War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

As a large agricultural country, Austria did not have an agricultural college, which puzzled Franz. However, after some investigation, he finally understood that at this time, agriculture was not generally regarded as a science in the Western world.

The ancient Greeks considered agriculture a science, but the inheritance of civilization had long been interrupted. Franz has a group of "agriculturists" who are studying agricultural topics, as well as a large number of farmers and gardeners with excellent skills.

Moreover, agriculture will have a profound impact on Austria's mainland and colonies for a long time to come, so it is imperative to establish an agricultural college.

Now that we have experts and technicians, they can conduct innovative research, but they also need people to organize records and learn from the excellent experiences of other countries.

Franz planned to hire a group of people to compile and translate agricultural books, but such a huge and important project was obviously not something ordinary people could do.

So Franz once again targeted college students and job seekers who had nothing to do in Vienna.

That's right, people with university diplomas can attend agricultural colleges for free. Not only are they free to study, but they are also free to eat. If they perform well, they can choose to become teachers and receive salary, and even have the opportunity to become officials.

The conditions offered by Franz were naturally very attractive, but few people signed up. In fact, agriculture was not very popular at that time, and even farmers were a derogatory term.

Only fifty-eight students were recruited in the first phase, and more than half of them came for meals. In fact, there was a surplus of college students in Vienna at that time. The government did not have many positions to accommodate these guys, and they looked down on most types of jobs in the world.

As a result, a large number of college students are waiting for employment in Vienna every year. Over time, a special group is formed. They drink coffee mixed with sawdust, but talk about national affairs. They are even more concerned about this than Ferdinand I. nation.

These people are destabilizing factors for the country, but they are also precious resources. After all, college students in this era are still a rare breed.

It's just that not many people are willing to put aside their status and go to agricultural colleges to retrain. They are more willing to wait for official quotas allocated by the state.

In fact, in addition to agricultural colleges, Franz also thought of many ways to consume these unemployed young people, such as reporters, teachers, colonial affairs officers, and low-level clerical jobs in enterprises, etc.

Of course, the mainstream of this era is either to be an official, to do business, to be a clerk, etc. The starting point is still too low for college students.

But here comes the problem. Austria has a conferment system. With Ferdinand I's physical condition, it would be good to hold a conferment ceremony once a week.

And although there are 80,000 civil servants in Austria, in fact 80% of the positions are fixed and inherited, and even if there is a replacement, they will be selected from one or several families.

Coupled with the so-called civil service grading system, it is extremely difficult for ordinary people to climb up. The class of each official is almost determined from the beginning.

It's not that Franz doesn't want to move, but if he moves, he will be against the 80% of people. At this time, he doesn't have the strength yet, and the time is not yet ripe.

And according to Franz, some non-public positions are as important as officials, and there is no distinction between them.

Historically, North Germany and France had formal agricultural education much earlier than the Austrians.

The first agricultural college was established in the Principality of Holstein under Danish control in 1803. In 1818, the Hohenheim College was established. In the same year, the Bavarian Agricultural Club was established. In 1819, the Lowell Agricultural College in France was established. In 1836, the Alsace Agricultural College was established.

However, because Franz attracted a group of top talents of this era, such as Liebig, and developed a number of agricultural machinery himself, Austria's agricultural technology is still far ahead in Europe.

But if agricultural colleges are not established, this advantage will sooner or later be erased over time. If you want to maintain your advantage in the long term, you still need to cultivate professional talents and conduct continuous research.

Of course, Franz still has some knowledge of later generations, and coupled with his status as a royal prince, he can get many good things that others cannot.

For example, the Qing Dynasty's Luhua Chicken and Jiu Jin Huang were the best laying hen breeds in the world at this time. Although there was still a gap between the artificially bred laying hens of later generations, the output of laying hens was already 1.33 times that of common laying hens in Europe at this time. Annual egg production is 200+.

The latter is a very good broiler breed. As the name suggests, this kind of chicken can grow to 9 pounds. At this time, the common broiler chickens in the East and the West only weigh 4-5 pounds, even the monster white-feathered chickens artificially bred in later generations. It is only about half of Jiu Jin Huang.

However, Jiujinhuang has a long growth cycle, which takes 200 to 230 days, and the meat-to-feed ratio is slightly higher, but this does not prevent it from beating European broiler breeds at this time.

In addition, Franz had to say that the European native chicken breeds at this time were really terrible! Basically, there are two characteristics, one is to eat a lot, and the other is to grow slowly.

At this time, several popular chicken breeds in Europe were typical slow-finished products of later generations, such as Bresse chicken. The reason why this thing was not artificially eliminated like other breeds was because someone connected it with France.

However, this kind of chicken is a famous aristocratic ingredient, and it can be called the "dominant" among chickens. One meal can make people bankrupt.

The other type is the famous Dujin chicken. This chicken is small and produces few eggs, but it has a strong skin, requires almost no special feeding, and has few diseases.

Another characteristic is that he has excellent fighting power. He often pecks and injures dogs, and can even fight with peregrine falcons. He is a famous "fighting chicken". Of course, he will still fight with golden eagles and the like. Other breeds of chickens were also killed instantly.

Franz can introduce new breeds of chickens and cross them with local chickens to create the most suitable breed possible. Of course, we also got some all-around players.

For example, the three-yellow chicken does not produce as much meat as the nine-jin yellow chicken, and does not produce as many eggs as the reed chicken, or even as good as the local chickens in Europe. However, it has the advantage that the strengths of all parties are well balanced, and it has fewer patients and is easier to feed.

After all, modern agriculture was just beginning at this time, and most farmers would probably only do free-range farming. In addition, Franz had a deep understanding of what it means to have a millionaire family, and those with hair and arms are not counted.

The first modern chicken farm in Austria that he established on the outskirts of Vienna was also the largest chicken farm on the European continent at this time when chicken plague broke out.

Franz had to get rid of broilers and laying hens worth millions of florins. In fact, he was lucky at first, thinking that he could solve the problem by just getting rid of part of it, but the matter was much more serious than he imagined. .

In the end, the chicken plague spread throughout the chicken farm, and even some breeders began to have fever and coma. Only then did Franz order all the chickens to be disposed of and fully disinfected (including the chicken house, personnel, and utensils) to end this tragic encounter. .

However, it was soon reported that chicken plague did not occur in other chicken houses and farmers' free-range chickens, and only Franz's hybrid chickens were affected.

He then realized that the virus was targeting Asian chickens, so European chickens had no reaction.

Sure enough, it was too tiring to rely on Franz alone, and a large agricultural country must transform into an agricultural power, so it was imperative to establish an agricultural college.

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