I've been transported to the orc continent.

Chapter 300 Cotton Seeds and Rice Seeds

Besides gold ore, the orcs of the central tribe also brought Bai Ling many seeds.

These seeds were all kinds of strange and unusual, most of which Bai Ling had never seen before. Bai Ling took out the seeds one by one and examined them carefully. When he saw a certain seed, Bai Ling's eyes immediately lit up.

Overwhelmed with joy, Bai Ling even forgot basic etiquette. He rushed into the basket, reached in with both hands, and scooped up the white seeds, his face trembling with excitement.

Cotton, these are cotton seeds!

It was about the size of Bai Ling's thumb, pure white, and quite hard to the touch, not very soft. Bai Ling rubbed it with his rough fingertips and quickly rubbed off countless hair-like threads.

This is cotton, the cotton seed that Bai Ling has been searching for.

Seeing Bai Ling's excitement, the beastmen in the room stopped talking and stared at him, but no one immediately asked what it was.

Once Bai Ling's excited expression faded slightly, Zhan asked, "Ling, what kind of seed is this? Is it useful? You seem very excited to see it."

Bai Ling didn't answer Zhan's question. Instead, she looked at the Sky Beastman who had just arrived from the Central Tribe and asked, "Where did you find these seeds?"

A Sky Orc replied, "This was found in a tribe surrounded by plains. Ling, the seed you were looking for is the seed of a plant that can produce countless threads, preferably white. The caravan has been searching for it along the way, and they have found several seeds that meet your requirements. This is one of them."

“These plants grow very large,” the orc said, spreading his arms. “They must be this big. After they flower, they produce green fruit, which splits open when it ripens. This is their fruit.”

"This fruit is inedible and useless. It's warm there all year round, except for winter when it gets a bit cold. The orcs there collect these seeds, pile them up, and people crawl inside them to sleep."

After the Sky Beastman finished speaking, Bai Ling answered Zhan's question: "This plant is called cotton, and it has many uses."

"To live well, clothing, food, housing, and transportation are essential. Clothing refers to clothes, food to food, housing to a house, and transportation to transportation. Once you have food, housing, and transportation, all that's left is clothing."

"Animal hides are very warm, but once the weather gets hot, they become unwearable, especially in the summer. I don't need to elaborate on how inconvenient it is to wear animal hides. Silk is convenient and comfortable to wear, but it tears very easily and is not suitable for working at all. This is the same."

Bai Ling held up the cotton seeds in her hand, her eyes shining uncontrollably: "Cotton can be spun into cotton cloth. Although cotton cloth is thicker than silk, it is much stronger and not easily torn. Wearing it to work in the fields is no problem at all. Moreover, cotton can also be made into cotton wadding, and quilts made from cotton wadding are very warm."

"Cotton is a very, very useful plant. With it, our lives will be better."

The elder laughed and said, "Ling, I believe you. Cotton can be used to make clothes and bedding." He pointed to the basket on his back and said, "Are these cotton seeds enough? If not, I will have someone collect more for you next year."

The Sky Orcs didn't bring many cotton seeds, just one basketful. Bai Ling nodded and said, "I need more cotton seeds, the more the better."

Bai Ling had only looked at half of the seeds brought by the Sky Beastmen; he hadn't seen the rest yet. After the initial excitement of finding cotton subsided, Bai Ling continued to look at the other seeds.

Unexpectedly, he saw a seed that looked quite familiar.

*

The seeds are rather long and thin, with a greenish-yellow shell that is somewhat hard. Bai Ling broke open the shell of one seed, revealing a slightly yellowish seed inside.

Bai Ling put the seed in her mouth and chewed it. Because it had been dried, the seed was a bit hard, but she could taste the starch in it.

Holding a handful of greenish-yellow seeds, Bai Ling asked the Sky Beastmen of the Central Tribe, "Does this plant grow near water? Is the tribe where you found it relatively warm, with mild winters?"

A Sky Orc nodded and said, "Yes, these seeds grow near water. We found them in a tribe that went far south from here. The orcs in that tribe would collect the seeds of this plant and cook them to eat. I've eaten them a few times, and they taste very good."

What the orcs didn't say was that this plant wasn't produced in large quantities and wasn't a staple food for those tribes. They would carefully collect the seeds and feed them to the elderly and young children in their families, or cook them when guests came.

Bai Ling laughed and said, "Since it tastes so good, I'll try planting it next year. Maybe it can become a delicious food like wheat."

This seed is rice. Although it is not golden in color, the seeds are thin and shriveled, and the outer shell is very hard, Bai Ling is still certain that it is wild rice.

Rice is one of the two staple foods that Bai Ling has identified as hers. Now that she has finally found the seeds of wild rice, Bai Ling will naturally try to grow it.

Rice requires a lot of water, and the fields in the tribe are not suitable for growing it. If they want to grow it, they need to find a suitable place, preferably fields near a river.

There are several rivers in the tribe, and there is also a lot of land near the rivers, so it is not difficult to plant some rice seeds.

The challenge lies in large-scale cultivation.

If we want to cultivate rice on a large scale, then building water conservancy projects is necessary. However, it's a bit far off to think about that now. He'll plant the wild rice first next year.

*

Besides cotton and rice, the Sky Beastmen also brought Bai Ling many other seeds, mostly vegetable and fruit seeds.

Before Bai Ling arrived, the beastmen relied on hunting and gathering for survival. When gathering, roots and fruits were the main sources of food. Seeds like wheat and rice, due to their relatively low yield, were not the staple food of the beastmen.

Bai Ling also collected and stored all the vegetable and fruit seeds. He planned to plant them next year, select the ones with the best taste or high yield, and promote them in the surrounding tribes.

The number of seeds collected this time was almost double the number collected by Bai Ling in the past three years. Bai Ling couldn't help but sigh in his heart, it seemed that he had made the right decision to cooperate with the Central Tribe. Otherwise, even if he had the help of the entire tribe to collect seeds, he would not have been able to collect so many seeds in such a short time.