Vol. 1 Chapter 1.3 – Early April, 1565

It had been about four days since Shizuko arrived in the village but all she had been doing was making compost, preparing leaf mold, gathering black soil from the broadleaf forest and improving the soil.

At first, she had thought there might be no need to bother with leaf mold but surprisingly enough, they managed to gather quite a large quantity of fallen leaves, so she hurriedly decided to make some after all.

The leaf mold was simple enough to prepare. All one had to do was put leaves into a tub and weigh them down from above with stones of a suitable size.

After that, it merely needed to be stirred about once a day.

From beneath the soil of the broadleaf forest, they could gather fertile black earth containing decomposed leaf mold. This would then be worked into the fields to increase the sweetness of the sweet potatoes—especially the Anno sweet potatoes.

There were many broadleaf forests around the rural villages of the Sengoku period. This was because, even after broadleaf trees were felled, there was no need to replant them: naturally occurring seeds lying dormant in the soil would sprout, while fresh shoots could also grow from the remaining stumps.

Thus, even when broadleaf trees were cut down for firewood, the woodland would naturally regenerate through such spontaneous growth.

Their shovels and agricultural forks were nowhere near as finely shaped as their modern counterparts, but they still served well enough as substitutes.

With them, the efficiency of compost making and soil improvement increased, allowing the work to finish a little sooner than originally planned.

‘The seedlings have grown quite a bit too. I suppose it is about time to plant them along the edge of the field.’

The seedlings, once so small, had now grown to the point that they looked ready to spill out over the rims of their tubs.

It was nearly time to begin preparing seedlings for large-scale propagation.

‘If this were the modern age, there would still be all sorts of things I could do… but unfortunately, this is the Sengoku period. I have no choice but to cut out any steps that fall into the category of『better to do if possible.』’

For raising sweet potato seedlings, Shizuko decided to use a somewhat specialized technique. It was a planting method known as the Kanno Method of Transplanting Wilted Young Seedlings.

This method had been devised by Genichi Kanno, a teacher at Fukushima Prefectural Iwaki Agricultural High School.

Its notable features included being able to turn a single seedling into three, and the fact that tearing the seedlings by hand prevented the buds at the tips from continuing to grow, thereby reducing the likelihood of missing plants after transplanting.

The method began by allowing the plant to grow four to five true leaves. Next, the seedling was torn off by hand, and the tip was likewise pinched off by hand to stop its growth. From beneath that point, seedlings bearing two or three true leaves were taken. Finally, after being left under the sun for roughly thirty minutes until they wilted, they were planted horizontally. Of the remaining original plant, the section near the root was planted as another seedling, while the tip was mixed into the compost materials.

Afterward, the same treatment would be applied to shoots growing from the seed potatoes and to new shoots growing from the planted seedlings, gradually increasing the number of sweet potato seedlings. If everything went well, several dozen seedlings could be obtained from a single seed potato.

“All right, it is about time we move the seedlings from the tubs to the farm.”

“Eeeehhh?! We have only just finished turning over the soil!”

“It will be fine. This fellow is an exceptionally hardy crop. It can grow even in cracked, barren ground.”

Sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes and similar crops could grow even in poor soil.

It was precisely because they did not require delicate care that they had proven so valuable during famines in the past.

Sweet potatoes in particular were highly nutritious, making them an excellent food for improving the village’s food situation.

“Well…if the village chief says so, I suppose it is fine…”

“Then bring the tubs over here. And please bring some water in a smaller tub as well.”

After asking the soil-improvement group to bring the tubs and water, Shizuko headed into the field with a wooden shovel in one hand.

As expected, four days was far too short a time for the field to have been properly improved and nearly half of it remained completely untouched.

However, since her primary objective for now was to increase the number of seedlings and get them planted, that posed no problem.

“This should do…”

Having chosen a spot near the edge of the field, Shizuko began digging up the soil.

From what she could see, although the soil was poor, it was only because the topsoil had been washed away by the rain. If they dug down to the layers that had not been washed away and mixed them together, crops should grow well enough. On top of that, they had already worked in black soil rich with leaf mold, so as farmland, the soil was more than adequate.

“All right, this should be good enough. Next…”

Once she had finished turning over the soil, Shizuko began making ridges.

