The perfection of the twenty-four solar terms

Most of the 24 solar terms can be defined by their names, but Xiaoman is somewhat puzzling. Originally, Xiaoman means that summer crops such as wheat are full of milk and seeds. Agricultural proverbs in Sichuan basin give Xiaoman a new meaning: "Xiaoman is not satisfied, he thinks about it"; "Little people are full of discontent, regardless of mangoes." The word "full" is used to describe the amount of rain, and it is pointed out that if there is not enough water in the field when it is full, the ridge may crack and even rice cannot be planted when it is planted. Because "transplanting rice in long summer and planting rice in small fields" and "seedlings rushing to small fields and autumn fields", small fields are suitable for rice planting. The severity of summer drought in the basin is directly related to the rice planting area. Planting sooner or later is closely related to the yield of rice. In the central and western parts of the basin, there are often droughts in winter and spring, and heavy rains come late. In some years, the rainstorm didn't come until June, or even as late as July. In addition, the annual rainfall in the small solar term is not much, with an average of only about 40 mm. The natural rainfall can't meet the water demand for planting seedlings, which makes the summer drought in the middle of the water-deficient basin more serious. As the saying goes, "storing water is like storing grain" and "preserving water is like storing grain". In order to resist drought, in addition to improving cultivation measures and speeding up afforestation, it is especially necessary to pay attention to water storage and moisture conservation in the first year. However, we should also pay attention to the possible continuous rainy weather, which will affect the harvest and drying of spring sowing crops. In the mountainous area of western Sichuan Plateau, at this time, many crops have entered the rainy season, and the crops are growing vigorously and thriving.