During the Western Jin Dynasty, Zhang Hua said in the mythological novel "Naturalist" about a crop called "Shu Huang", in which he said this: three years to plant Shu Huang, and then more than seven years of snakes.
The "Shu Huang" here is sorghum. Moreover, this is the earliest place in the ancient books, that is to say, in ancient China, there was no record of sorghum until the Western Jin Dynasty, but the cultivation was obviously older than this period. Zhang Hua's "Naturalist" is not a non-agricultural book, so he wrote these things only to elicit some strange things, he will not trace the roots of sorghum, but inadvertently left us with a record of searching.
Many people have the impression that the planting of sorghum in ancient China is very common and very much, in fact, this is a misunderstanding, we can not take the modern to see the ancient, can not say that the modern difficult period of planting sorghum more, that ancient agriculture is backward, must also be planted sorghum, this is not rigorous, but also very subjective.
In fact, the large-scale cultivation of sorghum in ancient times was formed in the Song Dynasty, and the systematic planting technology was formed in the Yuan Dynasty, and the earliest planting technology for sorghum appeared in ancient times was the Yuan Dynasty's "Nongsang Jijiao". But he is quoting from the Song Dynasty's "New Book of Wuben", so it can be considered that the large-scale cultivation of sorghum began in the Song Dynasty.
In modern times, many of our places have also planted sorghum on a large scale, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, but since the early 1980s, sorghum has begun to gradually withdraw from the main sequence of large-scale planting, and has begun to take a back seat and become an adaptive planting crop.
Many people are puzzled by this, because our food is diverse, such as wheat, rice, corn, soybeans, the scale of these plantings has not decreased, but sorghum is also used as a grain, how can it slowly withdraw? Or even some places only plant a few trees in the field, and rarely see large-scale planting?
In fact, the scale of sorghum cultivation has only shifted to the locality, but it is also a fact that the amount of planting has been reduced on a large scale. Why is it all grain and sorghum being treated the same way? This actually involves two of sorghum's own defects, and it is these two defects that cause it to withdraw from the main sequence of grains grown on a large scale.
Let's talk about these two main flaws.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" > I.: Poor taste and small yield</h1>
In "Ordinary World", Lu Yao once wrote about three kinds of steamed buns, namely white-faced steamed buns, yellow-faced steamed buns and black-faced steamed buns. Among them, the white-noodle steamed bun is the best and the best, that is, the wheat flour steamed bun. Yellow-faced steamed buns are followed by cornmeal steamed buns. The worst is the black-faced bun made of sorghum noodles.
The taste of sorghum is very poor, there is a mixture of bitterness and astringency, mainly containing tannin substances, the taste of this substance is an immature taste, bitter and difficult to be. Some people will feel that the poor taste does not affect its impact value, after all, it is a coarse grain.
In fact, this is not the case, sorghum protein content in lysine is the lowest of all grains, so its protein quality is the worst. Seeing this, we can understand that in times of poverty, sorghum is grown to fill the stomach, and as for nutrition, as for protein quality, it is not considered by people.
Due to the rapid development of China's agriculture, people have long ceased to pursue full food, but to eat well.
The so-called good eating, naturally is a combination of nutrition and taste, sorghum does not have both.
Of course, there are also people who eat sorghum in order to remember the bittersweet, or to reduce the intake of more nutrients, but we must know that this is a minority, and most people are still mainly wheat, rice and corn.
Poor taste and low nutrients are one of the reasons why sorghum is marginalized, and then its yield is still very small, and among the many grains, it is not the most beaten.
The yield of sorghum can reach 700 catties per acre, which in the past seemed to be a very high yield, so in the past many species, because compared to other crops, its yield is very high. But with the development of planting technology, other crops are increasing in yield, and sorghum, although it has also increased, is very limited. In the case of corn, the current yield per mu can reach 1,400 to 500 catties, and wheat is also 1,200 catties, which are far more than sorghum.
If the output is small, the economic value is low, because there is no production. Not to mention the small yield, its growth cycle is still long. In general, maize can mature in four months, while sorghum can take up to five or even more than five months.
A food crop, its yield is small, the growth cycle is long, the taste is not good, how can it not withdraw from the main planting sequence?
After talking about its own original sin, let's talk about its requirements for the environment.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > II.: High requirements for the growing environment</h1>
Our crops are very taboo for heavy stubble planting, but sorghum is more sensitive to heavy stubble, and sorghum stubble will erupt into a very serious pest for sorghum - smut disease.
The fungus of smut hides in the soil or on some unpacked sorghum leaves or stems for the winter to erupt in the coming year. The leaves and stems are also easy to handle, and we can clean them up, either burn them or pull them away from our fields.
But this germ hiding in the soil is not easy to find or kill. Some people will say that the method of deep translation is used, but this does not affect its survival in the next year, which can be said to be very stubborn.
Once the sorghum is invaded by smut disease, you can't see it when it grows, and you can't see it until the spike will be ripe, and it will be too late to find it. The spikes were not grains, but black powder, very disgusting and nasty.
You find out early, you can also stop the loss in time, but its loss is in your general early detection can not be found, and when you find out, the loss has been formed, so it is very uncomfortable.
Some people say that heavy stubble is easy to get sick, because their germs are easy to lurk in the soil layer, so I can change the seed, and plant it once every other year to solve this problem? It is true that many people will think of planting with stubble, but the stubbornness of sorghum is that stubble is not good either.
Therefore, if you want to plant, you need to take a longer turn, such as planting every three or two years, who can have such conditions? Sorghum seems to be like a sick and delicate girl, but in fact she is particularly ugly. So it made people very annoyed, obviously a look of Zhang Fei, but they wanted to make a sable cicada's shy look, this does not eat, that does not wear, does not do this, so do not please, annoy, do not plant.
Examples are somewhat extreme, but in fact it is true, sorghum is not irreplaceable, in today's agricultural conditions, sorghum has actually become a disadvantageous crop, but there are still many unsuitable for planting, there are environmental requirements, the yield is not high, and the yield of violent diseases and insect pests is reduced.
So these do not erupt, the growth cycle is long, the taste is not good, is destined not to become people's staple food, in such a situation, how can it be large-scale planting into one of the staple foods? But these are the original sins of sorghum, such as taste, such as yield, such as growth cycle, which are all its own or its own needs. The original sin that comes with it is helplessness, not sin, and this should be clearly distinguished.
III.: Sorghum was once cultivated on a large scale and can be said to have made its own contribution in times of economic difficulty. In today's developed agriculture, people are more pursuing high-quality and high-yield crops, sorghum does not meet these standards, and it is not unusual to be marginalized in cultivation.
But we need to make it clear that sorghum is not planted, and the role is still very large, winemaking, feed, etc., or will use sorghum, but in terms of demand and use, sorghum in recent years the data has been the least of many cereals, which also strongly shows that sorghum is indeed gradually marginalized.
Coupled with its own several original sins, sorghum can no longer become the staple food of people's large-scale cultivation. But it will not disappear, in some people's fields and idle open spaces, there will still be people planting, but the role is not to eat, but to be made into tools, which seems to be the sadness of sorghum, but it is also a witness to the development of agriculture, what do you think?