Normally, they would be prepared about a week before transplanting, but there was simply no time to spare for that.

“Village Chief! We brought them…Uh, what are you doing?”

“This? I’m making ridges.”

Shizuko said this while pointing toward the ridges, which stood roughly thirty to forty centimeters high.

As usual, the villagers did not really understand what she was doing, and they stared at the raised mounds of earth with puzzled expressions.

Still, after sharing food and lodging with her for four days, it did not take long for them to arrive at an answer as to what they ought to do.

Namely,『We don’t really understand it, so let’s stop thinking about it.』

“Ohh. So is this what we are supposed to make today?”

“Three rows should be enough. For now, I’ll leave it to you. Ah, you can just put the tubs down somewhere around there.”

“Gotcha.”

The soil-improvement group set the tubs on the ground, then began working the field with farming tools in hand.

They copied what they had seen and made the ridges by imitation, though their lack of experience left them rather misshapen.

“Now then, the seedlings…Oh, they have grown nicely. Four… no, looks like there are five seedlings.”

Perhaps thanks to the good weather, the sweet potato seedlings had multiplied at a tremendous rate.

Then again, they were vigorous enough to propagate even in the shade within a week.

“First, I’ll take the seedlings from the tub.”

She cut off the young shoots at the base, choosing ones tender enough to tear by hand. Next, she followed the procedure of the Kanno Method of Transplanting Wilted Young Seedlings and placed them under the sun to dry the cut surfaces.

“Next, we plant the seedlings.”

She dug holes and planted each prepared seedling in turn. Ordinarily, a sweet potato plant would only yield four or five usable seedlings, but this time she managed to plant no fewer than eleven.

After that, she would do the same with all three varieties, producing as many seedlings as time allowed in order to increase the eventual harvest. It was the first time this method had been attempted in the Sengoku period, but if everything went well, a yield of twenty kilograms per tsubo would not be beyond reach.

“That takes care of this. Next, we need to prepare the ridges for a week from now, but…looks like they are almost finished.”

Watching the villagers making ridges a short distance away, Shizuko washed her hands with the water in one of the tubs.

Since she had already decided that sweet potatoes would be the village’s principal crop, Shizuko intended to propagate the seedlings as close to the limit as possible.

Tomatoes, pumpkins, sweet corn and sugarcane could be left until later.

If they prepared the ridges in late April and sowed the seeds at the beginning of May, there should still be more than enough time to expect a proper harvest.

‘In this age, sugar was mostly dependent on imports, if I remember correctly…If we could mass-produce it domestically, that would be an enormous advantage.’

However, they did not have many sugarcane seedlings.

Even if she planted them this year, she would probably use the entire crop for propagation.

That meant they would not be able to harvest any for consumption until two years later.

‘Since I have no idea how to return home, I need to start thinking about living here…’

She had ended up in the Sengoku period simply by walking down a road, so perhaps if she walked around long enough, she might somehow return to the modern age.

Thinking along those lines, she had wandered about and explored but there had not been the slightest sign that she could return.

In the end, she gave up and resolved herself to survive here for the time being.

One might also call it simply giving up and accepting her situation.

‘Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, sweet corn, sugarcane. Every last one of them is a modern variety improved through selective breeding. That is why they are hardy, and the edible portions are incomparably larger than they were when those crops were first introduced to Japan. I have no choice but to use these to get Nobunaga to take an interest in me, but…I won’t have any proper results until around October.’

For a moment, she considered digging some up early and taking them to him as a sample but after thinking about it, there was no way he would agree to meet her over something so insignificant.

It would be far more effective to pile up an enormous heap of sweet potatoes in front of him for maximum impact.

“Well then, just how many sweet potatoes will I be able to produce, I wonder?”

Every week, she would increase the number of seedlings.

She would repeat that process until the end of June.

Written down, it sounded like nothing more than that.

But in the Sengoku period, where there were no machines or modern equipment, every single task had to be done by hand.

“【There is a river, so I might need to build a small waterwheel too. But more importantly…】 …I miss taking a bath…”

Imagining herself soaking in a proper bathtub, Shizuko hoisted the tub onto her shoulder and headed back toward the village.