"Is this the watermelon seedling?" Wang Gongchen couldn't help but come forward to see. "I heard that Deputy Envoy Li came back from the Khitan and brought some watermelon seeds, most of which were given to the county marquis to try the seeds. Unexpectedly, it really sprouted."

In recent decades, the Song Dynasty has had frequent exchanges with the Khitan, and there are several envoys every year, and I have learned a lot about the situation. Many literati and ministers knew that there were watermelons in the Khitan, which were very precious fruits and vegetables. Some people also wanted to introduce them to the Song Dynasty, but they have never succeeded. In the impression of people at that time, especially in the impression of literati, this kind of thing must be planted by special people. The two countries can bring back seeds, but the farmer who cannot bring back the melons will easily cause tension in the relationship between the two countries. It is precisely because of this that Li Hong didn't care about giving the seeds to Xu Ping, and it was a matter of chance.

Unexpectedly, Xu Ping really raised the seedlings. When Wang Gongchen said, everyone came over to see him.

When Xu Ping saw several people gathered there and was amazed. He talked about the watermelon seedlings, and said helplessly: "You are wrong. It's not the time yet. Watermelons will not be able to plant seedlings until Grain Rain. When is it now? Even if you are not ripe with watermelons, you should always know other fruit gourds, and you have just started preparing to grow seedlings."

Several literati were a little embarrassed. Why did they know when to plant fruits and melons? It would be good to know the harvest and sowing season of rice and wheat. Could it be that they really become old farmers?

Wang Gongchen straightened his waist and asked Xu Ping: "Since it is not the season now, why did the farm start planting?"

"It's the first time that watermelon is planted, and I can't figure out the details, so I have to plant it first. These seedlings have been cultivated with great efforts. Do you think it's easy? If these seedlings are not a problem, they will grow strong this month, and when it comes to Grain Rain, they can sow in large quantities, so that they can be safe."

After hearing Xu Ping's words, Wang Gongchen laughed and said, "The county marquis always strives to be safe in their work and do not leak water."

Xu Ping smiled: "And not only depends on how they look, but also try whether these watermelon seedlings can be attached to other fruits and vegetables, and that's even more so."

"What to attach? Can the watermelon seedlings be attached to other fruits?" Wang Gongchen was very curious and bent down to look at the seedlings that had just been planted in the field. Sure enough, he found traces of grafting.

Xu Ping said: "The ones you looked at were attached to the gourd, and there were also those attached to the winter melon next to them. I originally wanted to try the ones attached to the cucumbers, but the shopkeepers just started doing it, but their skills were too poor and they didn't survive."

Ouyang Xiu and his friends seemed to be listening to a fantasy, and couldn't help asking, "Everything in the world has their own nature. Although I have never eaten or seen watermelons, I have also heard of it. It is not like a gourd, let alone cucumbers that are crawling on the air. These can all be linked together, so is the county marquis talking and laughing?"

Uncle Cao Ying smiled and said, "Have Uncle Yong seen a mule? The horse and donkey donkey look similar, but they can give birth to mules. Wouldn't it be even more strange?"

Mei Yaochen said: "How can I say this? Donkeys and horses look very similar, but they are different in size. Just like people are born with millions of faces, there are also differences between people in the south and north, not to mention that Kunlun slaves look different from people. From this point of view, horses and donkeys may be one of them, but they look different!"

Xu Ping waved his hand: "The further and further you talk, everything in the world has similarities, but it's just a matter of distance and relatives. Watermelon is similar to many fruits, so it's not surprising that it can be grafted. In Luoyang, Xijing, you often say that Luoyang peony is the best in the world. How did those novel peony varieties come from? It's not just selection and breeding, but also rely on grafting. Don't you know that some peony is grafted on peony? Scholars cannot read books and turn a blind eye to things outside the window, otherwise wouldn't it be funny."

Fu Bi said stupidly: "What, is there any peony grafting with peony? I have only heard of using wild peony."

Xu Ping said: "Why didn't there? I took it at home and it's growing very well!"

