novelno Chapter 303 Rome Stories February 22 New Share
Chapter 303 Rome Stories February 22 New Share
The chicks had grown plumper, their feathers filling in day by day. They seemed to change almost overnight. Leon was sure it wouldn’t be long before he could start picking up eggs each day, in addition to feeding them.
The cave was still producing steadily, with mushrooms growing vigorously. The fruit bats, however, had clearly given up. The ground lay bare—no fruit in sight.
After finishing his usual farm chores, Leon didn’t forget to feed yesterday’s haul of iron ore into the furnace. The sooner he smelted it into iron bars, the sooner he could take it to Clint for a pickaxe upgrade. After all, using the most basic pickaxe on the deep mine’s rocks was exhausting.
Once the furnace began smelting, Leon made himself breakfast. After eating, he returned indoors and called Gus, only to hear a busy signal. That meant Gus wasn’t at the Starfruit Saloon, so Leon hung up, grabbed his bike, and headed toward Pelican Town.
If the mountain wouldn’t come to him, he would go to the mountain. Since Gus wasn’t in his shop, Leon would have to look for him in town.
His first stop was Pierre’s General Store. Gus disliked Joja Mart’s products, so he usually bought the ingredients for the Starfruit Saloon from Pierre in the mornings.
But Gus wasn’t there.
Next, Leon stopped by Harvey’s Clinic.
He found Maru inside and asked if she had seen Gus.
Maru shook her head—no sign of him—so Leon had to try somewhere else.This time, he went straight to the Starfruit Saloon. The doors were shut, and an announcement was pinned outside.
“Closed today due to personal matters.”
“So Gus is out, huh?” Leon now understood why he hadn’t seen him anywhere along the way.
Leon turned toward Mayor Lewis’s house—not to ask where Gus had gone, but because if Gus was away, Lewis might still have a way to contact someone from the Traveling Merchant’s Guild.
Today, Lewis wasn’t making his usual rounds to check on Pelican Town’s shops. Instead, he was in his private garden, clearing weeds. When he saw Leon approaching, he greeted him warmly.
“Good morning, Leon. Are you done with work and just wandering, or is there something you need from me?”
“Good morning, Lewis. I wanted to ask if you have the contact information for the Traveling Merchant’s Guild. I need to consult them about something,” Leon explained.
“The Traveling Merchant’s Guild? Sure, no problem. But I can’t remember off the top of my head—I’ll need to check the phone book.”
Lewis took off his gardening gloves, brought Leon inside, and rummaged around his desk. Eventually, he found a thick phone directory.
“Pelican Town does a lot of trade with the Traveling Merchant’s Guild, so I’ve got quite a few contacts listed here. Each merchant specializes in different areas. Which kind do you need?”
“Someone in agricultural machinery. I want to ask about the details and price of a farm tractor,” Leon replied.
Lewis froze mid-page. He lowered his reading glasses and looked at Leon in disbelief. “You want to buy a tractor? Are you sure?”
“What’s wrong with that?” Leon asked, puzzled by Lewis’s reaction.
Seeing Leon’s confusion, Lewis realized he probably didn’t know why this was such a big deal. Setting the phone book aside, he pulled Leon into a seat and said gravely:
“Leon, I don’t know the secrets behind Red Star Farm. But I can tell you this: if you want to consistently grow high-quality crops, don’t bring agricultural machinery into your farm.”
“Why?” Leon asked, even more confused.
“Tradition,” Lewis answered solemnly.
“You might think it’s strange, or that I’m just an old-fashioned fool—but it’s the truth.”
He walked over to a filing cabinet behind his desk and began digging through the drawers. After a while, he pulled out a yellowed report—clearly aged—and handed it to Leon.
“This was left by your grandfather. It will answer your questions.”
Leon looked at the title:
“Research Report on the Land and Farming Methods of Stardew Valley.”
Curiosity stirred, and he began to read.
The report was only about four pages long. It didn’t take Leon long to finish it, but the content was eye-opening.
The core subject was an experiment comparing traditional farming with scientific, mechanized farming.
In the experiment, his grandfather had used two farms as control groups: Red Star Farm, which Leon now owned, and another farm he had developed in Stardew Valley. Both planted 200 parsnips.
At Red Star Farm, he used traditional methods: tilling the soil by hand, planting seeds himself, watering daily with a watering can, and harvesting by hand with a sickle.
The other, unnamed farm used modern mechanization—tractors and machines for plowing, sowing, watering, and harvesting.
The results were stark: in Red Star Farm’s traditional setup, 80 of the 200 parsnips were high-quality crops. In the mechanized farm, there wasn’t a single high-quality crop.
That was just the first trial. In the summer, he planted melons; in the fall, yams. Across all three seasons, Red Star Farm’s traditional methods always produced high-quality crops, while the mechanized farm never produced even one.
To ensure it wasn’t a matter of soil quality, the following year he swapped the methods—traditional farming at the unnamed farm, mechanized farming at Red Star Farm…
If you enjoyed this chapter, please consider rating the novel on NovelUpdates. Every rating helps more readers discover the story and keeps me motivated to bring you more chapters!
Next Chapter >>>