Volume 3 Chapter 59 Why must you farm?
As they entered April, in the farmland outside Banta City, it was once again dyed with yellow wheat.
After the farmland was improved and had water conservation facilities, as well as with the help of the other agricultural magic machines, as long as there wasn’t a serious natural disaster in Banta City, there would be the scene of a rich harvest each year.
However faced with this kind of rich harvest, the farmers outside Banta City weren’t happy. Rather most of them actually had depressed looks.
After spending half an hour, Baltro who had ridden a bicycle from Luke Village that was ten kilometers away, entered Mexilan Village. After seeing the wheat around him, he forgot to pedal with his shock and almost twisted off his bicycle.
It was a good thing that he could stop himself. Baltro completely ignored his treasured bicycle that he had saved for two months to buy and ran to the wheat in the field. He bent over and held the wheat with trembling hands.
Feeling the heavy touch of the wheat, Baltro trembled before cursing and turning around. He grabbed his bicycle and forcefully pedaled, charging into Mexilan Village not far away.
Seeing Baltro ride his bicycle over like a maniac, the villagers of Mexilan Village made way for him. After cursing, they saw that the one riding it was Baltro and they began laughing at him, with their laughter filled with ridicule.
Hearing the laughter of the villagers, Baltro’s face turned red, but he ignored them. He charged forward on his bicycle to a two story house that seemed newly built at the edge of the village and he jumped off his bicycle, charging through the door.
“Hey, Sarkozy, get out here for me!”
Hearing Baltro’s shouts, old man Sarkozy slightly knit his brows and came down from the second floor.
After seeing Baltro, Sarkozy broke out in laughter. He pointed at Baltro and said with a proud look, “What? Baltro, you’re here to admit defeat?”
Baltro’s dark face turned even darker as he charged forward to grab Sarkozy’s collar, while loudly shouting, “Sarkozy, you bastard! We’ve been friends for so many years and you knew the fertilizer was good to use, so why didn’t you properly convince me! It’s good now, perhaps our Luke Village doesn’t even have half the harvest of your Mexilan Village, are you happy?”
Old man Sarkozy knit his brows and pinched Baltro’s wrist to make him let go. He said with a cold snort, “Baltro, since we’re old friends, I won’t haggle with you over your fit of rage just now. But you should know that when I told you that our village is ordering fertilizer from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, you’re the one who said that you’re not willing to get that unreliable fertilizer when I asked if your Luke Village wanted some. Now you’re coming here to blame me for not properly convincing you? What? You want to blame me?”
Baltro angrily looked at old man Sarkozy and old man Sarkozy looked back without showing any weakness.
After a while, Baltro was like a deflated balloon and sat down in a chair on the side with a depressed look. He used his fist to hit his head.
“Why was I so dumb back then! Why didn’t I believe that this fertilizer was this useful? I really hurt the villagers! I really am dumb!”
Seeing Baltro blaming himself, Sarkozy forgot about his unreasonable appearance. After thinking about it, he sat down beside him and patted his shoulder while comforting him, “Alright, you just missed the spring planting, you can just wait for the fall harvest. Anyway the Frestech Chamber of Commerce already said that although their fertilizer plant can produce enough for the whole city for the spring planting, there will be no problem at the fall harvest. I’ll talk to Cantona ahead of time and have him order some fertilizer for your Luke Village.”
Baltro looked up at old man Sarkozy with a gaze of self blame and pain.
“But our village’s spring planting is over. Do you know, the people in the village know about how I refused buying the fertilizer back then, so now they all curse me. Our entire family doesn’t even dare go out now!”
“Pei! A bunch of uncultured fellows, why do you care?” Old man Sarkozy tilted his lips in disdain, “Relax, do you believe that if I go tell them that your village will be first to buy the fertilizer when the fall harvest comes, they’ll go and kiss your butt?”
Baltro’s face twitched. He really wanted to say yes, but since they were from the same village, he couldn’t be that straightforward, so he could only give an awkward laugh.
“After all, I caused our village’s spring harvest to be worse than the other villages, it’s normal for them to curse me.”
