The wind was strong and cold on the sea. Chen Keser shrank and stood on the squeaking wooden pier, staring blankly around. This was Qingfeng Port in the Salmon Islands! But this day was really cold.

Qingfeng Port is not very big, or small. The few hundred settlers, a hundred goats, and some wooden forts constitute the entire settlement. The only characteristic building on the island may be several Taoist temples. A Taoist priest and several Taoist children almost unified the beliefs of hundreds of people on the island.

There is a botanical garden invested by a northern seed company on the island. Because there are a large number of wild potato resources found here (the island group in southern Chile is likely to be the original origin of potatoes on this planet, with rich genes). If the Ministry of Agriculture finds a treasure, it decides to cultivate potato seeds here, which is of great significance in agricultural production. However, anyone knows that breeding is not something that can be accomplished overnight. It often requires generations and a lot of capital investment, and often requires a certain amount of luck. Fortunately, people in the east coast have "traveling through the golden finger" (that is, the modern potato resources it carries). Even though they degenerate after many years of planting, they still have a little bit of later generations of blood. Compared with the generally smaller and uneven 17th-century potatoes, they are indeed a little "advanced" than the generally smaller and uneven surfaces, which brings richer genetic resources to breeding.

There are many islands of varying sizes around Qingfeng Port. The Nantec Corporation selected some of them with smaller areas and then raised some North American bisons on it (some purchased from the outside world and some selected from the offspring of free-range bisons on the islands around Tierra Tierra). This large animal has extremely strong adaptability and the resources on these small islands are rich enough. As long as the number of bisons does not exceed the standard, there will be no worry about food scarcity.

In fact, this behavior of introducing species to the New World is not accused, and Meng Hu is one of them. He took the example of the big thistle brought by the Spanish that was flooded in La Plata, and at the same time cited the serious consequences of hares being introduced to the grassland, and tried to prevent the Ministry of Agriculture or the Southern Railway Company from "harming" Tierra Tierra or the Salmon Islands. Unfortunately, few people were willing to listen to his words. The Ministry of Agriculture has been stocking North American bison, Norwegian musk ox, and Sakhalin camels on some small islands next to Tierra Tierra.

Deer, reindeer, etc. At present, the population is quite considerable. The Ministry of Agriculture is planning to gradually spread it to other islands, and Qingfeng Port is one of them. Anyway, there are countless broken islands on the Salmon Islands, and the terrain on the island is basically mainly hills or mountains. The forests are dense and green grass is green. It is not suitable for farming, but it is suitable for grazing and is a high-quality pasture, so the animal residents in the cold areas of the northern hemisphere migrate to these islands to reproduce. The problem should not be big.

Of course, these broken islands may not have made great achievements in agriculture (for many kinds of potatoes or pastures), but considering the excellent water quality and relatively nutritious sea areas in the Salmon Islands, it may be a good business to develop offshore box cage breeding (the "green gold" of New China Sisar will usher in the spring of export) at the same time. Currently, Nantec Corporation is carrying out some experimental breeding plans nearby. The numerous islands in the archipelago provide too many ideal linkage points for box cages, which is crucial for breeding.

As for the fish that are raised, we have basically thought about it. They are mainly salmon, and they are mainly cultivated in two ways. The first is to artificially breed salmon fish in the inland river near the coast. After they grow to a certain extent, these fish will swim into the sea to feed. However, after they mature, they will migrate to the birthplace for spawning, and at this time they can be caught in large quantities. However, the losses of fish in this process are often astonishing. They may be preyed by trout or water birds when they are young, and there will be a considerable mortality rate during the migration process. In the end, one or two percent will be able to successfully return to the birthplace, but the advantage is that the cost is low and there is no need to manage in the middle, which is worth a try.

The second type (cage farming) has a high technical content and is not cheap, that is, put salmon seedlings in the seawater enclosed in the cage and feed them manually. When they grow up, they can harvest them, which is more convenient, but there are many problems. One is that they need to feed frequently, usually small fish and other things. It is more troublesome; the second problem is that this centralized farming will quickly consume the nutrients in the seawater, and at the same time deteriorate the water quality, which can easily spread infectious diseases and affect the harvest. Later generations of Chile's salmon farming industry was troubled by this kind of thing, and the seawater quality in the Jones Islands deteriorates rapidly. The number of diseases among salmon is increasing, which makes multinational fishery companies investing in the breeding industry very difficult.

The two methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Nan Railway Company decided to take a two-pronged approach and allocate special funds to invest in the salmon breeding industry. It is hoped that in the future (perhaps a few years, or more than ten years later) it can break through various technical barriers and truly enable large-scale industrialization of salmon breeding to benefit the people on the east coast.

The ship stayed at Qingfeng Port for only one day, and Chen Ke left two people to continue the investigation, while he took a large army to take a boat to continue to sail to the next stop. On September 30, the ship stopped for a short time at Montschist Port and Blue Whale Port and distributed a batch of daily necessities to it to maintain the normal operation of these two settlements developed as exile.

