Chapter 108 - 108 Aiming for the Green Revolution
The Kingdom of Cascade King William was pondering deeply with the Chancellor.
They could not reach a conclusion on how to handle the information that the Fries Holy Church was the manufacturer and supplier of the drugs brought by Steve.
Steve had entrusted the actual items along with the information, and upon inspection, it was undeniably drugs. Although the domestic intelligence agencies suspected the Church was suspicious, they could only catch street-level salesmen and had not been able to dig up to the suppliers.
The King spoke to the Chancellor.
"Chancellor, it seems a war between the abandoned Archibalt and the Church is going to happen."
"Should we be glad that we did not lay a hand on it?"
"If the Church recognizes only Archibalt as an enemy. If that does not happen, our country will become an enemy of God as well."
"Truly, he always brings problems when he goes out, Your Excellency. And the fact that they are getting bigger and bigger is even more of a problem."
"This time it is the Saintess's request, so the Fries Holy Church."
The King and the Chancellor sighed.
"For the time being, we will watch quietly. Archibalt does not seem to intend to move soon either."
"Understood."
While such a conversation was taking place, Steve was busy with plant breeding alongside Cyril in the Archibalt Territory. Steve had thought of doing plant breeding after being taught gardening magic by Cecily. Cecily had only considered using it to adjust the blooming period of flowers in the garden, but that was because she did not understand genetics.
Cyril ordered various types of wheat, apples, oranges, and potatoes, crossbreeding them by type and growing them to check the taste. They were aiming for varieties that could grow even on poor soil and were still delicious.
"The hypothesis that genes affect taste and resistance to disease is interesting, but it seems troublesome if the Fries Holy Church finds out. They believe all living things were created by God and deny evolution."
"Truly, religion does not mix well with academia. With theology at the top and other sciences viewed as maids, civilization has not progressed for hundreds of years."
The Fries Holy Church has a history of three thousand years. And since its influence increased, sciences not recognized by religion have been denied. Steve was saying that.
"If you are asked by church officials, you will be deemed a heretic."
"I don't believe in God anyway, so it doesn't matter, but heresy trials are troublesome."
The Fries Holy Church conducted heresy trials when they found heretics. If a heretic was certified there, they would be executed. And since even the King was a target of this, everyone could not make claims different from the Fries Holy Church's thoughts. Still, if you ask if the Earth moves, you cannot say so before the execution is carried out, so it is an impossible environment.
Even while having such a conversation, an apple grew from a seed into a tree and bore fruit. Steve took it and tried eating it.
"It became more sour, but maybe it is resistant to disease. It is edible, so let's keep this as is."
"If it is resistant to disease, we will crossbreed it with a sweet type again next year."
Plant growth magic uses mana instead of soil nutrients. Therefore, the soil's nutrients are not sucked up all at once, and experiments could be repeated many times. With Steve's amount of mana, he could grow them into mature trees immediately, but since he cannot intentionally cause disease, he forcibly creates one generation and takes it to another land to check resistance to disease and weather changes.
The reason for taking it to another land is to prevent unexpected results from natural cross-pollination with other test subjects if it is nearby. In Japan, there are countless stories of disputes with the owner of the neighboring field because sweet corn for humans is cultivated next to non-sweet corn for livestock, and since non-sweet is dominant, non-shippable things grow.
Since he had heard such stories, he decided to keep them far enough apart so pollination could not occur.
Besides apples, wheat, oranges, and potatoes are grown with magic. For wheat, short varieties that do not easily fall are preferred, but that imposes a considerable burden on the humans harvesting. If wheat that does not easily fall and is tall can be made, there is nothing to say. So, Steve was making two types: one crossed with short wheat and one crossed with tall wheat.
Furthermore, the fact that bending over during farm work is a huge burden is an undeniable fact. Even in strawberry greenhouse cultivation, recently strawberries are grown at human height, but in the past, strawberries planted on the ground inside the greenhouse were harvested, so bending to harvest placed a huge burden on the body.
For strawberries, there was also damage from moles, but the fact that they are now cultivated high up is welcome for those engaged in farm work.
And returning to wheat, in ancient Egypt, tall varieties were cultivated for thousands of years. It is because harvesting is easy. However, since wheat falls over, in the 1960s, short wheat with Noulin 10 (T/N: A Japanese wheat variety) as a parent became the driving force of the Green Revolution, so we decided to grow both.
"Steve-dono, indeed tall wheat produces tall wheat, and short wheat produces short wheat, doesn't it?"
"This is genetics. However, there are also mutations, so it does not necessarily turn out that way. Human hair and eye color are also largely inherited from parents. It is definitely not God's control."
"Indeed, the Church will target us."
"Hmm, shall we say genes are the blueprint God drew?"
"If that theory is accepted by the Church, our research will become easier."
"Aligning with God's authority..."
In countries where religion is strong, religious concepts are prioritized over science even on Earth. Research on humanoid robots and gene research also progresses faster in countries with weak religion because there are no ethical restrictions.
It was the same in this world.
Thus, the process of evolution Steve is showing Cyril now will end if religion denies it.
This was also a headache for the Royal Research Institute. The work of mixing water and oil, achieving both science and religion, is extra trouble for researchers.