“Nonsense!” OId man Sarkozy cursed without any courtesy, “I say, are all the fellows from your village all stubborn? What kind of age is this, do they only want to farm in fields? Let me tell you, there’s no use no matter how much you harvest! Even if you don’t need to pay grains for rent and sell it all, how much money can you earn?”
“You can’t say that, right?” Baltro argued, “Look, our family has rented seven mu of land and we should be able to harvest over two thousand pounds of grain. If they were all sold, it would be over ten gold coins. If we were to use fertilizer, we might get over four thousand pounds of grain which would be around thirty gold coins. Without the fertilizer, we’ve lost over ten gold coins, how could you not feel pained?”
“So I say you fellows are stubborn. Is thirty gold coins a lot?” Old man Sarkozy said with a smile, “Didn’t you tell me last time that your kid found a job at the Cameron Chamber of Commerce and earns over ten gold coins a month? Now you’re going crazy over just ten gold coins, don’t you find it embarrassing?”
“This…..” Baltor looked a bit awkward, “It’s not the same, he earns his money, so I can’t just be lazy. Farms can guarantee that your entire family can be fed at least, right?”
“You don’t believe it when I call you stubborn?” Old man Sarkozy glared at him, “If you want to farm, why not go to the Cantona Chamber of Commerce? Or just go to the Stantine Duchy to farm for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. You don’t need to spend any money on food and you can earn a hundred gold coins. Isn’t it better than guarding just a few mu of land?”
“But I don’t feel that it’s secure…..Those places, if something happens, the farmland would be gone……”
“What nonsense. If you want to talk about secure, is farming under a noble master that secure? Perhaps some order might come down and they would take back the farmland. Even if you keep the farmland,you still have to pay a large part of it as rent and it’s hard to feed your family with the remainder, what else can you do? For example, your kid is already at the age to get married, can you help him get married by farming?” Old man Sarkozy asked.
Baltro gave a bitter laugh, “I really can’t. That kid likes a girl from another village, but their family wants us to have a new house that is filled with Frestech Brand household magic items. How can I take out that much money? My kid is working himself to death at the Cameron Chamber of Commerce, isn’t it just to take out the money for this wedding?”
“So I said that guarding several mus of land has no future at all, so why do you care so much about this farmland? Even if you scatter fertilizer on it to increase the yield, what use does that have? There’s no money at all, isn’t it better to do something else.
“But other than farming…..what else can I do?” Baltro asked with a confused look, “Then again, leaving the farm here isn’t good, I still need to pay rent each year……”
“It’s very simple, just give it to the Cantona Chamber of Commerce. You don’t need to care about anything and the rent is paid by the Cantona Chamber of Commerce, while you can earn a bit of money from the Cantona Chamber of Commerce each year. No matter what, it’s better than farming yourself.” Old man Sarkozy waved his hand and said, “As for what to do if you’re not farming…..that’s even simpler. Right now there are many companies in the city, you can just go to one of them to learn a craft and find a job. It might not be much each month, but there’s no problem earning at least ten gold coins a month.”
“But…..I’m this old, what if I can’t learn it…..” Baltro asked in a worried voice.
“Why can’t you learn it?” Sarkozy glared at him, “Let me tell you, it’s not as hard as you think. I went to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s factories in the Falling Rain Valley and those people were doing very simple things. It seemed like they only needed to repeat a few things, there are only a few people who need to learn techniques. You don’t need to learn any techniques, you shouldn’t have a problem with normal work, right? If you can’t even do that, don’t you still have your strength? Go and work for the Amrit Chamber of Commerce. Hasn’t the Amrit Chamber of Commerce been working on the Sandy River and aren’t they recruiting a bunch of people, you can go and try?”
Hearing Sarkozy say this, Baltro’s expression gradually cleared up and a trace of hope and excitement appeared in his eyes.
Sarkozy was right, the era was different. For normal farmers like them, they no longer needed to stay home to watch their farms to earn a living.
Whether it was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce or any other company, there were many jobs in Banta City. Whether it was the required energy, time, or income which was the most important, it was all better than farming.
Since it was like this, why did he have to keep farming?
Thinking of this, Baltro’s feeling of anger, self blame, and panic had instantly disappeared. It was like he suddenly had an epiphany and the path forward was suddenly opened.