These two settlements still only have a few hundred people each, including Blue Whale Port, about 800 people, and Montessori Port, about 500 people, including criminals exiled in the East Coast, Catholics, Qing army prisoners, etc., they are not good people anyway, but since they have arrived in such a bitter and cold place, they naturally cannot tolerate any more troubles, and it is right to work honestly. Otherwise, the state's violent machine will naturally not mind sinking them into the sea.

Blue Whale Port is now mainly whaling and fishing industry. Nantec Corporation has two whaling ships parked here all year round. There are also some chaotic fishing ships, mainly fishing for species such as horse mackerel, trout, Chilean hake, South American pointed-tailed hake, and multi-scale hake. However, the most produced is undoubtedly the horse mackerel, reaching more than 3,000 tons, which is the main source of protein for the 70,000 residents of the affiliated areas of Nantec.

"The long coastline in southern Chile is densely packed with broken islands. If you use it well, it will be a huge fortune. Unfortunately, many people in the ministry said that this is a worthless and cold place. Humph, these islands have rich rainfall and dense forests. Is it difficult to put some cattle and sheep on the hillside? Not to mention cattle and sheep, even deer can be raised freely. The island is a natural closed pasture. Animals can't escape even if they want to run away. They just come to catch them regularly, not to mention the abundant fishery resources here." Sitting in the warm hotel in Blue Whale Port, Chen Ke lit a high-end whale oil candle.

He was preparing to start writing an outline of the work report, and before writing, he subconsciously complained to some people in the department: "I heard that the Executive Committee has agreed to the request of the Nantie Company to establish a county as a whole. It seems that the name is Qingfeng County. This is the first county-level administrative unit within the jurisdiction of the Nantie Institute. After the establishment of Qingfeng County, the development of the entire Salmon Islands will be put on the agenda. I don't know how strong the Nantie Company is. At that time, the population of the entire Qingfeng County is only 2,000, and it is even worse than that of a settlement on the north Chiloe Island. It is really depressing."

The news Chen Ke heard was not groundless. In fact, after the Executive Committee instructed the Government Affairs Council and Nantec Corporation to clearly divide their respective territories, Nantec Corporation President Liu Ang submitted the application for the establishment of counties in the southern half of the Salmon Islands and the southern half of the Chiloe Islands, and obtained the approval and authorization of the Executive Committee (the Nantec Corporation is authorized to manage and tax these two counties). In this application, the entire Salmon Islands were placed in the upcoming Qingfeng County, which is temporarily under the jurisdiction of Qingfeng Town, Montsch and Blue Whale Township. The total number of residents is only more than 2,000, but the land and ocean area are estimated to be the first in the country, and the population density is undoubtedly the lowest in the country.

In addition, the southern half of the Chiloe Island, which was secretly established by the Nantie Company, will be classified as a county in the future, and will also be managed by the Nantie Company (theoretically until 1678, but the Executive Committee will have the right to recover the jurisdiction of these two counties in advance, but the Nantie Company needs to be given a premium compensation of Nantie). This county is named Guanhai County, with four townships: Guanhai Town, Mishan Township, Wanghai Township and Qiongqi Township. After a new batch of full immigration, the total population of the county has exceeded 9,000, which is quite amazing. It is very impressive that even in the local area, 9,000 people are enough to establish a county, although it is mostly Xia County with poor population and economy.

However, Guanhai County is currently in the process of development, and the Nan Railway Company obviously does not have as strong financial resources as the central government, so the construction speed is definitely not satisfactory. At present, most of the county's grain needs to be imported from Peru is already very telling. Moreover, the Nan Railway Company pessimistically predicts that most of the county's grain will still not be self-sufficient in the next three years and will still need to continue to import from Peru, which is a big deal.

Guanhai County is also quite large in area, basically covering the southern half of Chiloe Island (including the adjacent Guafu Island). In principle, the northern half is bounded by the line of the Huqiongqi Township. In the future, this county will most likely use wheat, potatoes and corn cultivation as the agricultural foundation, and logging, fishing and tanning as the basic industrial foundation. With such a foundation, if the Nantie Company operates well, it should be able to recover the cost.

As for the northern half of the island of Chiloe, the South Railway Company also decided to set up a county, but this matter may have to be delayed. Because it is not easy for the South Railway Company to make some immigration now, and the South Pacific immigration route is quite difficult, and the ship crash rate is extremely high (4 ships have unfortunately sunk so far, and thousands of Ming migrants were buried in fish belly). The Immigration Department has been clamoring to stop this route. In this way, there may be no immigrants next year, so the development of the northern part of Chiloe will inevitably be delayed. As for when it can be restored, it may depend on the degree of development of the war in the Blackwater area. (~^~)
Chapter completed!