How to Survive in the Roanoke Colony

Whether he knew my feelings or not, White rolled his eyes for a moment and then said to me.

"Ah, that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"Then what aspect are you discussing..."

"Yes, ahem, that is."

White says with a cleared throat.

"It seems that if we farm with that tractor, we'll be farming in a completely different way than before."

"That's probably right."

As expected of the person who first planned the Roanoke colony. He realizes it immediately. Yes. The tractor is revolution itself in the agricultural world.

When I answered as if it were obvious, White asks.

"Then do you have a plan for how our settlers will utilize that machine?"

"Well, that's..."

Hu, huhu.

I feel like he's looking down on me too much. I am a hero from another world from the 21st century, a full 400 years in the future.

And I'm from Japan, with its fairly advanced agricultural system called 'agricultural cooperatives' and other institutions deeply rooted!

"So, first, after finishing land preparation work with that tractor, when we have more of them, we'll lend them to each farmer..."

"Yes."

"..."

So... um... lend them out like the Japan agricultural cooperatives...

Um...

That is...

Ah.

"..."

"..."

That won't work?

...

...

...

Right.

"...I'll have to think about it,"

I'm not sure.

Suddenly, cold sweat starts pouring down my back.

==

The reason I broke out in a cold sweat and momentarily panicked in front of John White is simple.

How are tractors managed and operated in agricultural cooperatives originally?

There's something called the 'agricultural machinery bank' business.

The agricultural cooperative purchases agricultural machinery, then lends it to those who meet certain requirements, or the cooperative directly performs agricultural work as a service. I was familiar with that, so I assumed that's how it would be.

But... lending that?

How many more tractors can we produce in the future? It seems like it took several months just to make that one?

That's absurd. Who would sell or lend such a precious thing?

I had naturally forgotten that I had crossed over to the late 16th century. I almost made a big mistake.

Plus, the second factor.

The area of land.

What was the reason we developed a tractor in the first place? Because there's little properly cultivated land.

And what does it mean that cultivated land is scarce but the population now exceeds 50,000?

In other words, the cultivated land per person is very, very small.

...And tractors.

'Are agricultural machines used to cultivate very, very large areas.'

Why didn't I think of this?

It seems that the habits of living in the comfortable environment of 21st-century rural areas are still attached to my body even after about 10 years.

Get a grip. You are now a person of the 16th century, not the 21st. No... not a person, but an angel.

Anyway, in the 16th century, especially in a settlement surrounded by undeveloped land, it makes no sense for individuals to operate tractors.

That's not the only problem.

'How can you do anything with tractors when there are few people who can drive them in the first place!'

A serious third problem the more I think about it.

Our settlement wasn't just short on power.

We also lacked 'people' to handle that 'power'...!

In our current settlement, if we count only people who can properly farm wheat, barley, and potatoes, the number drops to just a few thousand.

Considering that the settlement's population now exceeds 50,000, that's woefully insufficient.

And among them, how many people can properly lead horses and plow?

Even fewer.

So while our settlement has vast land, only a few people farm properly, and most people just awkwardly follow the former.

That's why the already inadequate power feels even more inadequate.

Because they can't even properly lead horses, let alone the tractors of the 21st and 19th centuries.

In a settlement where most people can't even lead horses around, how many people can properly operate and move a steam tractor?

...

...

...I just realized it seems like only me for now.

Oh... this won't work.

Not only is cultivated land lacking, but the power to expand that cultivated land is insufficient, and the manpower to operate that power to expand the cultivated land is also insufficient.

Moreover, for tractors to pass over and farm on small, divided personal cultivated lands... we need to operate agriculture in a different way than before.

Why do problems keep coming out linked like Vienna sausages? I pondered, holding my head in my hands in an empty room.

Since all kinds of trial and error were experienced with the first steam tractor, naturally, the second one will come out in a shorter time than before. Needless to say for the third and fourth.

Within that time, we need to solve the problem somehow...

Anyway, there are already people who handle similar items like power tillers and other agricultural machinery.

Agricultural equipment operators.

Farming is like that too. It's different now because the cultivated land has become too wide and the number of residents has reached tens of thousands, but it wasn't originally like this.

Originally, didn't I just push through a large area with a power tiller once, and then people would sow seeds and do various things on top of it?

Yes. Just think of it as an expanded version of that.

...Let's not look too far ahead.

Only one basic tractor has just emerged.

It's still a long way to go before we can supply such tractors and implements that can replace most agricultural operations and can be called the essence of modern agriculture.

It took several months to produce this one tractor, like producing a warship. And that was a feat achieved only after dozens or hundreds of people directly and indirectly worked on it.

It will take several more months for the second and third tractors to emerge.

We need to quickly expand the number of agricultural equipment operators and focus on operating the current resources as efficiently as possible.

That tractor will initially be used intensively to increase the area of cultivated land. Since our settlement's problem was that we couldn't cultivate all the land that the excavator quickly cleared.

There's still a lot of time left before the problems I just thought of emerge.

For now, we focus on increasing cultivated land.