China is a country with a long history, and there are many production experiences and inventions in agriculture. Zhao Guo, a famous agricultural expert in the Western Han Dynasty, made significant contributions to the development of ancient agriculture, let's take a look at what he has achieved.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fought in the south and the north, and built a large number of buildings, so that the treasury was empty, so he appointed Zhao Guo as the commander of Sosu and vigorously developed agriculture. Before that, before that, farming technology was relatively backward. After the peasants turned up the soil, they planted the seeds downward, in no particular ranks. It is a primitive farming method that is prone to physical exertion.
In order to improve the production efficiency of agriculture, Zhao Guo invented many new agricultural tools. The main is the coupling plough and the cocoon car, the coupling plough pulls two plows with two oxen, and the two people each support a plough in the back, this plough can cultivate two rows of land at the same time, greatly improves the productivity, and further improves the agricultural production efficiency.
And the cocoon car is a kind of sowing tool that combines the plough and the seeder, that is, a cocoon bucket is installed on the plough to hold grain seeds, and the cocoon bucket is shaken when ploughing the land, and the seeds are automatically sown in the soil, which is much faster than plowing the land and then sowing seeds. Sowing seeds with a cart is said to be able to sow one hectare of land a day.
With primitive farming methods, farmers have to stop cultivating the land they cultivate this year and leave it fallow for a year next year in order to restore the fertility. Barren land even has to be fallowed for two or three years in a row, and the yield is very low. In order to solve this problem, Zhao Guo also invented the "Daitian method", that is, it is not necessary to completely fallow the whole land, and strengthen the loose soil, so that the soil becomes soft and the yield is increased.
Moreover, Zhao Guo was also an important promoter of agricultural education in ancient China. He compiled the book "Ploughing and Weaving Map", which was the earliest agricultural textbook in ancient China and had a profound impact on later generations.
In short, Zhao Guo is a great agronomist of the Western Han Dynasty, Zhao Guo improved agricultural production technology and farm tools, expanded the area of cultivated land, increased crop production, made great contributions to agricultural production to the people, and had a profound impact on the development of ancient agriculture in China.