"Setting aside the religion talk, Steve-dono noticed genetics well."
"It started from wondering why children resemble their parents, and I noticed it while observing various vegetables I brought to my territory."
Steve made up a casual story. The story of genetics is something one naturally knows if they receive compulsory education in Japan. However, he decided to leave it as such without claiming it was knowledge obtained in Japan. He had also submitted the observation method for chromosomes to the Royal Research Institute through Cyril very recently.
It is that thing done in middle school science classes.
The optical microscope Steve made had sufficient magnification, and observation was possible. However, how chromosomes affect things will require time to study. Naturally, genome analysis is impossible.
"You also learned new magic."
Steve had gained experience points in the war with the Empire, and his magic level had risen.
[Industrial Magic Lv5]
- Steel Creation
- Copper Creation
- Glass Creation
- Oil Creation
- Medicine Refining new!
- Neutralization new!
- Medicine Removal new!
- Drug Resistance new!
- Industrial Machinery Lv1 Bench Lathe, Fixed Grinder, Pasta Machine
- Industrial Machinery Lv2 Pipe Bender, Spinning Machine
- Industrial Machinery Lv3 Winnowing Fan, Contour Machine, Hand Lift
- Industrial Machinery Lv4 Welding Machine, Press Machine, Universal Lathe, Drill Press
- Industrial Machinery Lv5 Milling Machine, Lapping Machine, Encrusting Machine, Plating Line
- Measurement
- Work Standard Document
Being able to make the Plating Line seems related to being able to refine chemicals. When I tried refining chemicals, I could refine both medicines and chemical substances. There was a welding machine, but there were no chemicals to confirm penetration, so evaluation could only be done with what was visible on the surface, but by creating etching fluid with magic, penetration can now be evaluated.
Without an electron microscope, evaluating penetration is still difficult.
Since Picric Acid for etching was refined, I tried refining gunpowder, and black powder, smokeless powder, nitroglycerin, TNT, etc., were also refined. However, concerned that it would be used in war, Steve had not told anyone.
Anyway, since chemicals can now be made with magic, he made reagents for staining chromosomes and provided them to the Royal Research Institute.
Steve hoped that research on genetics would progress while making peace with religion.
Mendel, famous for pea genetics experiments, was also a Christian priest, and pea observation was conducted in a monastery. It is history on Earth, but religion and genetics are not necessarily incompatible.
Well, there were theories that dinosaurs and humans lived together, too.
Furthermore, in Japan before World War II, the theory that Jomon period ruins were those of Korobokkure (T/N: A mythical race of small people in Ainu folklore) was influential. The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were considered national history, and there was an atmosphere where theories deviating from them were hard to accept.
While all that was happening, wheat continued crossbreeding for over ten generations.
Varieties that were short and bore many fruits, and varieties that were tall and over one meter and easy to harvest were born. Both have thick stems and do not easily fall, but the short ones have more yield.
"Now, let's cultivate these seeds in various places in the Kingdom and see where cultivation is appropriate."
Steve divided each into small bags. Cyril asked Steve while doing that work.
"Will all varieties be replaced by these two?"
"If so, there is a risk of total extinction when a disease spreads, so we must make other varieties. Potatoes and apples are the same. Disease resistance is also genetic."
This was the same for all living things. Humans also have such abilities. There is whether one likes or dislikes the smell of sweat, but white blood cells are mixed in sweat, and the smell naturally determines if blood types are similar or not.
Liked smells have large type differences, and disliked smells have similar types. This mechanism decides mating partners to leave disease-resistant descendants.
The mechanism to distinguish leukocyte types, said to have tens of thousands of patterns, is the true identity of pheromones, and that is the smell.
Creating descendants with different types is what makes one disease-resistant. Past humanity suffered plagues many times, but they did not go extinct because of this mechanism. And it was the same for plants. Making the same thing just because it is delicious or has high yield will eventually bring food shortages due to disease spread. Food shortages like the Irish Potato Famine.
Because Steve knew such history, he did not stick to a single crop. When he discovered buckwheat, he looked for crops that could grow on poor soil without specializing only in buckwheat for that reason.
Fortunately, the Kingdom of Cascade had no history of such famines, only experiences of crop failures due to climate conditions like drought and cold, so Cyril's thoughts did not reach that far.
"Does it take years until results come out?"
"That is the hard part of agriculture. If so, processing wood and iron would be more stable and quicker to make money, right?"
"That is this Archibalt Territory."
Plant breeding for agriculture takes time. Even for annual plants, the next generation is the following year, and if it is a tree, it takes even longer time. If we try to see the evolution of something like Yakusugi, it will require thousands of years.
Conversely, if it is a short-lived organism like Drosophila that grows in a short period and repeats crossbreeding, its evolution and genetics are easy to observe.
This plant breeding is also a project that would take years without Steve's magic.
That is why Steve decided to start manufacturing within the territory to repay debts immediately.
"In the future, I think wars will occur over water, resources, and food. If we start research to prevent food shortages now, at least one cause of war can be crushed."
"I always think, Steve-dono, you speak as if you know the future. And it seems to come true."
"Divine revelation?"
Steve dodged it like that and sorted the remaining wheat.
Thank you always for your typo reports.