Chapter 1367: We Want Butter! We Don’t Want Cannons!

The research on insecticides in the Austrian Empire was relatively smooth, and pyrethrum and derris are still the most widely used natural insecticides today.

Because the most correct target was chosen at the beginning, many detours were saved. However, derris also began to invade the rural areas of the Austrian Empire as an invasive plant.

In the Austrian Empire, both nobles and civilians liked to use its characteristics to catch fish in small ditches.

But the real reason for the spread of this plant in the Austrian Empire was that it could be used to steal fish from other people's fish ponds.

In terms of crops, except for the expansion of the planting area of ​​beets, corn, and sunflowers, other aspects are not much different from history.

The reason for expanding the planting area of ​​these three crops is mainly that these three crops can provide a large amount of animal feed while exporting sugar, starch, and oil.

Sunflowers were originally introduced into the Austrian Empire as a flower, but soon the hungry farmers took advantage of the night to steal sunflower seeds from the master's garden.

Later, the masters simply sold the seeds to the farmers and let them grow them themselves.

Sunflower seeds are excellent oil crops, but Austrian farmers did not know this at the time, and the landlords were more accustomed to using rapeseed and flax to extract oil.

It was not until the end of the 19th century that someone finally did a statistical analysis and found that the oil yield of sunflower seeds was quite considerable, and invented a machine specifically for sunflower seed oil extraction, and sunflowers were truly included in the ranks of crops.

Because of this, the Austrian Empire had a very limited area of ​​sunflower cultivation in history, but at this time, with the intervention of the Fuoh Cable Car, the Austrian Empire was already the second largest country in Europe in terms of sunflower cultivation (excluding Russia), and after solving the Hungarian problem, it was just around the corner to surpass Spain and become the first in Europe.

The Spanish in the 19th century did not grow sunflowers for oil extraction. In fact, the Spanish liked to eat sunflower seeds very much. They might be the only nation in Europe that could eat sunflower seeds at that time.

At that time, most Europeans peeled them by hand. Taking the Austrian Empire as an example, the Germans would put sunflower seeds in the oven and roast them together with meat, spices, etc. and eat them.

Italians would fry the sunflower seeds with oil until they were crispy, and then eat them with the skin.

As for other peoples in Translaitania, they usually chose to grind them and mix them with other things to make bread or paste.

In the 19th century, sunflowers in Spain were similar to Spanish rice, both of which were not very serious snacks.

Apart from the health factors that people in the 19th century could not understand, the main advantage of sunflowers over rapeseed is that they are tough.

Sunflowers themselves have strong resistance and adaptability. In addition, they have few diseases and pests, and have strong shelter, which can effectively fight weeds.

The most important thing for Franz is that the by-products of sunflowers can be used as feed, which is very important for the breeding industry of the Austrian Empire.

The livestock industry of the Austrian Empire was colorful under Franz's intervention. The rise of pig farming and chicken farming made eating meat no longer so far away.

In particular, the development speed of the chicken farming industry can even be described as terrifying, with a short cycle and high conversion rate. As long as the scale effect is formed, wealth can be increased exponentially.

However, the disadvantages are also obvious, that is, huge risks. Once chicken plague or avian infectious diseases occur, the entire chicken farm can be infected overnight, killing tens of thousands of chickens.

In the past, there was an old saying in the countryside that "a family with a million dollars does not count if they have chicken wings", which reveals the cruelty of the chicken farming industry.

Huge risks can make investors lose all their money at once, and the price of chickens is low, so it is difficult to make a lot of money without forming a scale effect.

Fortunately, Franz is not short of money, and several group deaths in the early days also allowed him to accumulate experience.

Franz recalled a folk method: white wine + garlic juice. Basically, it can be considered as an antibiotic for chickens, which is actually the case.

This method was still used until the early 21st century. Not only is the material easy to obtain and the production is simple, but the effect is also outstanding.

In addition, Franz also invited experts from the Vienna Veterinary School to establish a design and maintenance plan suitable for chicken farms.

The Austrian Empire had already established a veterinary school in 1765, but the presence of this veterinary school was not strong. Most of the students were sent by the big landlords to study, and the content taught was also pieced together.

Franz directly merged the veterinary school with several other agricultural colleges into the Austrian Imperial Agricultural University, making it easier for these agronomists to communicate, and at the same time set up strict review standards to ensure the quality of talents.

There was no change in the sheep and cattle farming industries in the Austrian Empire. If there was a change, it would be the change in feed.

Due to Franz's interference, the scale of the Austrian Empire's animal husbandry has obviously expanded a lot, but the cost is that the required feed must also increase.

Modern animal husbandry, especially the use of corn and soybeans as feed like the old Americans, was simply impossible in the Austrian Empire at this time.

After all, some people can't eat corn and soybeans.

So the sugar beet residues from sugar factories, the lees from wineries, and the waste from oil mills all became new feed, which on the one hand avoided waste, and on the other hand promoted the business cycle and actually reduced production costs.

The centrifuge was originally invented to separate impurities from liquids in chemical experiments. The inventor could never have imagined that his invention would be used to make butter.

In the past, people had to put the milk in a huge shallow dish, wait for all the fat to float up, and then use a special colander to scoop it up and put it in a jar to ferment, and finally stir it into butter.

Now the process has been greatly simplified. Because the cost is low enough, the entire European market is full of butter from the Austrian Empire.

Franz himself is not very interested in butter, but butter is an indispensable commodity in the Austrian Empire and even in Europe.

Even the mustache would say "Cannons! Not butter!" when swearing.

In short, butter can definitely be regarded as a hard currency in Europe at this time. Franz never expected that there would even be Austrian economists who proposed to anchor butter as a general equivalent to issue currency to the whole of Europe.

Although it seems a bit absurd, in fact, the money Franz earned from butter is much higher than any of tobacco, alcohol, sugar, and tea.

Not to mention cigarettes, the cigarette market has not yet opened up. Franz wanted to follow the example of the United States in 1848 and give cigarettes to soldiers to spread the rumor, but because there were many royal family members in the army, no one dared to smoke.

After all, most Austrians had heard of the rumor, and Vienna was in chaos at that time. Anyone with a normal brain would not show himself at this critical moment.

In terms of beer, the Austrian Empire's Pilsner beer completely conquered all markets from northern Germany to southern Italy.

However, it was still a little worse than butter, which conquered the whole of Europe.