Struggle in the Steam Age

After Lawrence asked someone to go to the detective agency to inform the two ladies of his whereabouts, he got into the carriage and drove over to the wine farm affiliated to the Church of Knowledge.

"What is burning over there?" Not long after leaving the city, Lawrence, who was sitting in the car looking out the window through the window, suddenly asked like a driver sitting outside the car, because several fires appeared in his line of sight. black smoke.

He asks this question because it is summer, which is technically not the time to burn straw. Not to mention that people in this place are more inclined to compost, and there is no habit of burning straw at all. As for the possibility of burning wasteland, on the one hand, burning wasteland is often in autumn and winter. On the other hand, there is no place to burn waste around the city.

"Sir, that's why some farmers cut down the plantations and got downy mildew to the vines." The driver sitting in front slightly measured and nodded and said to Lawrence, "I'm a local, and there is also a bad one in my family. Big vineyards. I know that cutting down and burning diseased plants like they do won't stop the disease from spreading."

"So sir, you must help everyone." The coachman said after telling the surrounding situation. "Many people's livelihoods depend on the vineyards. I can't imagine how everyone will live after the vineyards are destroyed."

"Yes, I understand." Lawrence, who was sitting in the car, looked at the two smoke columns receding and sighed. He found that he now had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

Two and a half hours after starting from St. Gutenberg Cathedral, the carriage finally stopped at a drying yard in front of a farm. As soon as the car came to a stop, Lawrence opened the door and jumped out of the car, then stretched his hands and started to move on the spot.

After all, not long after leaving the city, the road turned into a complete dirt road. Moreover, it may be because there are many heavy-duty carriages passing by here that the road conditions after being repeatedly run over by those large carts are very ordinary. This made Lawrence, who bumped all the way in that carriage, feel uncomfortable all over his body.

After a little activity, Lawrence first took the luggage out of the carriage with the coachman. Then he bid farewell to the coachman and walked towards the two-story building behind the drying yard.

As a farm directly under the church, there will naturally be church staff. After showing the letter of introduction written by Priest Carter to prove his identity, Lawrence immediately asked about the grape downy mildew.

"It's terrible, I can only say it's terrible." The young staff member shook his head and said, "The priests of the Agricultural Church have tried their best, but their magic and various methods can only delay The spread of disease and keep small critical plots unharmed."

"Fortunately, the situation is still under control for the time being, especially the special magic skills mastered by the priests of the Church of Agriculture are very effective in this situation." Speaking of which, the staff member sighed. "However, the overall situation is still on the verge of getting out of control, because there are too many fields that have problems, and the number of church personnel is simply insufficient."

"I see." Lawrence nodded. "Wait for me to pick up something, and then you find someone to take me to the field to see the current situation."

"Do you need me to help you unpack?" the staff member asked. "It's the experimental equipment you brought. If you need help, I can help you temporarily set up a laboratory."

"Really? Then I will trouble you." Lawrence handed the staff the copper key in his hand. He was not surprised that the staff in front of him would say this, because he knew the knowledge church The members have always had a hobby of doing experiments by themselves, so it is natural to organize these experimental equipment.

What's more, this box only contains the experimental equipment that he borrowed from the logistics department, and he puts the really important things and personal items in the space pocket that he carries with him.

After giving instructions, Lawrence picked up a small backpack next to the big box and carried it on his back, and then headed straight to the vineyard under the leadership of a farm worker.

In the neat grape field, Lawrence followed the farmer and looked at the surrounding vines climbing on the trellis. As the church worker said just now, the problem has indeed been temporarily brought under control. Most of the vines in the vineyard look lush and there is nothing wrong with it.

But when they came to the edge of the grape field, Lauren clearly saw brown irregular or polygonal lesions on the leaves of some vines. It may be because of the rain just a few days ago, white downy mildew appeared on the back of the lesion. This is where the name of the disease comes from.

"Just a week ago, the disease broke out in a nearby farm. The owner of the farm promptly uprooted the five vines that were found to be diseased, along with a dozen surrounding ones, and then poured some kerosene on them and burned them completely. The farm worker in front saw Lawrence stop to observe the leaves and said, "Unfortunately, three days ago, many farms near here found traces of downy mildew in their vines at the same time."

"I understand." Lawrence nodded and took off some of the diseased branches and leaves from the diseased vines, and then returned to the manor building with the farm worker.

"The laboratory has been set up, it's on the second floor." The staff member who received him just now greeted him and said, "The other things in the box have also been put in the guest room for you."

"Thank you!" Lawrence nodded, and then he went upstairs and walked into the temporary laboratory to carefully observe the diseased branches and leaves.

"Well, it does look like the pictures I saw on Baidu before." Lawrence observed these branches and leaves with a magnifying glass and compared them repeatedly with the pictures in his mind, "The next step is to see how the pesticide formula in another world can work." It doesn't work on this symptom."

Thinking of this, he took out copper sulfate and slaked lime from the various raw materials he carried, and then mixed them with water to make Bordeaux mixture according to the ratio he remembered.

"I've found a way, everyone can try it." Lawrence said to the staff member in the restaurant during lunch, "I've put the prepared medicine in the bottle, and now I just need to find someone to put it in the bottle. Spraying in the garden is enough.

"So fast?" The staff member looked at Lawrence in shock. "I thought this would take a long time."

"It's just luck." Lawrence smiled. "My father is a priest of the church, and he also likes to do various careers. Therefore, when I was young, I sometimes played with some of his experimental reagents."

"That is, in the process of mixing various things with each other, I found that some things can kill small bugs together, and some can remove various fungal mold spots. And this time I found that grapes The mold spots on the upper leaves are similar to the ones I've seen as a kid, so just tried a formula."

"What's the result?" the staff member asked nervously.

"At least the experiment in the petri dish is fine." Lawrence returned a reassuring smile. "The next step is to test it in the field."