Picking Up a General to Plow the Fields

Chapter 153: The Lin Family’s Orchard (2)

“I’m Lin Feng Shou of the Lin Family Orchard, you want to buy fruit seedlings?” Lin Feng Shou asked, smiling.

Lian Fang Zhou nodded and said, “We want to take a look first and if we find something suitable, we’d like to pay a deposit and come get them in the spring.”

Lin Feng Shou nodded, “As long as it can grow here, we have many varieties available.
Do you know what fruit trees you are looking for? Generally, others buy three-year or four-year saplings but we also have two-year and five-year saplings.
Which ones do you want to look at?”

Lian Fang Zhou asked: “Are all your fruit tree seedlings cultivated by grafting?”

“Of course, basically all of them!” Lin Feng Shou nodded, looking proud.
“There are also split-root cuttings.
We use the best growing healthy branches! The saplings that are more than three years old are brought back and planted so they will bear fruit the next year.
If you plant it early and take good care of them, they can even bear fruit the same year.”

Fruit trees were very exquisite and grafting was an advanced technique that few people had mastered.
This was the skill the Lin family had passed down over several generations, it was no wonder that Lin Feng Shou was very proud of it.

Lian Fang Zhou smiled.
“Could we take a look at the three and five year saplings? We can look at any variety.
Maybe we will buy several types!”

Lin Feng Shou’s eyes brightened at her words and she gained a few points in his heart.
This big customer! He nodded and smiled, “Of course, come with me!” As he spoke, he led them to the south end of the nursery.

The family had been working on this land for several lifetimes and the layout of the entire nursery was very logical.
The fruit trees were planted nearly and the path was convenient for looking at the trees as they walked.

The group looked at the trees for nearly half an hour while Lian Fang Zhou asked Lin Feng Shou questions from time to time.
Lin Feng Shou answered each one and though Lian Ze and Ah Jian did not understand, they enjoyed listening to the other two’s excitement.

In fact, Lian Fang Zhou had cultivated fruit trees in her previous life but she didn’t want to show off in front of Lin Feng Shou.
She was a little girl who knew too much and it was definitely not good to be exposed in front of the professionals of this era so she mainly stuck to common questions that she already knew the answers to.

After finishing their walk, the two started talking about buying.

Lian Fang Zhou thought about it and said, “I will need about 4,000 trees.
Three or five years old are fine and they can be many varieties but I would like most of them to be persimmon trees.”

Lian Fang Zhou still intended to take Lian Ze and the others to Xianteng Mountain to find a couple hundred tree stumps for grafting next spring.

Though Lin Feng Shou said that their saplings were either grafted or divided by roots, their method was not the same as Lian Fang Zhou’s method.

Grafted fruit trees must have rootstocks and healthy branches or buds for grafting.
Lian Fang Zhou intended to use the wild stumps as the host.
However, it was impossible for people like the Lin family to go up the mountain and dig so many tree stumps.
It took a lot of time and effort to be profitable and they were often uneven.
Instead, they used the other two-year old saplings as rootstocks.

In this way, the grafted fruit tree seedlings grew more neatly.

These fruit trees were very thin and although they could bear fruit in the first or second year, they would often only bear fruit after tree, five, sometimes even seven or eight years!

Not to mention, the fruit would also fall off before it matures and some of the types of fruit would need to have the fruit artificially removed.

Basically, the saplings were too tender and didn’t have enough nutrients to raise the fruit.
If the fruit was kept, it would compete with the sapling for nutrients, which would hinder the growth of the tree.

“You want so many!” Lin Feng Shou was taken aback but quickly became very excited.
After thinking about it, he asked: “Does Miss Lian know how much of each type she wants?”

This is the largest order they had received this year, it was no wonder that Lin Feng Shou was happy.

Lian Fang Zhou asked, “I don’t know how many persimmon saplings you have at three or five years? Four years are fine too!”

Lin Feng Shou told her, “Miss Lian, wait here a moment and I will go check.”

Lian Fang Zhou promised to wait and stood looking at the scenery with Ah Jian and Lian Ze.

Seeing such a neatly organized nursery, she didn’t think it would take long for Lin Feng Shou to pick out the saplings.

“The reputation of the Lin Family Orchard is really well-deserved, it looks very unique!” Lian Ze couldn’t help but say as he looked around.

“It really is unique! After all, it has been in business for several generations.
Naturally they have skills and experience that others don’t.” Ah Jian agreed.

Silently, Lian Fang Zhou looked out at the large orchard.
It was impossible to say that she was not envious in her heart.

In the future, she must have an orchard, she thought to herself.

Compared to her previous life, this era could be said to have a very small population surrounded by a large amount of land, waiting to be developed and only needing a small amount of money to buy.

From her perspective, it was a great bargain!

Lian Fang Zhou sometimes felt that God had brought an agricultural professional like her, with a profound affection for the land as a gift to both her and this dynasty!

She was confident in her cotton and the future of her family.

The Lin family had a very good approach to fruit trees and were very orderly.
It only took a quarter of an hour for Lin Feng Shou to record her order of saplings and return.
Lin Feng Shou smiled and said, “Miss Lian, everything is ready.
There are a thousand persimmon saplings at three years and nearly 500 of the four and five years.
Our Lin Family Orchard as a rule, however, that every type of fruit sapling sold, we have to keep a hundred to be sold separately, so—

Lin Feng Shou glanced at Lian Fang Zhou apologetically and smiled: “So we can only sell at most, 1,700 trees to Miss Lian.
I don’t know if this is good enough?”

Lian Fang Zhou was a little disappointed when she heard this but after thinking about it, wasn’t this normal? Who would buy so many fruit trees at once? At most a person might buy a dozen or so and plant them near their house, who would buy a hundred, let alone a thousand?

Isn’t she just a big customer! No wonder the Lin family Orchard had only cultivated so much.

They could be forgiven for wanting to keep some for individual sales.

The Lin Family claimed to have all kinds of fruit saplings.
If someone came to buy persimmon trees but they didn’t have any left, wouldn’t it look bad? This was for the sake of their own reputation.

Lian Fang Zhou smiled and said, “Yes, I want those 1,700 trees! What a pity, I thought I’d be able to get about 3,700 but its only just about 2,000.”

TN: These look like tomatoes, I can’t lie.