grow rice, we decided to try to improve rice varieties.

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　Since it is cold in this area, it would be better not only in terms of taste and yield, but also in terms of resistance to cold.

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"Breeding.... Didn't Ars do a lot of things back in the old days when it was still a village called Barca?　I've heard Brother Hector say many times that Brother Ars has been able to reformulate hatzkah and other vegetables and wheat and other things to make them better."

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"Yes. I used to do a lot of research. I didn't have much time for it after I became a knight and got my own territory. Now, I guess my brother Hector and his men do it for him.

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"Then shouldn't you ask your brother Hector to do it instead of me?"

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"No matter how much Brother Hector likes farming, he wouldn't know anything about rice he doesn't know at all. Besides, I personally would like to eat good rice as soon as possible. That's why I have no choice but to ask Kyle. Will you help us?"

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"Well, in that case, let's get this over with. We have other work to do. Spirit, please.

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　I ask Kyle to help me with rice breeding.

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　Kyle agrees.

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　Then Kyle summons a genie.

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　The spirit that Kyle summons is different from the Fontana family's "ice spirit summoner" that I use.

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　Kyle summoned the spirit of a plant, a wood nymph, whom he had contracted directly with in the forest north of Vulcania.

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　This wood nymph manipulates plants in general, and even has a spell called "Guardian Plant" in her magic as a Reed family.

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　Kyle can make the grass around him grow in no time just by asking the wood nymph.

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　This time, he asks Kyle's wood nymph to help him improve the variety.

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　Here's how it works.

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　I plant rice in my rice paddy, and Kyle orders the tree spirit to make it grow rapidly.

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　Then, carefully selected rice paddy from the harvested rice is planted again and grows rapidly.

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　By repeating this process, the breeding process that would normally take several years to several decades, or even longer, can be completed in a short period of time.

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"But then, how about I create a new magic for you?　I wonder if creating a spell like [Rapid Growth] would increase the yield?"

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"...... No, I don't think we should. It would kill the land."

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　Kyle suggests creating a new magic.

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　It is true that Kyle, who has made a contract with a wood nymph, might be able to create a magic to make plants grow quickly.

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　However, I reject the proposal.

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　Kyle's tree spirit can make plants grow rapidly, but that is all.

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　Plants absorb nutrients and water from the land as they grow.

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　Even if a tree spirit can make a plant grow rapidly, it still loses the nutrients of the land.

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　Even if the magical power of the spirits can help once or twice, it would be a bad idea to do it over and over again.

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　Even if we could speed up the harvest by magic, we might not be able to grow the next crop if the land dies.

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　People are selfish, and if they know they can do something, they will keep on doing it even if it will eventually strangle them.

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　If this happens, there is a possibility that the land of Fontana will become a desert in the not-so-distant future.

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　That is a future I do not want.

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　But that will not happen with this breeding.

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　Because it's not just Kyle who's going to do it, it's me too.

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　With my magic [soil improvement], I can restore the power of the soil in an instant.

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　Even if Kyle's tree spirit makes the rice grow rapidly, the land will probably not die.

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"So, I pour water into the rice field I [improved the soil] and plant rice. Kyle will then let the rice grow on the trees. Then we'll harvest it and plant the next one with the seed rice we get from it."

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"How do you sort the seed rice?"

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"Yes. The main purpose is taste, but it takes time to eat every time to check the taste. We can throw the seed rice into the salt water and sort out the heavy ones that sink to the bottom, and then use the ones with the highest amount of magic power. Oh, and I'll summon the spirits too.

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"Huh?　Brother Ars summons you, that means you're an ice spirit, right?　What are you doing?"

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"I don't know how effective it is, but it regulates the ambient temperature when the rice plant grows rapidly. We want the rice varieties to be cold hardy enough to bear even in a cool summer. Well, before that, Fontana is cold."

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"I see. So, this is about as ready as we're going to get, huh?　It's time to let it grow for the first time."

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"Hey, good luck, Kyle."

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　And so, while Vargas and the others were making rice paddies in the swamp, Kyle and I set to work on improving the rice variety.

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　After many days of work, we had succeeded in producing a new breed of rice that was larger, more resistant to the cold, and had a higher yield than the rice we had obtained in the East.

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　Thus, the cultivation of a new variety of rice, which should be called Barca rice, began in the new rice paddies that were being developed in the wetlands.

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