Fu Bi wanted to say something, but after thinking about it, shook his head, and closed his mouth. Xu Ping said that he would take it at home, so he would definitely not be wrong, so why bother to fight for these things?

In fact, this is no wonder Fu Bi and others. Although grafting technology has appeared for thousands of years in this era, it has not been systematically promoted and has been regarded as a strange thing in the eyes of many literati. Peony has been extremely precious since the Tang Dynasty, and it is the best product in Luoyang. However, it has not been many years since the real promotion and breeding of grafting. It is considered good if Fu Bi can know it.

Xu Ping also said: "Jia Siyi wrote the important techniques of Qimin, which records a variety of grafted fruit trees. In the pear-planting chapter, it is useful for mulberry trees, and jujube and pomegranate trees, and mulberry pears have the worst taste. But in fact, the old farmers said that pears are the best to take on mulberry trees. I have been an official in Lingnan for many years, and I have no chance to try it myself, and I don't know which one is right or wrong. Although we officials who are studying and serving as officials do not say that they should be as proficient in farming as old farmers, they must know the principles of these farming, otherwise they will make people laugh and lose the dignity of scholars."

Grafting is different from hybridization. Plants with very distant kinship can also be carried out. It is common for transfamily and intergenic families to be cross-genus. The plants grafted from Xu Ping in his previous life are diverse, but most of them are used for viewing like peonies. Although the fruits such as watermelon, pear and apple are also quite large, they are not worth mentioning when compared with the total amount.

This time when he returned to the capital, Xu Ping had time to sort out the agricultural knowledge he had, which was also a gift to the world. As a representative of horticulture technology, he naturally could not be careless. He just got the seeds of watermelon from Li Hong, so he started with the watermelon.

In history, horticulture technology has developed greatly since the Song Dynasty and grafting technology has also made a leap. By the Southern Song Dynasty, it was actually very mature. Unfortunately, no one has conducted systematic theoretical reviews, and later development stagnated.

When Xu Ping talked about farm books, several scholars kept silent. They claimed that they could read everything, and they all learned about all classics, history, and collections of novels and miscellaneous notes. Qi Min naturally read the skills, but he only read them. Not to mention personally verifying some of the techniques of the gatherings, they didn't even think seriously.

Xu Ping looked at the melon seedlings on the ground and said to several people: "You can't read books until you die. Reading and knowing the past and the present is not how many books you read, but to know the present to know the past. I don't even know what the world is like. Isn't it a fool to know the past and the present? Later, I became a civil servant and took charge of money and grain, but I didn't even know what the food in the field looks like. How can I adapt to local conditions and encourage farming and sericulture? Reading a lot of books and remember them well is not a skill. You have to figure out the principles in the book and understand them thoroughly. Only by reading farming is the most fundamental, and the same is true for some other things. It's not to say that you do everything yourself, but you have to figure out the principles in it. This is the most basic."

At this time, Xu Ping suddenly felt that he had become the elder of these people, and his words were quite meaningful to encourage the backwards. In fact, this is true. Xu Ping naturally reads the books that these scholars have read, which is not as hard as them, but the principles are understood more profound than them. Moreover, they refer to the knowledge of the two generations, and are willing to verify them in practice and understand them more deeply.

Finally, Xu Ping sighed: "It is always shallow to know what you know on paper. You must practice it yourself and not study hard."

The others looked at each other, only to think that this sentence was very good. I don’t know if it was a poem written by Xu Ping or if I had some feelings occasionally, but I didn’t dare to ask rashly, so I could only remember it in my heart.

Xu Ping wrote a lot of poems and famous quotes in his previous life. He could remember who said it and in which era? Some of them were so confused and said it casually, and they forgot it casually. However, Lu You was the one who suffered the most. Who made him think of wonderful sentences often and liked to write poems for wonderful sentences? I don’t know if Lu You can come up with better sentences in the future and write more exquisite poems.

However, the scholars who heard it were not so easy to forget. Some people remembered it in their notes, and some even wrote letters to friends to spread it. The wise and explanatory skills of the marquis of Yongning County have slowly spread, but unfortunately, no masterpiece has been released. To be continued.
Chapter completed!